RESIDENTS of West Dunbartonshire have one of the highest smoking rates by constituency in Britain, according to a map ranking the prevalence of smoking by Westminster seat for the first time.

The SNP seat, represented at Westminster by Martin John Docherty-Hughes MP, was ranked 609th for smoking prevalence out of 632 constituencies across Scotland, England and Wales - 632 being the highest.

Research found that 20.1 per cent of the population there were smokers compared to a UK average of 14.7%.

The Britain-wide smoking map demonstrates the links between deprivation and higher smoking prevalence, with the highest rates consistently found in poorer areas.

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West Dunbartonshire has long battled problems linked to deprivation, whereas the affluent Conservative-held seat of East Renfrewshire is ranked as having the lowest percentage of smokers - 10.4% - of any Scottish constituency.

East Renfrewshire is also the only Scottish constituency to appear among the bottom100 in the British rankings, by lowest smoking prevalence.

Philip Morris Limited (PML), who carried out the analysis, have created an interactive Unsmoke Constituency Heatmap providing a breakdown of the data by constituency.

The results are based on information held by the Office for National Statistics.

Overall, a three quarters of Scotland's Westminster constituencies were found to have smoking rates about the UK average.

Across Britain, Tory-held seats were more likely to have lower smoking prevalence, reiterating the links between smoking and wealth since non-smokers are more likely to be better off - and statistically more likely to vote Conservative.

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Ironically, though, it was cigar-loving Conservative MP Kenneth Clarke's seat - Rushcliffe - which recorded the lowest levels for smoking in the whole of Britain, at 3.6%.

Current Liberal Democrat leader, Sir Vince Cable's Twickenham constituency was second lowest on 5.9%, while aspiring Tory leader and former Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt's South West Surrey seat was joint third lowest on 7.1%.

The map also reveals the east-west divide in the Central Belt in Scotland, with smoking more common among people living in Glasgow than Edinburgh.

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While the map colour-codes a smoking prevalence of 20-25% as the highest in dark red, only one out of Glasgow’s seven constituencies had smoking levels below 19.9%.

Glasgow North East came in at 14.2%, far lower than the six other constituencies in the city.

In contrast, the five Edinburgh constituencies had an average smoking prevalence of 15.6%.