ALMOST one in five people in Blaenau Gwent are smokers, according to data from the Office for National Statistics.

That’s almost four times as much as Christchurch, Dorset, which has been recognised as having the lowest percentage of smokers in the UK (4.6 percent).

But, despite the high percentage of people still smoking in Blaenau Gwent the number of smokers in Blaenau Gwent is actually dropping, partly due to a successful anti-tobacco strategy from the government. In 2011, 27 per cent of Blaenau Gwent’s population smoked. By 2017 this figure had dropped to 19.9 per cent.

Smoking rates across Newport, Torfaen, Monmouthshire and Caerphilly are also down.

Figures show youngsters in these areas are making the choice not to smoke, which is pushing the number of smokers down.

Deborah Arnott, Action on Smoking and Health chief executive, said: “Smoking rates have fallen because over the last twenty years the British Government has gone further and faster in tackling smoking.

“Britain has kept its tobacco taxes amongst the highest in the world, banned advertising promotion and sponsorship, put tobacco out of sight in shops and replaced the glitzy, brightly coloured packs with ugly dark packs with large picture warnings.

“But smoking must become history for all of society not just for the wealthy.

“Cuts in public health funding and lack of treatment for smoking on the NHS mean poorer more heavily addicted smokers, including those who are pregnant, are not getting the help they need to quit.”

The data also suggests that more young adults are shunning cigarettes.

The percentage of Blaenau Gwent’s population who have never smoked has risen by 29 per cent since 2011, because 18 to 24-year-olds are choosing not to.

Last year, across Britain, 17.8 per cent of people in this age bracket said they were smokers. In 2011 more than a quarter of young adults said they smoked.

This is the biggest drop in smokers out of any age group, and Ms Arnott put this down to banning tobacco advertising.

“The brightly coloured pack displays we used to have in shops disappeared completely in 2015 and the packs they see nowadays are a sludgy green colour, with large picture warnings, rather than the brightly coloured, highly branded packs we used to have.

“Is it any wonder young people today increasingly choose not to smoke. It’s much less cool than it used to be.”