Over the last year searches for ‘how to quit smoking’ have increased by 15%. With the public being more health conscious than ever, the latest data from Public Health England reveals the areas that have had the most—and the least—success quitting smoking, with 5 of the 10 least successful areas being in London.

Brent, Barking and Dagenham, and Havering have been found to have the lowest successful smoking quit rates in England over lockdown, with a quit rate of less than 0.1%. This is over 20 times lower than the England average of 1.81%. Two further London boroughs, Sutton and Redbridge, also feature among the ten lowest quit rate areas, according to the latest data from Public Health England’s 2019/20 Local Tobacco Control Profiles.

The figures, collated by Vape Club ahead of the WHO’s World No Tobacco Day 2021 on Monday 31st May, reveals a detailed look at where smoking remains an issue and to what extent areas across England have achieved smoking cessation − their ‘quit rate’.

Other regions across the UK that had the lowest proportion of successful quitters were North Lincolnshire (0.12%) and Cumbria (0.17%). With World No Tobacco Day’s campaign this year being ‘Commit to Quit’ following a surge of interest in lockdown, experts urge the public to commit to smoking cessation.

Hammersmith and Fulham was the area that achieved the highest rate of smoking cessation, with a quit rate of 6.74% – more than triple the England average. This was followed by Knowsley (5.49%), with the second-highest quit rate, and Wirral (5.42%) with the third-highest rate, both in the North West.

The data also revealed the regions with the highest smoking prevalence. The worst offending region was Great Yarmouth, with almost a quarter of the population smoking (23.1%). This is almost 10% more than the England average of 14.3%. This was closely followed by Hasting (22.8%) and Kingston upon Hull (21.6%). In 6 of the 10 areas with the greatest proportion of smokers, more than one-fifth of the population smoked.

Dan Marchant, Director at the UK’s largest online retailer, Vape Club said:

“Vaping gives a real alternative to traditional smoking cessation products, and as the study shows they are actually twice as effective. It is fantastic to see organisations such as Public Health England and the NHS embrace the public health breakthrough that is vaping, but we still have a long way to go to get this message out to the millions of smokers left in the UK”.