Smoking levels soaring for middle-class women

SMOKING is on the rise among middle and upper-class women under the age of 45, a study has revealed.

- Jane Kirby

While smoking rates have fallen among working class females in England, they appear to have jumped in more advantaged groups.

Vaping among all women aged 18 to 45 has more than tripled in a decade, rising from 5.1% to 19.7% between 2013 and 2023, researchers found. Experts from University College London analysed data for 197,266 adults, of whom 44,052 were women aged 18 to 45.