Tobacco smoking is one of the largest preventable causes of death and disease in Australia. In 2017-18, 13.8% of adults aged 18 years and over were daily smokers (2.6 million people), down from 14.5% in 2014-15. The decrease is a continuation of the trend over the past two decades, in 1995, 23.8% of adults were daily smokers.
Additionally the proportion of adults who have never smoked is increasing over time, from 49.4% in 2007-08 to 52.6% in 2014-15 and 55.7% in 2017-18.