Britain’s smoking habit is set to be extinguished by 2050, new research suggests.
There are currently 7.4 million smokers in the UK, but these numbers are expected to rattle down to zero in just 30 years’ time, should current trends continue.
Bristol will be first to lead the charge, becoming the first city to ditch fags for good by 2024, the Mirror reports, followed two years later by York and Wokingham.
Portsmouth, Reading, East Riding and Blackburn and Darwen are set to be completely smoke free by 2027, with Buckinghamshire, Bournemouth and Milton Keynes expected to phase them out for good one year later.
Southampton and Derby will be among the final British cities to end the habit, in 2049 and 2050 respectively, according to income, employment, health and education data.
Though one in five people in deprived areas still light up regularly, the number of smokers has halved since 1990. Back then almost one third of British adults indulged, compared with around 15 per cent today. Just as well, since tobacco smoke contains more than 4,000 chemicals, with the average smoker knocking around 10 years off their life.
What’s driving people to ditch cigs? The popularity of e-cigarettes has helped reduce rates, researchers found, as has increased use of NHS support services such as Smokefree. Considering 200 people each day die from the habit, let’s hope the cities stub out sooner rather than later.
