As a proportion of the general population, Oadby and Wigston – a small local authority covering the two suburban towns to the southeast of Leicester – was found to have the lowest smoking rate of all at just 3.2 percent.
At the bottom of the list, the council was followed by West Oxfordshire (3.7 percent), Waverley (4.4 percent) and Sevenoaks (4.8 percent). Only these four areas were below the Government’s desired threshold in 2021.
The unenviable title of having the most smokers per capita in the country goes to Fenland in Cambridgeshire, where 27.8 percent of the population needs regular nicotine boosts. The area is one of only two remaining boroughs in the country where over a quarter of the population smoke, alongside Hastings (25.8 percent).
With Fenlandians more than eight times more likely to be smokers than the residents of Oadby and Wigston, the local authority has hosted numerous campaigns to tackle the issue. Research by the Wisbech Primary Care Network found 22 young people in Cambridgeshire start smoking every week – equivalent to 1,141 a year.
