Figure 1.

Chinese female smoking uptake rate by year of birth and locality

300 000 women seen in ten study areas in about 2006, with birth years grouped as: before 1935, 1935–44, 1945–54, 1955–64, and 1965 or later. The two areas where many older women smoked are in Harbin (urban northeast China) and Sichuan (rural southwest China). Taking all ten areas together, the prevalences of ever-smoking among women born in the 1930s, 1940s, 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s were, respectively, 10%, 5%, 2%, 1%, and <1% (3097/30 943, 3265/62 246, 2339/97 344, 926/94 772, and 142/17 161).