Smokers face 1 in 100 chance of dying at 60

Mortality tables issued by the Actuarial Profession suggest male smokers have a one in a hundred chance of dying at the age of 60 and are twice as likely to die as non-smokers.

Tables published as part of the Continuous Mortality Investigation reveal the difference in mortality rates between smokers and non-smokers is a greater gap than between men and women at every age.

At a younger age, figures suggest a male smoker aged 30 buying a whole of life, endowment or term assurance product is twice as likely to die at that stage in their lives and has an 8 in 10,000 chance of dying, compared with a 4 in 10,000 chance as a non-smoker.

A woman smoker, on the other hand, purchasing the same product has a 4 in 10,000 chance of dying at the age of 30, compared with a 3 in 10,000 chance for a non-smoking woman.

By the time a male smoker reaches 60 years old, he has a 106 in 10,000 chance - or one in a hundred – chance of dying that year whereas a non-smoking male aged 60 has only a 48 in 10,000 likelihood of death that year.

The percentage is lower again among women as a woman smoker aged 60 has an estimated 85 in 10,000 chance but this drops to 35 in 10,000 for non-smoker women.

Statistics presented in the following tables are based on figures compiled since 1925 by the CMI on the lives of individuals insured by life companies over that period whereas mortality information from the Office of National Statistics is based purely on death certificates.

It also reveals how much a smoker’s life is expected to be reduced, assuming there are no mortality improvements in the future, so whereas a 30-year old male non-smoker can expect to live, on average, until he is over 82, he can expect to live to an average 76.8 years of age if he does smoke – reducing his life expectancy by 5.5 years.

Many application forms for whole of life policies, term assurance, endowments – along with other assured life policies – ask for data about the person’s health, including whether they smoke, so this data should reaffirm the need for this information when compiling a client’s data for underwriting purposes.

Brian Ridsdale, chairman of the CMI, says the organisation is using this situation to reinforce the need for smoking bans in public and private places because he believes these figures understate the situation.

“These bare statistics do if anything understate the reduction in life expectancy from smoking. This is because life offices’ proposal forms record only whether people smoked when they bought their policies.

"The CMI’s data of ‘non-smokers’ therefore includes both people who did smoke in the past but gave up some time before they bought their policy - and those who started smoking after purchasing life assurance. Both these groups will tend to have lower life expectancies as a result of having smoked at some stage in their lives,” says Ridsdale.

“We believe this new research has important future public policy implications. We require not only policies to encourage people to stop smoking, but also stronger deterrents for potential smokers. This suggests the need for more effective education and public information about the dangers of tobacco – and the extension of smoking bans in public and private spaces,” he adds.

People who buy whole life, endowment and term assurance products
Smoker status : Smoker

People who buy whole life, endowment and term assurance products
Smoker status : non-smoker

People who buy whole life, endowment and term assurance products
Smoker status : Combined

People who buy whole of life and endowment products

People who buy whole of life and endowment products