ABS - Australian Social Trends, Dec 2009
(http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mf/4102.0?OpenDocument) have just been released with interesting statistics (a few pages on each area) for each of the following:

• Jobless
• Families
• Living alone
• Smoking, risky drinking and obesity
• Pre-school attendance
• Patterns in work
• International comparisons

A sample of some interesting details provided from the smoking, risky drinking and obesity analysis:

• Obesity and smoking were more common in the most disadvantaged areas.
• Blue collar workers such as technicians, trade workers, labourers, drivers and machinery operators were much more likely to be current smokers (30%) than people in all other occupations (18%).
• Studies have shown that once children become obese they are more likely to stay obese into adulthood and have an increased risk of developing the associated diseases
• Of all adults who were inactive, over one-quarter (27%) were obese, compared with 16% of people who had a high level of exercise.
• Around 459,000 (or 3.5% of) adults aged 15 years or over who were not current smokers and 291,000 (or 7.2% of) children aged under 15 years lived in a household where a daily smoker was reported to have smoked indoors.
• Overweight or obese smokers were twice as likely to have heart disease as people who were within the normal weight range and who had never smoked, 2.2 times as likely to have Type 2 diabetes, and 2.8 times as likely to have bronchitis.