Page 105 - TAIWAN TOBACCO CONTROL ANNUAL REPORT 2019

The comparison between two genders indicates that the percentages for males are of a noticeable decreasing trend, and the percentages for females are relatively the same. Nevertheless, it must be noted that the smoking rates for young males increase for the groups with ages greater than 18 in each year, and the age group of 36-40 is of the highest percentage such that approximately 1 out of 3 males is a smoker. For the smoking rates for females, the percentages also increase for the groups with ages greater than 18 in each year, and the age group of 26-30 if of the highest percentage such that approximately 1 out of 20 females is a smoker. Accordingly, such data shows that during the growth of young males and females, the problem of fast development of smoking habit shall be treated seriously. (as shown in Fig. 3-2) Fig. 3-2 Distribution of smoking rate of different age groups of males and females above the age of 18 60 40 % Male Female Overall 35.4 28.8 16.7 19.9 4.2 3.9 31-35 36-40 33.4 16.8 1.8 41-45 31.7 17.9 17.5 21.9 30.1 30.2 20 0 0.4 18-20 19.9 18.1 12.7 11.1 3.5 5.0 21-25 26-30 14.9 11.7 13.9 7.7 0.5 1.2 0.7 2.5 4.1 2.9 46-50 3.7 51-55 Note: 1. Data source: Smoking-related information of the general public collected via telephone interviews conducted by the HPA in 2018 for the "Adult Smoking Behavior Survey". The target of the survey were citizens above 18 years of age. 2. Definition of a smoker refers to a person who has smoked in excess 100 cigarettes (5 packs) from the past to the present and has used tobacco in the last 30 days. 3. Standard weighting based on census data for the year 2000 released by Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics for the Taiwan area. Because smoking rate surveys in different countries are not weighted by demographic characteristics, a weighted analysis of the demographic data of the previous year released by the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics was carried out to gain a clear understanding of actual smoking rates in respective years. Post-stratification weighting was employed for gender, age, education level, and administrative regions. The following results were obtained for the population structure of the previous year: Smoking rates of Taiwanese citizens aged 18 or above between 2007 and 2018 were 21.1%, 21.2%, 17.9%, 16.9%, 16.4%, 15.9%, 14.4%, 14.1%, 13.1%, 12.6%, 11.0% and 10.2%, respectively. (Fig. 3-3) 56-60 61-65 66+ Age Fig. 3-3 Smoking rates of adults aged 18 and above in Taiwan (population structure weighted value for the previous year) 60 39.4 40 20 0 38.5 37.7 37.8 21.1 21.2 4.7 4.7 2007 2008 Male Female Overall % 32.5 30.9 17.9 16.9 3.7 3.3 2009 2010 29.5 28.5 16.4 15.9 3.6 3.5 2011 2012 26.5 26.1 24.0 23.2 22.2 21.4 20.7 11.0 1.6 18.8 4.7 4.1 2005 2006 14.4 14.1 2.7 2.4 2013 2014 13.1 12.6 2.6 2.5 10.2 1.9 2018 Year Note: 1. Data source: Smoking-related information of the general public collected via telephone interviews conducted by the HPA since 2005 for the "Adult Smoking Behavior Survey". The target of the survey were citizens above 18 years of age. 2. Definition of a smoker refers to a person who has smoked in excess 100 cigarettes (5 packs) from the past to the present and has used tobacco in the last 30 days. 3. Standard weighting based on census data for the previous year released by Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics for the Taiwan area. 2015 2016 2017 103 () () Research, Monitoring, and International Exchange