New Zealand's smoking rate has fallen to its lowest level in over 30 years, new figures show.
Results from the Health Ministry's New Zealand Health Survey, released today by Prime Minister Helen Clark, show the prevalence of smoking among those aged 15 and over at 19.9 percent.
It is the first time the figure has dropped below 20 percent in over three decades of monitoring.
The figure for daily smokers was even lower, at 18.7 percent a drop of almost five percent in the past four years.
Miss Clark said that equated to about 150,000 fewer smokers.
"This shows that initiatives over time like prohibiting smoking in indoor workplaces, including bars and restaurants, banning tobacco advertising and sponsorships and subsidising nicotine replacement therapy, do work."
Miss Clark said there had been a significant decrease in smoking among Maori.
The rate of daily smoking for men dropped from 42.9 percent to 34.8 percent in the past four years and from 51 percent to 40.1 percent for women.
The rate among Pacific people dropped from 34.6 percent to 25.4 percent over the same period.
Results from a separate survey, released today by lobby group Action on Smoking and Health (ASH), found 57 percent of Year 10 students had never smoked, a big rise from the 31 percent recorded in the same survey in 1999.
Miss Clark said over the same period youth smoking rates had dropped from 28.6 percent to 12.8 percent.
The Government committed $32 million over four years towards anti-smoking initiatives in last week's budget.
NZPA
Listen RadioLIVE's Andrew Patterson talking to ASH director Ben Youdan on the World at Noon.
Watch Prime Minister Helen Clark's full news conference