Southend has been revealed as the area with the highest smoking rate in the East of England.

As part of World No Tobacco Day a company has revealed that smoking rates in the East of England are well below the UK average, with around 14 per cent of adults being frequent smokers in the region.

The region has an estimated 45,000 smokers less than the England average (14.9 per cent) for the population.

Southend has the highest percentage of adults smoking at 18 per cent and is closely followed by Thurrock with 17.7 per cent and Peterborough with 17.6 per cent.

Hertfordshire is the best performing area in the East of England, with 12.7 per cent of its adult residents smoking.

With 13.8 per cent of the adult population smoking respectively in both, Essex and Norfolk are the areas with the joint second lowest smoking rates in East England.

These figures were collated by Vape Club for World No Tobacco Day yesterday.

The data was sourced via information taken from the NHS’ ‘Quit Smoking’ Service and Public Health England.

The data provides an insight into the prevalence of smoking within England and the extent to which NHS services have been successful in raising the quit rate.