In the space of a year, the number of smokers has shifted from roughly every fourth to every fifth person

An extensive joint study involving 5000 people conducted by the National Board of Health, the Heart Foundation, the Lung Association and the Cancer Society, has found a dramatic decline in the number of people who smoke.

Only 23 percent of the population smokes regularly now, compared to 28 percent in 2008.

Health board chief consultant Jørgen Falk said the figure almost sounded ‘too good to be true’.

But even with the data adjusted for an under-representation of people without formal educations – who statistics indicate tend to smoke more – this was the steepest decline in smoking ever recorded, Falk told Politiken newspaper. He said that normally the proportion of smokers fell by one to two percent per year.

The study also showed that men smoke more than women, with 26 percent of males still puffing, compared to 21 percent of the women.