NEWLY released data has revealed the number of smokers in Cumbria has risen by nearly two per cent - despite a significant fall in the national average.

According to an Annual Population Survey (APS) conducted by Public Heath England, the number of smokers aged 18 and above in the county has gone up from 55,458 (13.6 per cent) to 62,075 (15.3 per cent) between 2018 and 2019.

However, the national average of smokers in the UK has fallen significantly from 14.7 per cent in 2018 to 14.1 per cent in 2019.

The number of Cumbrian smokers has fallen drastically across nine years from 21.4 per cent in 2011 to 15.3 per cent in 2019.

The percentage figure has also dropped across the North West from 14.7 per cent in 2018 to 14.5 per cent in 2019.

The latest statistics reveal that Cumbria has the ninth highest number of smokers in the north west region, and Blackpool has the first.

Cumbria has also had 1,699 smoking-related hospital admissions in 2019.

Dr Geoff Jolliffe, Barrow GP and GP commissioner, said he was ‘surprised’ at the rise in smokers across the county.

He said: “It’s a surprise to me because I can’t think of any special reason as to why that would happen.

“Smoking is the number one preventable cause of death. It not only causes death but causes an increased number of years of people living with ill health.

“Barrovians and Cumbrians have done very well with quitting smoking over the past 10 and 20 years because of national campaigns and it would be a shame to lose all those benefits.

“We mustn’t relax over that because we have another crisis on our hands.”

In the UK, in 2019, 14.1 per cent of people aged 18 years and above smoked cigarettes, which equates to around 6.9 million people in the population, based on Public Health England’s estimate from the Annual Population Survey (APS).

In the UK, 15.9 per cent of men smoked compared with 12.5 per cent of women.