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Despite impressive health gains during the twentieth century, many people still die prematurely, while many more suffer a reduced quality of life through health problems, many of which are the results of lifestyle or environmental factors.

Although the table below shows differences between Tasmanians and all Australians engaging in health risk behaviour, these differences are not statistically significant.

SUMMARY OF HEALTH RISK FACTORS(a) - 2001
		Males		Females
Risk factors	Unit	Tas.	Aus.	Tas.	Aust.
Smoking status
Current smoker(b)	%	25.0	27.3	23.7	21.4
Alcohol drinking status
Risky/high risk drinkers(c)	%	12.8	13.2	7.0	8.5
Body weight
Overweight or obese(d)	%	54.2	54.4	36.6	38.2
Exercise level
Physically inactive(e)	%	31.9	30.9	32.0	32.0
(a) Persons 18 years and over. (b) Refers to those adults who answered 'yes' when asked whether they currently smoked. It is not based on regularity of smoking. (c) Average daily consumption of alcohol is over 50ml. (d) Scores 25 or more on the body mass index. (e) Did no exercise or exercised at a very low level in the two weeks prior to the survey. Source: Australian Social Trends (cat. no. 4102.0).