90% of Welsh constituencies have smoking levels above UK average

PML analysis ranks the smoking prevalence for every constituency for the first time

36 of the 40 Parliamentary constituencies in Wales have smoking levels higher than the average for the United Kingdom according to new analysis by Philip Morris Limited (PML). The average smoking prevalence of the 40 constituencies that make up Wales was 16%, which is higher than the average for the UK (14.7%). Of the 632 Parliamentary seats across Great Britain ranked in total, no Welsh constituencies are placed in the top third.

Conservative held Monmouth had the lowest smoking levels in Wales (13.6%) and ranked 232nd overall. There’s an even spread among Conservative and Labour constituencies in the top 10 with 4 and 5 seats, respectively but only one Plaid Cymru seat. On average, the Conservative Party seats in Wales have the lowest smoking prevalence (14.8%), versus Labour (16.2%) and Plaid Cymru (17%).

The four constituencies that make up Cardiff had an average smoking prevalence of 15.1%. This is in contrast to Swansea East and Swansea West which are 2% higher (17%). All four Labour held Cardiff seats are ranked in the top 15 for the country.

PML has created the Unsmoke Constituency Heatmap to rank every Parliamentary seat in Great Britain, using the latest statistics recently released from the Office for National Statistics (ONS)1. The results can be found at www.smokefreefuture.co.uk/smokingmapofbritain

1 ONS: Smoking habits in the UK and its constituent countries, July 2019: https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/healthandsocialcare/healthandlifeexpectancies/datasets/smokinghabitsintheukanditsconstituentcountries

The Unsmoke Constituency Heatmap shows wider variations by political party in Britain:

 Labour held constituencies of Kingston upon Hull North and Kingston upon Hull East shared the highest smoking levels (26.1%) followed by Labour held Burnley (24.8%) and Conservative held Mansfield (23.1%)

 Kenneth Clarke MP’s Conservative seat, Rushcliffe, had the lowest levels in the whole of Britain (3.6%) followed by current Liberal Democrat Leader, Sir Vince Cable MP’s Twickenham constituency (5.9%). Jeremy Hunt MP’s seat of South West Surrey was fourth in the rankings (7.1%).

 Nearly 70% of SNP seats are in the bottom third of the prevalence rankings. No seats in the top 100 are represented by the SNP. All of Plaid Cymru’s 4 seats are in the bottom half of the rankings.

 In the 100 seats with the lowest smoking levels, 79 are Conservative held, 17 Labour and 4 Lib Dem.

The new figures found stark differences across countries and regions:

 49 of the 50 constituencies in Britain with the lowest smoking levels are in England. There are no Welsh constituencies higher than 232 and Scotland only has 9 seats in the top 250.

 In England, smoking prevalence in Northern constituencies is over 2% higher than those in the South. In the Midlands, the level is just above the average in England of 14.4%.

Philip Morris Limited Press Release

 Two thirds of all London constituencies (50 out of 73) are in the top half of the ranking.

Mark MacGregor, External Affairs Director at PML, believes this is the first time most MPs will be made aware of the smoking levels in their constituencies and hopes the results will help decision makers to concentrate on support for smokers:

“These results show the huge variations in smoking levels across the different parts of Britain, and in Wales particularly. We hope MPs in Wales will use the figures to better target help for smokers locally, particularly in seats with the highest smoking prevalence. If the Government is to meet its ambitious target, one of the keys to getting smoking prevalence down will be ensuring smokers who don’t quit, understand that alternatives, like e-cigarettes and heated tobacco, are significantly better than continuing to smoke.”