The Black Country borough bucks trend with more tobacco smokers - full list of smoking rates for the West Midlands, Shropshire and Staffordshire
Smoking rates across the West Midlands have continued to fall, with most local areas reporting a drop in the proportion of adults who smoke - apart from one Black Country borough
The latest figures show a reduction in tobacco use in most areas - apart from Sandwell which has the highest cigarette smoking rate in the region at 16.6%, rising slightly from 16.3% last year.
Lichfield, while still having the lowest rate at 7.4%, also saw a small increase of just over one percentage point.
Most other areas recorded declines. Telford & Wrekin, Powys, Shropshire, and Stafford saw the biggest drops, each falling by more than a percentage point.
Larger cities such as Birmingham and Stoke-on-Trent also improved slightly, with smoking rates down by around half a percentage point.
But while cigarette use is lowering, the national figures show that he number of people who vape has overtaken the number who smoke for the first time.
One in 10 adults (10%) aged 16 and over in Britain use e-cigarettes every day or occasionally, according to 2024 data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
This is compared with 9.1% who said they smoke cigarettes daily or occasionally.
This equates to around 5.4 million vapers and 4.9 million smokers, the ONS figures suggest.
A decade earlier – in 2014 – some 18.8% of British adults aged 16 and older were cigarette users, compared to 3.7% being vape users.
David Mais, from the ONS, said: “Interestingly, our 2024 data show that, for the first time, the number of users of e-cigarettes or vapes has overtaken the number of smokers.
“Among adults aged 16 (and over) in Great Britain, 10% said they were e-cigarette users, compared with 9.1% that were cigarette smokers.
“This is in line with the long-term trend of fewer people smoking cigarettes over the past decade.”
The proportion of women who vape daily or occasionally has increased while it has decreased among men, according to the figures.
One in 10 women reported using e-cigarettes daily or occasionally in 2024, up from 8.5% in 2023.
Meanwhile the proportion of men who use vapes on a daily or occasional basis reduced in 2024, compared with 2023.
(Figure in brackets shows the percentage number of smokers in the population for each area)
- Sandwell 16.6% (16.3%; +0.3)
- Stoke-on-Trent 14.4% (15.3%; -0.9)
- Birmingham 14.3% (14.8%; -0.5)
- Walsall 13.6% (13.7%; -0.1)
- Wolverhampton 12.8% (13.2%; -0.4
- )Telford & Wrekin 12.6% (14.3%; -1.7)
- Cannock Chase 12.5% (13.8%; -1.3)
- Worcester 12.3% (12.5%; -0.2)
- Dudley 11.5% (11.9%; -0.4)
- Wyre Forest 10.3% (11.0%; -0.7)
- Shropshire 9.6% (11.1%; -1.5)
- Powys 9.5% (11.1%; -1.6)
- Stafford 8.2% (9.6%; -1.4)
- Lichfield 7.4% (6.3%; 1.1)
These figures are averages for the period 2020-24, as smoker estimates can vary considerably from year to year due to small sample sizes.
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