Smoking rates among adult Australian males have shown a persistent decline since the published maximum of 75% in 1945. Adult female rates increased slightly from 26% in 1945 to reach a maximum of 33% in 1976 before declining, albeit more slowly than in males, thereafter.
Over the next few years, if the trends evident since 1976 continue, smoking rates between men and women will be equal around 2003 at about 17.7%. Thereafter rates will be lower in men than in women.
Hypothetically, male smoking rates will be zero around 2022 when about 8% of women will still be smoking, women not reaching zero until 2034.