Healthy Communities - Obesity and smoking rates in Australia

Two new reports from the Healthy Communities series have been released by the Australian Government.  Both are well-illustrated with infographics and easily accessible.

Healthy communities: overweight and obesity rates across Australia, 2014-15 presents local rates of overweight and obesity by Primary Health Network areas, which in 2014-15 ranged from 53% in Northern Sydney to 73% in Country South Australia. There were higher rates for people in regional areas than in cities.  

Healthy communities: Tobacco smoking rates across Australia 2014-15 shows that although national smoking rates have been steadily declining in recent years, there are some local areas where smoking rates remain relatively high. In 2014-15, daily smoking rates ranged from 5% in Northern Sydney to 23% in Western NSW and that regional PHN areas generally had higher smoking rates than metropolitan PHN areas. Across Australia in that period, 14.5% of adults smoke daily.