Stark regional and generational divides have emerged in Britain’s smoking habits, new figures reveal.
Official figures published this week show fewer than one in ten UK adults now smoke cigarettes, with rates more than halving since 2011.
This marks a record low, and reflects the Government’s push to create a ‘smoke-free generation’.
But a core group of dedicated smokers are proving harder to reach, with rates increasingly concentrated in older and more deprived communities.
According to the Office for National Statistics’ (ONS) latest report, smoking rates are highest among 45 to 54-year-olds.
Among men in this age group, smoking rates have moved against the national trend, rising from around 12 per cent in 2020 to 14.7 per cent in 2025.
Experts say the trend reflects the barriers many people in deprived communities face when trying to quit, including reduced access to stop-smoking services.
The divide is particularly apparent in parts of northern England. Blackpool and Kingston upon Hull have some of the highest smoking rates in England, where nearly a fifth (19.5 per cent) of adults smoke; twice the national average.
Smoking prevalence in Greater Manchester also remains well above the national average.
By contrast, some of the lowest rates are found in affluent southern districts.
In Woking, Surrey, just 3 per cent of residents smoke, while in neighbouring Mole Valley, just 1.3 per cent of residents smoke.
Meanwhile, more than one in six unemployed adults admitted to smoking in 2025, with rates also remaining stubbornly high among those working manual labour jobs.
By contrast, fewer than 6 per cent of people working in professional occupations smoked.
Public health experts have long warned that persistently high rates of smoking in more deprived areas mean that England may not be smoke-free until 2037, seven years later than hoped.
In addition, even when the smoke-free target is eventually reached, almost four times as many of the poorest people will still be using tobacco than the wealthiest, experts predict.
Charities including Cancer Research UK have urged ministers to put more money into public information campaigns and stop smoking services, particularly in deprived areas, to help speed the shift away from smoking.
‘The UK’s tobacco policy is leaving Northern communities behind, deepening the North-South divide,’ Peter Nixon, managing director of tobacco firm Philip Morris added.
‘The Government must make evidence-based policy decisions and set robust product standards that help smokers switch to better alternatives.’
The popularity of cigarettes has fallen as awareness of the harmful effects of tobacco – ranging from lung cancer to heart disease – and restrictions on smoking have grown.
Public health officials continue to push the message that vaping is less harmful than smoking, but should still be only used as a tool to quit.
The worry is, however, that measures put in place to protect public health such as stop smoking campaigns and bans on smoking in outdoor areas are not being rolled out fairly across the country.
There is also concern that making vaping more expensive – with a new levy increasing the cost of vaping by almost £600 a year – is dissuading smokers, many of whom are economically inactive, from trying to quit.
Evidence shows that while vaping is not risk-free, it exposes users to far less toxic chemicals capable of causing cancer than smoking tobacco.
‘For smokers, measures such as these have real consequences,’ Hazel Cheeseman, chief executive of Action on Smoking and Health, said.
‘For the first time, fewer than one in 10 people in the UK smoke. This is really encouraging progress and shows what can be achieved through sustained action to reduce smoking.
‘But there is a careful balance to strike. Vaping needs to remain significantly cheaper than smoking so that price doesn’t become a barrier for smokers who want to quit.’
It comes as official statistics show that for the second year in a row, more people are vaping than smoking, with 5.4 million vapers and 4.8 million smokers nationwide.
Those aged 25 to 34 are now the age group most likely to vape, with around 16 per cent using e-cigarettes daily or occasionally.
However, the ONS also found that more than one million Britons who had never smoked cigarettes now vape.
The proportion of never-smokers now vaping has almost doubled since 2021 – a trend experts have labelled ‘concerning’.
