West Lothian named as one of worst places in UK for quitting smoking

Study shows how much smoking has fallen in each area and when they will become ‘smoke-free’

West Lothian has been named as having one of the worst records in the UK for people quitting smoking.

A study looked at eight years' worth of official data for all local authorities in England, Scotland and Wales to calculate the average reduction rate for the number of smokes in each area. And it also used the estimated “smoke-free” year for each place to determine a total score for an area. 

In a league table compiled from the results, West Lothian came in at number 10. Ryedale in Yorkshire was the council area with the worst score, followed by Denbighshire in Wales, then the London borough of Hounslow. Moray was in fourth place, the only other Scottish area to be included in the top ten.

There are estimated to be around 7 million smokers in Great Britain - Edinburgh and East Lothian are projected to become smoke-free by 2035, Midlothian by 2033, but West Lothian not until after 2050. Picture: Ian Georgeson.

Smoking in Great Britain is said to have almost halved since 2000, with the current number still smoking estimated at around 7 million. The change in the number of smokers in each local authority area is tracked by the UK government’s Office of National Statistics.

In West Lothian, the smoking population is estimated to have increased slightly from 19.2 per in 2015 to 19.4 per cent in 2022, while almost everywhere else saw a decline. In Edinburgh, it almost halved from 16.2 per cent to just 8.3 per cent. In East Lothian, it fell from 16.2 to 11.5 per cent and in Midlothian from 16.6 to 11.9 per cent.

Elsewhere in Scotland, Glasgow, Dundee and Aberdeen started with a higher proportion of smokers, but all saw sizeable reductions between 2015 and 2022 – Glasgow from 23.8 to 17.8 per cent; Dundee from 25.3 to 15.8 per cent; and Aberdeen from 21.2 to 11.5 per cent. Moray’s estimated smoking population increased from 15.8 per cent to 16.4 per cent.

The projected “smoke-free” dates for different places, produced by Smoke-Free Future, shows both West Lothian and Moray not eradicating smoking until “2050-plus”. Edinburgh an East Lothian are said to be on course to become “smoke-free” by 2035, Midlothian by 2033, Glasgow by 2032, Dundee by 2040 and Aberdeen by 2037.

The study was conducted by Go Smoke Free, which promotes vaping as an alternative to smoking.