Smoking in Doncaster falls by a third since 2010, new figures reveal
Smoking rates have dropped across the city in recent years
Smoking in Doncaster has fallen by around a third since the early 2010s, official figures reveal.
An average of 15.0% of adults in Doncaster smoked between 2021 and 2025, official figures show, down from 21.3% between 2012 and 2016.
Smoking in Doncaster has fallen by 29.6% in about a decade - and an average of 21.3% of adults in Doncaster smoked across the five years from 2012 to 2016, according to Office for National Statistics (ONS) figures, compared with 15.0% across 2021 to 2025.
Across the UK, the average fell from 17.9% to 11.1%, down 38.0%. In Yorkshire and the Humber it fell by 38.6%, from 19.7% to 12.1%.
Smoking fell clearly faster than across the UK as a whole in 17 of the 205 council areas compared in England, Scotland and Wales, among them Waltham Forest in east London (57.1%), York (53.1%) and Medway (52.7%), and clearly more slowly in 12, among them Sandwell (19.0%) and Solihull (20.2%) in the West Midlands.
In early 2012, about one in 20 people in England who had tried to stop smoking in the past year used a vape in their most recent attempt, according to University College London's Smoking Toolkit Study.
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By the summer of 2013 vapes had overtaken nicotine patches and gum bought over the counter, and they have stayed ahead of them in every quarter of the survey since.
Shane Margereson, founder of Ecigone (https://ecigone.co.uk/), a five-time award-winning UK online vape shop, said the figures cover the years in which vapes became the most popular way for smokers in England to try to quit.
Mr Margereson, who quit smoking by switching to a vape, said, "When the first of these figures were collected, very few people trying to stop smoking used a vape.
“Within two years vapes were the most popular stop smoking aid in England, and they still are.
“These figures can't show how much difference that made, because tax rises, plain packs and stop smoking services have all played a part."
He added, "Seeing smoking in Doncaster fall by around a third in about a decade is a big shift in a habit that used to be everywhere."