Life is good in Kent - as long as you're not a chain-smoking mum-to-be!

According to the latest figures, the county gets a near clean bill of health compared with the rest of England.

But it falls short of the norm in two major categories: women who smoke during pregnancy, and couch potato kids.

Out of 15,368 women surveyed in a report by the Association of Public Health Observatories (APHO), 17.4 per cent admitted to smoking while pregnant, which was higher than the national average of 16.1 per cent.

Ian Willmore from the Action on Smoking and Health Group (ASH) said: “It’s very worrying that a significant number of people still smoke when pregnant. There are grave risks to their health and their child.

“The best way to cut the numbers of people who are smoking while pregnant is to increase the public education so everyone knows the risks they are running.

“We would like to go beyond the smoke-free legislation and introduce the end of displays in shops and remove advertisements in shops and packaging. We hope the Government does this.”

In Kent, the levels of physically active children, aged from five to 16, were lower than the national average. Around 83 per cent of Kent children are active, which is 1.9 per cent below the England average.

But women and men in Kent could expect to live a couple of months longer than the England average, at 81 for women and 78 for men.

The Department of Health commissioned the APHO to produce health profiles for each region in the country, which are based on 32 indicators, including deprivation, disease and obese children.

Early cancer deaths in Kent were also lower than the national picture - affecting 113 people out of 100,000 per population, compared to the average of 117.

A spokesman from the APHO said: “The reason why we have produced this data is so the people of Kent can choose what areas in health they can improve. It is not just for the work of politicians but it can extend to people in the voluntary and businesses.”

To read how smoking in pregnancy can damage health go to smoking and health.