Insurance comparison site Quotezone has found that the number of smokers went up during the pandemic and the subsequent lockdowns, reports Money Expert.

Quotezone looked into the prevalence of smoking by going through a sample of 5,000 life insurance policies where applicants for life insurance cover had to declare their smoking habit. It found that between the first and second half of 2021, the number of non-smokers declined by almost 10 per cent, reports Money Expert. This comes after the number of non-smokers had previously increased in 2019 and 2020.
“When we analysed our life insurance data, we were expecting to see a continued fall in the number of smokers and so it came as a worrying surprise that more people were smoking than before the pandemic,” said Greg Wilson founder of Quotezone.
The research found that people turned to smoking to deal with the stresses of and boredom during the pandemic. According to Money Expert, Quotezone found that a fifth of smokers say they are still smoking 20 per cent more cigarettes since the start of the pandemic, while one in six are smoking 50 per cent more. One in 10 smokers say they’re smoking over 50 per cent more.