The figure represents a decrease of 5.6 percentage points from 2003.
The amount of daily consumption of cigarettes by smokers fell from 15.2 cigarettes to 14.6 cigarettes during the nine-year period, according to the data released by the Seoul Institute.
Smoking rate among males dropped from 54.7 percent to 42.7 percent, while female smokers accounted for 4.7 percent of total female adults, an increase of 0.9 percentage point from nine years earlier, the data said.
By region, Seoul's smoking rate was 1 percentage point lower than a nationwide average of 24 percent.
By Ayaka Erin Tobari
reporter
Park Sae-jin
swatchsjp@ajunews.com