How much the average smoker spends in a year

As well as planning to axe A-Levels and scrap part of HS2, Prime Minster Rishi Sunak also announced yesterday (4 October) his plan to ban smoking.

Sunak said that he plans to raise the smoking age by a year, every year.

"When we raised the smoking age to 18, smoking prevalence dropped by 30 percent in that age group," he said.

"When the United States raised the age to 21, the smoking rate dropped by 39 percent in that age group. Smoking places huge pressures on the NHS and costs our country £17bn a year.

"We have a chance to cut cancer deaths by a quarter, significantly ease those pressures and protect our children, and we should take it."

Not only would this tackling of smoking protect a lot of people’s health, the truth is it could also save smokers a lot of money.

That’s because the average person who smokes in the UK is forking out hundreds every year on ciggies.

Peter Dazeley/Getty

According to previous findings from 2019 published by One Small Step, the cost of smoking to the government is about £12.6billion a year.

The breakdown of that amount is £2.5billion spent on NHS services and £8.6 billion of lost productivity on businesses.

The report says that the average smoker reportedly puffs 10 cigs a day and considering that a pack costs £10.80, that's a spend of £37.80 per week, which is a mega £1,971 a year.

But that’s even higher now, as according to Statista, the average retail price of a pack of 20 in 2022 was £12.61 – changing that total to an even more mega £2,295 a year.

As you might imagine, for that amount of cash you could buy some pretty impressive stuff.

Considering that the average cost of a holiday abroad is £815 for nine nights, you could get two holidays a year that amount.

According to NimbleFins analysis of data from the Office of National Statistics, the average weekly food shop for the typical UK household is around £103 - over two weeks of smoking.

Getty Stock Images

The average monthly cost of owning a cat or a rabbit is £94, that’s over seven packs of cigarettes.

During his speech at the Conservative Party Conference, Sunak claimed that smoking costs the UK £17 billion per year and is the single biggest avoidable problem facing the NHS.

“If we are to do the right thing for our kids, we must try and stop teenagers taking up cigarettes in the first place,” he said.

“Because without a significant change thousands of children will start smoking in the coming years and have their lives cut short as a result.”

Sunak plans to introduce a new law banning tobacco sales to anybody born on or after 1 January 2009.

Elaborating on his plans on X, he said: "In the UK smoking causes 1 in 4 cancer deaths.

"So I’m proposing changing the law so children turning 14 or younger this year can never legally be sold cigarettes in their lifetime.”

Topics: UK News, Rishi Sunak, Money

Jess Battison

Jess is an Entertainment Journalist with a love of all things pop culture. Her main interests include keeping up with the Twitter girlies, waiting for a new series of The Traitors and losing her voice at a Beyoncé concert. She graduated with a first in Journalism from City, University of London in 2021 and has previously worked at MyLondon.

@jessbattison_