The given table illustrates Britain’s percentage of smokers in both genders from the age of 15 to 20.
Overall, it is clear that the proportion of smokers in males and females witnessed an upward trend between 1970 and 1990, followed by a slight decline. Additionally, females had lower smoking rates than males in 1970 but outstripped them in 1990.
In 1970, the percentage of males smoking in Britain accounted for 10%. Over the next 15 years, there was a sharp increase in their smoking, with figures rising from 10% in 1970 to reach a peak of 37% in 1985, the highest data in the chart. However, from 1985 onwards, smoking rates among males saw a gradual decline, falling to 28% in the end of the period.
In the first examined year, the proportion of female smokers started much lower at 5%, which was half the rate for males at the same time. The trend for females had remarkably gone up in the following years, with the rate hitting the highest point at 37% in 1990, higher than the figures for males. After this peak, female smoking rates followed a similar downward trend as males, decreasing to 27% in 2000.