Hong Kong’s smoking rate fell to 8.5 per cent last year, missing an ambitious target of 7.8 per cent, but health authorities have hailed the success of the city’s tobacco control strategy, which led to a 30 per cent decline in overall cigarette consumption.

Secretary for Health Lo Chung-mau told a Legislative Council meeting on Friday that the rate – the prevalence of daily cigarette smokers aged 15 and older in the population – had fallen from 9.1 per cent in 2023 to 8.5 per cent last year.

The figure, derived from preliminary findings of a thematic survey conducted between July and October last year, is higher than the target of 7.8 per cent set for 2025.

Lo stressed that the figure was not a failure.

“This 7.8 per cent target was not set by the current administration, but followed the WHO’s target in 2018 to reduce the smoking rate by 30 per cent [by 2025], using 2010 as the baseline,” he said in response to a question by retail lawmaker Peter Shiu Ka-fai.

“If lowering the rate to 7.8 per cent is considered a perfect 100 score, then our current rate of 8.5 per cent is already a score of 95 or above. We are very satisfied with the effectiveness of overall tobacco control.”