Smoking Behavior Trends (2005–2024): A 20-Year Data Analytics Study on Public Health Transformation

By abhishek.verma75000 · May 14, 2026

A comprehensive analysis of smoking trends from 2005–2024 revealed a significant decline in smoking prevalence, with daily smoking rates dropping from 19%…

The year 2005 recorded the highest total smoking prevalence at 25%, while 2021 had the lowest at 13%. This represents a notable decline of about 12 percentage points over the observed period.

Daily smoking rates in Australia have dropped dramatically over the past two decades. In 2005, 19% of respondents smoked daily, but by 2024 that figure had fallen to just 9% — a decline of 10 percentage points, representing a 52.6% relative reduction. A line chart has been generated showing this clear downward trend year by year.

The combined former smoker rate (those who used to smoke occasionally or daily) has grown steadily from 29.0% in 2005 to 32.0% in 2024, a net increase of +3 percentage points. A line chart has been generated showing the individual and combined trends over time.

The never-smoked population has shown an overall positive trend, growing 20% from 2005 (45%) to 2024 (54%). On average, the population grew about 1.28% year-over-year. Two charts and supporting data tables were generated to visualize these trends.

From 2005 to 2024, daily smoking has declined dramatically while occasional smoking remained relatively stable. Two charts and supporting data tables were generated to illustrate these trends. The line chart shows both smoking types over time, and the bar chart reveals the ratio of daily to occasional smokers across the years.

The analysis examined shifts in smoking behavior from 2020 to 2024. A line chart was generated showing how each smoking category trended over the five-year period, giving a clear visual picture of rising and falling behaviors. The categories tracked include never smokers, former daily smokers, former occasional smokers, current occasional smokers, and current daily smokers.

Two visualizations were successfully generated to answer your question. The first is a stacked area chart showing how the proportions of all five smoking categories (never smoked, occasional past smoker, daily past smoker, occasional current smoker, and daily current smoker) have evolved across all available years. The second is a stacked bar chart comparing the share of never smokers, former smokers, and current smokers for the first, middle, and last years in the dataset, highlighting structural shifts over time.

A correlation matrix heatmap was generated showing the relationships between all six numeric columns in the dataset: Year, Never smoked, Past occasional smoker, Past daily smoker, Current occasional smoker, and Current daily smoker. The heatmap uses a red-blue color scale with annotated coefficients, making it easy to spot strong positive (blue) and negative (red) relationships at a glance. A data table was also produced alongside the visualization.

Comprehensive summary statistics were calculated for all 5 smoking categories across 17 years of data. A bar chart was generated showing the average proportion of each smoking category, and a styled summary statistics table was also produced. The 'Never Smoked' category clearly dominates the population with a mean proportion of 49.8%, while 'Current Occasional Smoker' has the lowest average proportion. The statistics reveal meaningful differences in both the size and variability of each category over time.

The IQR-based outlier detection analysis was performed on each smoking category column. A data table was generated showing the results of the analysis. The method flagged any years where proportions fell below Q1 - 1.5×IQR or above Q3 + 1.5×IQR as outliers, and the table summarizes the findings per category including the interquartile bounds and any anomalous year-value pairs detected.