Half of people who make a resolution to quit smoking in 2019 will have broken their promise by February.

New Year, Same You? charts how long New Year’s resolutions last, so people can brace themselves for when their willpower could lose steam over the coming year.

It uses research into people who made some of the most common resolutions for January 2018 and the point over the year from which they no longer continued with it.

The key findings are as follows:

- Half of smokers who make a resolution to quit will give up trying after a month.

- One in three people who promise to donate more to charity will stop by February.

- One in 10 people on average will have broken their New Year’s resolution by the second week of January.

- One in two made the same resolution the previous year.

It shows that, despite the reputation of January gym goers being the biggest quitters, it’s smokers who need the most help to achieve their goals. Almost half (48.4%) of people who made the resolution to give up had broken it by the first week of February.

In contrast, just over one in five new gym goers (22.7%) admitted to no longer bothering by the same time. In fact, it takes until the middle of September for half to throw in their workout towels.

People wanting to cut down on alcohol face the second biggest challenge. Despite the well meaning intentions of many to have a dry January, 37.6% picked up the bottle again after a month last year. Almost a quarter (23.1%) didn’t even make it two weeks.

Righteousness is no guarantee of perseverance either. Those who promise to donate more to charity over the year have the third highest quitting rate by February. Exactly one in three who said they would donate more to charity had either given up on the thought or cancelled their payments after a month.

It seems that a combination of luck, skill and timing might be involved - something online casino players know well - but perseverance is also important.

In fact, the first two weeks of January see one in ten people give up on their New Year’s resolutions on average, despite the intention being to pursue them over the whole year.

Despite their early chance of failure, though, almost half (49.2%) felt the need to make exactly the same resolution as the year before. Would-be charity donors admitted this most, at 61.1%.

The New Year’s resolutions with the fastest quitting rates by February are:

1. Quit smoking - 48.4%

2. Drink less or give up alcohol - 37.6%

3. Donate to charity - 33.3%

4. Eat more healthily - 30.0%

5. Improve sleep pattern - 26.5%

To find out when people are most likely to ditch their New Year’s resolutions, visit New Year, Same You? click HERE.