Table 1.

Characteristics of the OS England sample by year (1996–2008); proportion of respondents in each socio-demographic subgroup (%)

Socio-demographics	1996	1997	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008a	Total
Gender
Male	49	46	46	49	43	46	46	46	45	46	47	45	15 101 (46)
Female	51	54	54	51	57	54	54	54	55	54	53	55	17 529 (54)
Age group (years)
16–24	12	13	13	12	13	12	14	12	11	12	11	9	4008 (12)
25–44	38	36	37	35	35	34	34	35	36	34	33	31	11 450 (35)
45–64	32	33	31	32	31	33	32	33	32	34	35	36	10 585 (32)
65+	18	18	19	22	21	20	20	20	21	20	20	24	6587 (20)
Smoking status
All smokers	28	25	26	25	23	25	23	22	22	24	21	19	7924 (24)
Light (0–20/day)	19	17	18	17	16	17	16	16	16	18	15	5	2244 (7)
Heavy (20+/day)	9	8	8	8	7	8	7	6	6	6	6	14	5680 (17)
Ex	26	28	28	28	26	26	26	28	26	27	27	36	8917 (27)
Never	46	47	46	47	51	49	51	50	51	49	52	55	15 721 (48)
Social class
Professional and managerial	32	30	34	34	33	32	34	33	32	31	34	36	10 547 (32)
Skilled non-manual and manual	41	42	39	38	42	42	39	41	42	41	39	40	13 260 (41)
Part skilled and unskilled	23	23	23	21	20	19	19	19	19	19	19	16	6357 (20)
Never worked/unclassifiedb	4	5	4	6	5	7	8	7	7	8	8	8	2465 (8)
Total sample	3202	3174	3003	2881	3032	3316	3050	3095	2097	2013	1956	1812	32 630

Not all variable classifications will add up to the sample totals due to the missing data for those variables.

^aThe 2008 data were collected in February and March 2009 due to a sampling error in October and November 2008.

^bNot included in the final sample.