But rates of young people vaping are high.
Newly published data from NSW shows the number of smokers has dropped to the “lowest levels on record”. But more young people are vaping.
“While it is pleasing to see more people taking the step towards being smoke free, I remain concerned that rates of vaping are still high,” NSW health minister Mr Ryan Park said.
“We have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to the stem the tide of this public health challenge. We don’t want to see the years of strong progress in tobacco control and smoking reduction undone.”
Data from the 2024 Population Health Survey showed only 10.5% of the state’s residents aged 16 or over smoked either daily (7%) or occasionally (4%). By comparison, 22.5% smoked in 2022.
But almost half are addicted, with 49% lighting up within half an hour of waking up, which the report said is “a measure of an individual being nicotine dependent”.
Men still smoke more than women (13% of men are smokers compared with 8% of women). And people living in the most disadvantaged areas smoke more than those in the most advantaged areas (17% vs 7%).
Middle aged people, aged 45-64, had the highest rates at 13-14%, and over 75s the lowest (4%). The rate for young people aged 16-24 has decreased markedly from 18% in 2014-15 to 12% in 2023-2024.
The rate of Aboriginal people smoking was down from 32% in 2014-15 to 24% in 2024.
“I’d like to congratulate people who have taken the step towards a healthier life by quitting smoking. I acknowledge it’s not always easy, but I encourage people who smoke to think about quitting both for themselves and for their loved ones this World No Tobacco Day,” said NSW chief health officer Dr Kerry Chant.
The vaping rate of 6.7% was also lower overall than in 2023 (8.5%). But for young people it was 20%, (up from 19% last period, 17% the one before).
“While the data released today shows a concerning number of young people vaping, we are cautiously optimistic that we are seeing a stabilisation of the rates,” said Dr Chant.
Just over half of all vapers vaped within half an hour of waking up.
The rate of Indigenous people vaping was 13%.
People who smoked tobacco had the highest rate of vaping –18% compared with 8% of ex-smokers and 2% of never-smokers.
And people from cities had a higher rate of vaping than those from country areas (8.4% vs 2.7%).
“The Minns Labor government is undertaking a comprehensive program of work to reduce rates of vaping, including cracking down on the supply and availability of vapes, educational campaigns to raise awareness of the dangers of vaping, and supports to help people kick the habit,” NSW Health told media.
However, NSW premier Chris Minns has today called on the federal government to consider cutting tobacco excise, saying it was “crazy” to turn a blind eye to exploding consumption of illegal tobacco and that the latter was sucking resources away from dealing with other criminal activity.
“We’ve got to either allocate police resources to confronting illegal tobacco sales, or we should have a commonsense look at the massive excise,” said the NSW premier.
Federal Treasurer Jim Chalmers said that “tobacco excise is an important public health measure to encourage people to give up smoking”.
“More people giving up smoking is part of the reason tobacco excise is down. The other, which we’ve acknowledged, is the significant problem of illegal tobacco. We are working with NSW and the other states and territories when it comes to the enforcement challenge with illegal tobacco,” Mr Chalmers said.
“That’s why we invested another $157 million in enforcement and compliance for tobacco in the budget, on top of the $188.5 million we announced last year.”
