The latest data from a national smoking study indicates adult smoking rates fell 2.2% from January to July 2019 - equivalent to 200 fewer smokers every hour.



Latest figures from the University College London (UCL) Smoking Toolkit Study suggest that smoking rates in England are dropping at the fastest rate in over a decade, with around 200 fewer smokers every hour.
Not smoking is now the norm in England - but despite smoking rates being lower than ever before, millions still smoke across the country. Stoptober is back to help encourage smokers to make a quit attempt and join those who have already quit this year.
Public Health England (PHE) is encouraging all smokers to join in with the nation’s biggest quit attempt, which begins on 1 October 2019. PHE is providing them with the support and information they need to ‘split up’ with smoking this Stoptober.


The campaign will target all smokers with new creative content highlighting the benefits of ‘breaking up’, urging them to re-evaluate their bad relationship with smoking and ‘split up’ this October. The creative will feature across digital, radio and out-of-home advertisements throughout the campaign period, to help keep smokers motivated during their quit attempt.
Stoptober has supported over 1.9 million people on their quit journey to date – if a smoker can remain smokefree for 28 days, they are 5 times more likely to quit for good.
Stoptober’s free quitting support includes:

  • the Stoptober app
  • Facebook Messenger bot
  • daily emails
  • a personal quit plan
  • Stoptober online communities

Research by the National Centre for Smoking Cessation and Training has shown that while many smokers want to quit, they face common barriers including procrastination and a fear of failure.
Smokers can get expert face-to-face support from local stop smoking services. Those who do are 3 times as likely to quit successfully as those who try to quit using willpower alone.
Additionally, GPs and pharmacists can also give advice and tips to help smokers quit, including what stop smoking aids might be right for them. Support from family and friends is also an important factor in quitting smoking, and these networks are encouraged to support a smoker as they split up with smoking.


Stoptober resources

Visit www.nhs.uk/oneyou/stoptober to sign up or find out more on what support is available.
Stoptober’s new video content and images can be viewed and downloaded online.
UCL Smoking Toolkit Study

The UCL Smoking Toolkit Study is an academic study of smoking and quitting trends, based on monthly household surveys of representative samples of approximately 1,800 adults (16 years old and above) in England.
Smoking prevalence figures

Smoking prevalence in England has reached a record low, with smokers accounting for 14.4% of the adult population in England. Smoking prevalence in England amongst men is 16.4% and amongst women 12.6%. (Source:
ONS Annual Population Survey 2018)