ALMOST one-in-five Bathurst adults still smokes despite a steady decline in the number of smokers nationally.
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Figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) show that smoking rates have dropped by almost 10 per cent in the past 20 years.
However, rates for this region were higher than the national average.
Data from Australian Health Tracker for 2014 to 2015 indicates there were 5284 smokers in the entire Bathurst region.
According to the data, there were 4477 smokers (18.1 per cent of population) in the city of Bathurst and a further 447 (17.3 per cent) in the outlying parts of the region.
Comparatively, Orange had a total of 6446 smokers and Dubbo had 5666 in 2014-2015 while Wellington had the highest rate of smokers in the Central West with 27.5 per cent of adults smoking.
ABS Health director Louise Gates said just over one-in-seven adults nationally were smokers in 2014-15 compared with almost one-in-four in 1995.
“In particular, rates of daily smoking have decreased considerably among younger adults (18-44 year olds),” she said.
“In 2014-15, 16.3 per cent of 18-44 year olds smoked daily compared with 28.2 per cent in 2001.
“In 2014-15, 60 per cent of younger adults (18-44 years) had never smoked and 23 per cent were ex-smokers.”
However, people living in lower socio-economic areas and regional areas, had higher rates of smoking.
In 2014-15, 21.4 per cent of people living in areas of most disadvantage smoked daily, compared with 8.0 per cent of people living in areas of the least disadvantage.
Men have been consistently more likely to smoke tobacco daily than women. In 2014-15, 16.9 per cent of males and 12.1 per cent of women smoked daily, with a similar but higher pattern in 1995 (27.3 per cent of men compared with 20.3 per cent of women).
Smoking is associated with an increased risk of a range of health conditions, including heart disease, diabetes, stroke, cancer, renal disease, eye disease and respiratory conditions.