That bucks the national trend with just 13 per cent of UK adults now smoking, down from 50 per cent in the 1970s.
Research shows 18 per cent of the town’s adults lit up last year, up from eight per cent in 2019.
Colin Hopper, 40, of Chorley, said he gave up smoking 10 years ago - and now avoids smokers ‘like the plague’.
A spokesman said the past five years has seen a six per cent fall across the UK.
Wantage in Oxfordshire and Dover were both on 13 per cent, according to analysis of government figures by vape specialists Go Smoke Free.
