The journey towards a smokefree city region

Smoking is the single biggest cause of preventable illness and premature death in the world. Each year around 5,700 people in Greater Manchester die from smoking-related causes and there are more than 24,000 hospital admissions to treat smoking-related illnesses. An estimated 14,730 people are out of work due to smoking, 57,728 people are receiving informal care from friends and family because of smoking-related illnesses, and 154,846 households with at least one smoker are living in poverty.

In 2017, Greater Manchester Integrated Care Partnership (previously Greater Manchester Health and Social Care Partnership) published its Making Smoking History strategy with the ambition of becoming a smokefree city region to give everyone a healthier, fairer future. Since then, smoking prevalence in Greater Manchester has fallen from 18.4% to 15.4% – meaning there are now 66,000 fewer smokers living in Greater Manchester.