Smoking rates revealed across population in Portsmouth, Havant, Fareham and Gosport

The Office for National Statistics has revealed what it estimates smoking rates to be across the area

The Office for National Statistics estimates 18.2 per cent of adults in Gosport smoked in 2019, up from 15 per cent of people aged 18 and over the year before.

In Portsmouth, smoking rates have fallen – but remain above the national average. The city’s figures are estimated at 16.4 per cent of adults smoking in 2019, down from 17.5 per cent in 2018.

The ONS estimates that 16.2 per cent of adults in Havant smoked in 2019, down from 18.3 in 2018.

Fareham’s figures were 11.3 per cent in 2019, and 11.5 per cent in 2018.

For the Winchester City Council area it was 7.7 per cent of adults in Winchester smoked in 2019, down from 10.9 in 2018, and in East Hampshire it was 5.6 per cent in 2019 and 7.8 per cent in 2018.

Campaign group Action on Smoking and Health says smoking remains the leading cause of premature death in the UK, and that there is a long way to go before the country is truly smoke-free.

Throughout the UK, the proportion of smokers has fallen every year since 2011, reaching a record low of 14.1 per cent in 2019.

Across England, the rate now stands at 13.9 per cent – the lowest of all four countries in the UK.

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But anti-smoking charity Ash said there are ‘enormous differences’ across the country when it comes to smoking habits.

In Corby, in the Northamptonshire, 27.5 per cent of adults were smokers in 2019, compared to just 3.4 per cent in Hart, in Hampshire.

Deborah Arnott, chief executive of Ash, said: ‘The year-on-year decline in the proportion of people smoking has continued so only one in seven people now smoke, the lowest ever recorded.

‘But that means there are 6.9m smokers, and smoking remains the leading cause of premature death in the UK killing nearly 100,000 people a year, with 30 times as many living with serious smoking-related diseases.

‘We’ve still got a long way to go before this country is truly smoke-free.’

The ONS estimates a further 29.7 per cent of adults have quit smoking in Portsmouth, and in the city men were more likely to smoke than women – 17.1 per cent of males were smokers, compared to 15.8 per cent of females.