Smoking and social inequalities

There is an extensive body of literature documenting the relationship between smoking and socio-economic status (SES), both throughout Australia and the world1-10. These studies have all shown that people of low socio-economic backgrounds, or living in low socio-economic areas are more likely to smoke tobacco. This effect remains despite SES being measured using a range of different indicators, including income, education, employment status, area of residence, or any combination of these and others. This brief report presents a picture of the socio-economic predictors of smoking in South Australia, which are likely to be very similar for Australia more generally