A federal report says youth smoking rates at an all-time low—so which Canadians are still lighting up?

Youth smoking rates in Canada are at an all-time low. Only 1.6% of Canadians between 15 and 19 years old smoke, according to the new federal Report of the Second Legislative Review of the Tobacco and Vaping Products Act. That’s a large drop since 2001, when 25.5% of youth smoked. It’s also helped drive an overall decline in smoking rates for people 15 and older, from 26.8% in 2001 to 11.9% in 2022. That brings Canada closer to its goal of reducing the number of Canadians who use tobacco to fewer than 5% by 2035. Read: Another reason to quit: Smokers found to have stronger innate immune responsesTwenty- to 24-year-olds also have relatively low rates, at 6.3%, while those 25-34, 35-44, and 45 and older have higher ones, at 13.4%, 13.7%, and 12.9%, respectively. Because of that, the average age of a smoker is growing older, with people 45 and older now making up 57.9% of smokers. The report accompanies the First Legislative Review of the Tobacco and Vaping Products Act, which was released in late 2022 and focuses on vaping. It found that 13% of youth 15 to 19 had vaped in the past 30 days in 2021, up from 6% in 2017. Among people 20 to 24, 17% had, while only 4% of those 25 and older did. Read: Ontario to add provincial tax to vaping products; meant to discourage youth uptakeSome groups within Canada also have much higher smoking rates than others, the new second report found. “Despite significant declines in smoking prevalence for the population as a whole, some have not benefited from the same rate of decline; some communities and regions have disproportionately high rates of tobacco use,” the report said. Being in the North is one factor. More than half of people who live in Nunavut (63.6%), 25.7% of people who live in the Northwest Territories and 20.1% of people in the Yukon smoke. Adult First Nations, Inuit and Métis have the highest smoking rates of any population group in Canada. In 2017, 27.1% of First Nations who lived off reserve said they smoked daily, and data from 2015-16 showed 40.3% of First Nations who lived on reserve did. Métis rates from 2017 were 22.7%. Read: New graphic health warnings on cigarette packs aim to help smokers kick the habitIncome also matters: 18.4% of those in the lowest household income quintile smoke, while 6.5% of those in the highest income quintile do. Other risk factors are education (16.7% of Canadians with less than a secondary education smoke, while 6.3% of those with a university degree or more do); mental health (17.2% of those with a mood or anxiety disorder smoke, and 10.7% of those who don’t do) and careers (22.8% of construction workers smoke, and 6.2% of people in education do).Data from the 2021 Canadian Community Health Survey cited in the report said that of people 15 and older who tried to quit in 2021, about 14.8% were successful. Most quit by just trying to stop or by lowering the number of cigarettes they smoke, with nicotine replacement therapy only used 26.3% of the time. Read: Tobacco harm reduction and vaping cessation: New opportunities for pharmacist skills

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