More and more young adults in Herefordshire are spurning cigarettes and choosing not to smoke, new figures have revealed.

Data from the Office for National Statistics shows that the percentage of Herefordshire’s population who have never smoked has risen by 20% since 2011. This is because 18 to 24-year-olds choosing not to smoke. Last year, across Britain, 17.8% of 18 to 24-year-olds said they were current smokers, compared with 2011 when more than a quarter smoked.

Deborah Arnott, Action on Smoking and Health Chief Executive, put this reduction down to banning tobacco advertising.

She said: “The brightly coloured pack displays we used to have in shops disappeared completely in 2015 and the packs they do see nowadays are a sludgy green colour, with large picture warnings.”

Overall the proportion of smokers in Herefordshire has gone down since 2011. That year 17.6% of Herefordshire’s population smoked, however by 2017 this figure had dropped to 12.2%.See this week’s paper for more stories like this, available in shops and as a Digital Edition now.