The bar chart illustrates the trends in cigarette smoking among men and women in the UK from 2011 to 2021.
Overall, it is evident that smoking prevalence exhibited a downward trajectory for both genders during the specified period, with males consistently outnumbering females as smokers.
In 2011, the number of male smokers reached a peak of over 4 million, but this figure witnessed a gradual decline, dropping to 2.5 million by 2016. An interim increase occurred between 2013 and 2015, where numbers briefly rebounded to approximately 3 million. However, following this surge, the rate fell again to 2.5 million in 2017 and subsequently declined sharply to 1.5 million by 2020. The downward trend culminated in 2021, with just 1 million male smokers, representing the lowest level throughout the decade.
Conversely, female smoking rates began at just over 3.5 million in 2011, demonstrating an immediate and pronounced decrease over the next two years. A modest recovery was observed in 2014, when the number of female smokers rose to nearly 2.5 million, but this was short-lived. By 2015, female smoking rates fell slightly to over 1 million, followed by a marginal increase to 1.5 million in 2018. Nonetheless, a consistent decline resumed through 2021, ending with approximately 750,000 female smokers, the lowest recorded value during the entire period.