How many people smoke in your area? Tayside and Fife numbers revealed

Figures have shown the number of people who smoke in Fife, Dundee and Angus is above the Scottish average.

By Ellidh Aitken & Ema Sabljak

October 8 2023, 7:00am

Do you support a smoking ban? Image: Jonathan Brady/PA Wire

The number of people who smoke in Dundee, Angus and Fife is above the Scottish average.

In 2022, it was estimated more than one in ten people smoked in most of Scotland’s council areas.

And in Fife, 16.6 per cent of residents regularly light up, giving it the sixth highest rate in the country.

Dundee and Angus also remain above the average of 13.5 per cent, with 15.8 per cent and 14.6 per cent of those surveyed in the respective areas by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) registering as smokers.

Meanwhile, Perth and Kinross has the highest population of people who have never smoked in the area, at 62.8 per cent, closely followed by Dundee at 62.7 per cent.

On average across the country, 60.8 per cent of Scots are estimated to have never smoked.

Angus has the highest number of ex-smokers across Tayside and Fife with figures showing 27.1 per cent of those surveyed have quit.

Dundee, where 21.5 per cent are former smokers, has the lowest figures while in Fife 24.8 per cent of people used to light up.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak outlined plans at the Conservative party conference this week to introduce a phased scheme to raise the legal smoking age on a year-by-year basis in England.

The matter is devolved in Scotland and Holyrood is expected to release a new Tobacco Action Plan later this year.

Mr Sunak said: “Smoking is unequivocally the single biggest preventable cause of death, disability and illness in our society.

“Everyone recognises this measure will be the single biggest intervention in public health in a generation.”