Key findings from the 2009 New Zealand ... - Ministry of Health

Chapter 4: Current Smoking
A current smoker is defined as someone who has smoked more than 100 cigarettes in
their lifetime and at the time of the survey was smoking at least once a month (World
Health Organization 1998). As noted in the previous chapter, a daily smoker is
someone who has smoked more than 100 cigarettes in their lifetime and currently
smokes at least once a day.
Current smoking, 15–64 years
In 2009, 21.0% (19.6–22.4) of people aged 15–64 years were current smokers, and
19.2% (17.8–20.6) of people aged 15–64 years were daily smokers (91.4% of current
smokers were daily smokers).
There was no significant difference in the age-standardised prevalence of current
smoking between males (22.8%, 20.6–25.1) and females (20.8%, 19.0–22.6).
Number of current smokers in New Zealand in 2009
Based on the estimate that 21% of people aged 15–64 years were current smokers in
2009, the number of current smokers in New Zealand in 2009 was estimated to be
572,100.
However, the 2009 NZTUS only covered the usually resident population aged 15–64
years living in permanent private dwellings. It did not include people living in institutions
(such as prisons, hospitals, rest homes and boarding schools) and the homeless.
Given that these groups are not included in the analyses, the estimated number of
current smokers in New Zealand in 2009 (and other estimated population numbers
presented in this report) will generally be slight underestimates of the numbers affected
in the entire resident population of New Zealand.
Using the 2006 New Zealand Census data (where two questions on smoking were
asked, and where people living in non-private accommodation participated), the number
of smokers in New Zealand in both private and non-private accommodation was able to
be estimated. This involved calculating a ratio of smoking rates for the private and nonprivate
populations at the time of the census and then using this ratio to estimate the
smoking prevalence in 2009 for the non-private population.
The numbers of current smokers estimated by this method are shown in Table 2.
Table 2: Number of current smokers in New Zealand, by age group and dwelling type, 2009
Age group NZTUS population (private dwellings) All New Zealand (private and non-private dwellings)
15–64 572,100 605,796
65+ n/a 41,522
15+ n/a 647,318
Tobacco Use in New Zealand 15