Lifestyle factor
Smoking and life expectancy
Smoking is the single largest modifiable cause of reduced life expectancy in the UK.
What the research suggests
Major long-term studies, including the British Doctors Study and large analyses in the New England Journal of Medicine, associate lifelong smoking with roughly ten years of lower life expectancy on average compared with never smoking. Critically, the same research shows that stopping smoking recovers much of that gap, and quitting before around the age of forty avoids the large majority of the excess risk.
What helps
- Stopping smoking at any age
- Using stop-smoking support and medication
- Avoiding relapse in the first months
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Start the estimatorCommon questions
How does smoking affect life expectancy?
Major long-term studies, including the British Doctors Study and large analyses in the New England Journal of Medicine, associate lifelong smoking with roughly ten years of lower life expectancy on average compared with never smoking. Critically, the same research shows that stopping smoking recovers much of that gap, and quitting before around the age of forty avoids the large majority of the excess risk.
What is the single most useful change?
Stopping smoking at any age. Sustained changes started earlier tend to have the largest effect, though benefit is associated with change at any age.