Tobacco

The Local Tobacco Control Profiles for England provides a snapshot of the extent of tobacco use, tobacco related harm, and measures being taken to reduce this harm at a local level. These profiles have been designed to help local government and health services to assess the effect of tobacco use on their local populations. 

North Tyneside has seen a reduction in smoking prevalence over the last two years from 15.3% in 2021 to 11% in 2023 in adults aged 18 and over. The England rates have also reduced from 13% to 11.6% over the same period.

Despite this, there is still much to be done to drive down smoking rates in priority groups and smoking related harm. Smoking prevalence in routine and manual occupations for 18–64-year-olds has increased by 3.6% 17.4%. This is still a decreased figure from 2021’s recorded prevalence of 31.8% and 2020’s 23.7%.

In 2023, in comparison to the England average of 7.4%, and the North East average of 10.2%, in North Tyneside 6% of women a year were smokers at time of delivery, equalling 98 women a year being smokers when they gave birth. Smoking in pregnancy is 1.72 times more common in the most deprived groups compared to the least in England.

Two thirds of adult smokers started before they reached 18 years old and over 80% before the age of 20. About 400,000 11–15-year-olds in England have tried smoking at some point and approximately 100,000 now smoke.

In 2023 there is a 24.3% prevalence of smoking for those who rent from local authority or housing association compared with 6.5% prevalence for people who own their home outright.

In 2023, 21.5% of people who have never worked or have been unemployed long-term smoke. This is in comparison to those in managerial and professional roles where the smoking prevalence is 6.7%

In 2024 41.7% of those with a diagnosed serious mental health condition are estimated to smoke.

Smoking is the largest avoidable cause of social health inequalities. Half of all smokers will die prematurely, and in North Tyneside there is a gap in life expectancy for men of 11.4 years mapped between the most and least deprived areas, and 9.9 years for women. Half of that gap is attributed to smoking related mortality. People living with social and economic hardship find stopping smoking far more difficult. Smoking is more common in the communities they live in, they tend to have started younger and have higher levels of dependency on tobacco, all of which make it harder to quit successfully.