The cost of tobacco is hitting disadvantaged households in Australia the hardest

Disadvantaged households have higher rates of smoking, putting pressure on their household budgets, University of Queensland research has found. The study is published in the journal Tobacco Control.

Professor Coral Gartner from UQ’s School of Public Health said reducing smoking among households in lower-income areas was important because of the enormous health and financial toll.

“The increasing price of tobacco has assisted many households in all income groups to quit smoking,”‘ Professor Gartner said. “But for those who haven’t quit, tobacco smoking is a growing source of financial strain. Conventional tobacco demand reduction measures, such as tax, may be insufficient on their own for Australia to achieve the national goal of 5% or less smoking prevalence by 2030.

“Other policies such as increasing free smoking cessation support and reducing tobacco retail availability may be particularly useful for those people who have found quitting difficult.”‘

Researchers studied household tobacco expenditure by socioeconomic status from 2006 to 2022, a period that included substantial tobacco tax increases (2010–2020). Overall, average annual household tobacco expenditure decreased by $7.80 to $972.70, reflecting a decrease in the number of people purchasing tobacco because of higher prices. In households that did purchase tobacco, spending of $3,839.5 increased by $1,092.20 to $4,931.70.

Professor Gartner noted that existing research showed that tobacco excise has been a successful strategy to decrease overall smoking prevalence in Australia.

However, for people who continued to smoke, the increased financial burden of tobacco products meant less spending on other items such as health, food, insurance and education.

Professor Gartner observed that additional non-price-related measures are needed to help those people who haven’t found higher prices sufficient to stop smoking, due to the high addictiveness of tobacco. She said measures could include reducing tobacco retailer density, removing tobacco from general retail outlets, pharmaceutical-like regulation of tobacco and nicotine products, free counseling and quit-smoking medicines, and floor and ceiling prices for tobacco products.

“Australia is a world leader in tobacco taxation and has implemented tax policy in line with levels recommended by the World Health Organization,”‘ Professor Gartner said. “However, our findings underscore the need for comprehensive policy approaches to reduce tobacco smoking in Australia through both price and non-price-related measures. There is also an ethical case for reinvestment of tobacco tax revenue into smoking cessation support and general welfare measures that assist low-income populations.”‘