For the first time, the smoking rate of adults in South Korea fell below 20 per cent in 2020 which could be due to growing health awareness and an anti-smoking drive by the government, reports Yonhap News Agency.

According to a new report by Statistics Korea, the smoking rate of adults aged 19 and over in 2020 was 19.2 per cent, one per cent lower than in the previous year and 7.7 per cent lower than in 2010. The smoking rate amongst Korean men was down to a record low of 33 per cent with only 5.5 per cent of Korean woman smoking, reports Yonhap News Agency. The report was based on adults that are currently smoking and have smoked more than five packs of cigarettes in their lifetime.
Ever since the government raised the prices of cigarettes by 80 per cent at the beginning of 2015, the country’s smoking rate has been on a steady decline. The report also showed that the rate alcohol consumption was down from 57.7 per cent in 2019 to 55.2 per cent in 2020.