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As a child in the 1970s I visited family there and my memory is that it seemed like every adult and older teen smoked. Often filterless. So it's quite a change in a few decades.

I think the UK is lower than this - it's pretty unusual to see people smoking. Far less common than on the continent.

Perhaps that's location dependent. I was just there and was taken aback by how many more people I saw smoking than where I live in the US. Still not as much as southern or eastern Europe, but more than the large US city nearest me.

It's low indeed, but still around 10% in 2024: https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/healthan...

That's higher than I would've guessed! Interesting.

I think everywhere in the west was like that in the 70s.

Yeah... I live here, and I would definitely not call us smoke free. But it's gotten better.

If 1 in 20 is smoke free, I’m declaring the 1 in 10 rate in the us as ALMOST smoke free.