The Office of Tobacco Control (OTC) initiated a smoking prevalence tracker survey (Smoking Tracker Survey) in July 2002. The survey was continued by the OTC until the Office was dissolved in 2010. At that stage many of the functions of the OTC transferred to the Health Service Executive who have continued the survey.

The smoking prevalence tracker survey involves a monthly nationally representative telephone poll of 1000 people (randomly selected) aged 15 years and over. The smoking prevalence question in the survey is, “Do you smoke one or more cigarettes each week, whether packaged or roll your own?”

The survey includes a range of sociodemographic characteristics that facilitate analysis by gender, age cohort, social socioeconomic group and region.

Basic information obtained from the survey has been published on the OTC and HSE websites over the years. To improve accessibility to the dataset this concise downloadable report is being published in its present format.

Smoking prevalence
The analysis of smoking patterns for 2014 established that:
• The overall prevalence of cigarette smoking in 2014 was 19.5%. This compares to 21.5% for 2013. This equates to over 70,000 fewer smokers in 2014 compared to 2013.
• A higher percentage of men (21.6%) reported being smokers than women (17.6%).
• Smoking rates were highest among young adults (18-34 years), reaching 27.3% in the 25-34 year old age group. Prevalence was lowest among the 15-17 age group at 7.9%.
• The highest cigarette smoking prevalence rates were in the lower socioeconomic groups (C2, 22.7%, DE, 24.1%) The lowest smoking rates (13.8% and 10.8%) were among higher
• socioeconomic groups (AB) and farmers (F).
• Smoking rates were lowest in Connaught/Ulster (17%), with higher rates in Munster (18.8%) and the rest of Leinster at (19.8%). Dublin experienced the highest rate at 21.6%.
• Using moving averages, overall smoking prevalence has declined from 28.28% in June 2003 to 19.53% in December 2014 (21.55% males and 17.59% for females).