Business Environment Profiles - United Kingdom
Published: 01 July 2025
Health consciousness
103 Index
0.0 %
IBISWorld uses an index of cigarette smoking, alcohol intake, obesity rates, fruit and vegetable consumption and sport participation to calculate health consciousness. The data is sourced from the National Health Service through its Health Survey for England in addition to IBISWorld estimates. The Health Survey for England is an annual survey designed to measure health in adults and children living in private households. The figures are presented as percentages in calendar years.
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Smoking rates have declined throughout the period, matching the trend seen throughout the past few decades. This is expected to be due to sustained government policy aimed at reducing new smokers as well as to encourage smokers to quit smoking. Such policy has been increasing the age to buy cigarettes in the UK from 16 years old to 18 years old from October 2007. This was the same year the indoor smoking in most public places was outlawed. Health consciousness is expected to rise in 2022, with the proportion of non-smokers rising by 0.5 percentage points.
In the period, the main contributions to increasing the level of non-smokers has been consistent advertising and public health campaigns and increases to tobacco duty. These have served to increase public knowledge of the health implications of smoking as well as to increase the price of cigarettes to discourage use. As of May 2022, the current tobacco duty is set at 16.5% of the retail price plus £6.96 on a packet of 20 cigarettes, not including the 20% VAT. From May 2016, the government implemented a one-year transition into the ban of the manufacture and sale of 10 cigarette packets and introduced a standardised plain design. Other measures include an increase in the proportion of the packet covered in health warnings to 65% and bans on words that infer some level of health, such as "lite", "natural" or "organic. From May 2020, all flavoured cigarettes have also been removed from sale, increasing the barriers to starting and continuing smoking.
Other measurements of health consciousness can be explored through alcohol intake with no-to-low alcohol intake considered as heathier than higher intakes of alcohol. This tells a slightly different story to that of the smoking rate. According to data from the NHS, the proportion of adults that have not drunk any alcohol over the past 12-month period in 2019 is 20%. This has increased over the past decade slightly, signalling a higher level of health consciousness. However, the proportion of adults with a low alcohol intake, which is classes as less than 14 units per week, have increased over the majority of the period, before falling slightly in 2019 to 57%. In 2020, alcohol intake is expected to have increased in the home due to the COVID-19 (coronavirus) outbreak, with retailers reporting soring sales of alcohol. This is likely due to government-imposed restrictions limiting other ways of consumers spending their time, with many increasing their alcohol intake as a result. However, the lack of out-the-home consumption is forecast to lead to an overall decrease in consumption.
The proportion is forecast to rise throughout the period, with an increasingly interventionist ap...
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