How teenage smoking rates have risen EIGHT-fold since the 1980s amid the UK’s war on smoking which has made smoking ‘unfashionable’ as interactive map reveals up to quarter of adults still smoke in some parts of the country.

Smoking rates among teenagers are eight times lower now than in the 1980s thanks to the Government’s war on tobacco.

According to official figures, only 3 per cent of 15-year-olds in England currently smoke.

By comparison, a quarter did so in 1982. Rates fell more rapidly in the early 2000s, according to a landmark survey by the NHS.

Experts say the huge drop is due to the introduction of modern anti-smoking laws, such as the sale of cigarettes in plain packaging.

Other tough measures implemented in the past two decades include placing graphic warning labels describing its harmful health effects on all types of tobacco and banning smoking in restaurants, pubs and nightclubs.

It is believed that Generation Z now finds this deadly habit unattractive.

Social media users criticized model Kylie Jenner when she was photographed smoking on Instagram in 2019.

One of them became angry: “He’s smoking.” Unfollow: I thought you were cool. Another bluntly commented: “Stop smoking nasty stuff.”

Last year, Disney star Cole Sprouse was also called “shameful” for smoking indoors during an interview on the Call Her Daddy podcast.

Others joked that he made smoking cigarettes look “unattractive” and that he should be the next face of an anti-smoking ad.

The latest figures on teenagers, for 2021, suggest that only four per cent of 15-year-old boys and three per cent of girls now smoke.

This represents a three-fold drop from just a decade earlier, when 11 percent smoked regularly.

The steepest drop occurred between 2006 and 2012, when total rates were cut in half, from 20 percent to 10 percent.

The same policies have also caused smoking rates to fall among adults.

Nationally, only one in eight people in the UK currently smoke. Almost half did so in the mid-1970s, according to data compiled by Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) and NHS England.

However, there is still a huge disparity in rates across the country.

Around one in four still lights up in some local authorities in England, such as Mid-Devon (25.1 per cent) and Hastings (23.7 per cent).

But only 2.9 per cent of adults smoke in Stafford (2.9 per cent).

Rushcliffe, in Nottinghamshire, recorded a similarly low figure: just 4 per cent of adults still smoke.

Only seven of around 300 local areas currently meet the 2030 ‘smoke-free’ target of less than five per cent.

MailOnline has compiled data on smoking, collected by the Office for National Statistics’ ‘Annual Population Survey’, into an interactive map.

It comes as Rishi Sunak’s bold plan to ban smoking for the next generation yesterday took another step towards becoming law.

Under the bill, which MPs voted last night by 383 to 67, anyone born after 2009 will never be able to legally purchase tobacco.

If ultimately approved, it would mean that children 15 years old and younger today would never be legally sold a cigarette.

Mr Sunak’s main smoking proposal also targets vaporisers.

METERMinisters would also be given powers to restrict flavors and promotion of the devices in an effort to thwart the UK’s children’s e-cigarette epidemic.

This could change the way nicotine-laden vaporizers are displayed in stores, moving them away from other products such as candy. They would have limited flavors and be sold in simple tobacco-style packaging.

Council officers will also have powers to impose on-the-spot fines of £100 on shops caught breaking the rules.

However, the smoking proposals have long been criticized as “illiberal” by critics.

They also fear health bosses could crack down on sugar, caffeine and alcohol, calling the move a “slippery slope”.

Fifty-nine Conservative MPs – including six government ministers – opposed the plans last night.

They included Kemi Badenoch, Steve Baker and former Cabinet ministers Suella Braverman, Sir Simon Clarke and Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg.

More than 100 Conservatives also did not vote, leaving only 165 of the 347 who supported the bill.

Responding to the ban backlash, England’s chief medical officer yesterday rejected “pro-choice” arguments.

Professor Sir Chris Whitty argued instead that cigarettes were a product “designed to stop you choosing”.

The Government believes the gradual ban, which will raise the legal age to buy tobacco by one year each year from 2027, will result in 1.7 million fewer people smoking by 2075.

It predicts the move will save tens of thousands of lives and prevent up to 115,000 cases of stroke, heart disease, lung cancer and other lung diseases.

The approach was initially recommended in a government-commissioned report published in 2022 by former children’s charity director Javed Khan..

Smoking kills around 78,000 people in the UK each year, and many more suffer from illnesses due to their habit, half of which are due to cardiovascular diseases such as heart attacks and strokes.

It is estimated that around 500,000 hospital admissions each year in England are attributable to smoking and that smoking costs the economy £17 billion a year.

Of this, £2.4bn goes to the NHS, £1.19bn goes to the social care system and over £13bn is lost in productivity costs due to loss of income, unemployment and premature death related to the tobacco.

The 7,000 chemicals in tobacco (including tar and others that can narrow arteries and damage blood vessels) are thought to be behind some of the damage that tobacco inflicts on the heart.

Meanwhile, nicotine (a highly addictive toxin found in tobacco) is strongly linked to dangerous increases in heart rate and blood pressure.

Smoking also releases poisonous gases such as carbon monoxide, which replaces oxygen in the blood, reducing the availability of oxygen to the heart.