Quit attempts by age

Bar chart showing percentage of smokers and recent quitters who attempted to quit in the past 12 months, by age group, in 2020. Trends described in text. Data table below with 95% confidence intervals.

Quit attempts did not vary significantly by age group in 2020.30 In all age groups, close to half of smokers had made a quit attempt in the past year (Figure 5.11).

Between 1999 and 2020, in most years, more young smokers had made a quit attempt, and the percentage making a quit attempt appeared to decrease with age (Figure 5.12). Although the percentage of each age group who made a quit attempt varied considerably from year-to-year, there were no clear patterns of change over this time period.

Figure 5.11 data table with 95% confidence intervals
Figure 5.11: Percentage of smokers and recent quitters* who attempted to quit in the past 12 months, by age group, 2020
  15-19 20-24 25-34 35-44 45+
2020 ! 54.0 [44.6-63.4] 45.5 [33.6-57.3] 44.5 [33.9-55.1] 43.0 [37.4-48.6]

*Includes current smokers and former smokers who had quit in the past 12 months.
! Estimate suppressed due to unacceptable quality.
Data source: Canadian Tobacco and Nicotine Survey, 2020.

Line graph showing percentage of smokers and recent quitters who attempted to quit in the past 12 months, by age group, from 1999 to 2020. Trends described in text. Data table below with 95% confidence intervals.

Figure 5.12 data table with 95% confidence intervals
Figure 5.12: Percentage of smokers and recent quitters* who attempted to quit in the past 12 months, by age group, 1999**-2020
  15-19 20-24 25-34 35-44 45+
1999 69.8 64.8 50.7 46.0 42.6
2000 70.3 62.7 50.4 46.6 46.0
2001 66.8 [62.4-71.2] 60.5 [56.2-64.9] 55.2 [47.7-62.6] 51.8 [46.4-57.3] 42.5 [36.6-48.4]
2002 62.1 [57.8-66.4] 56.1 [52.1-60.1] 54.0 [48.4-59.7] 43.8 [38.1-49.5] 35.3 [31.1-39.5]
2003 N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A
2004 64.4 [58.8-70.0] 55.9 [51.3-60.5] 50.5 [43.2-57.8] 45.2 [38.4-52.1] 42.1 [37.0-47.3]
2005 61.0 [55.4-66.6] 51.8 [47.0-56.6] 53.4 [45.4-61.3] 50.1 [43.0-57.3] 46.0 [40.0-51.9]
2006 59.8 [54.3-65.3] 62.3 [58.2-66.3] 56.2 [48.9-63.4] 46.6 [39.9-53.3] 41.1 [36.8-45.5]
2007 64.3 [58.8-69.9] 58.0 [53.7-62.3] 55.6 [47.5-63.6] 48.9 [42.3-55.5] 44.0 [39.7-48.3]
2008 62.3 [56.6-67.9] 58.9 [53.9-63.9] 49.0 [40.1-57.8] 52.4 [44.7-60.1] 46.7 [41.5-52.0]
2009 62.2 [56.2-68.3] 52.5 [47.3-57.8] 54.4 [46.7-62.1] 46.8 [39.2-54.4] 41.5 [36.8-46.2]
2010 63.5 [57.8-69.3] 57.1 [51.1-63.1] 44.5 [36.2-52.8] 47.0 [39.2-54.9] 42.5 [37.6-47.4]
2011 56.2 [49.2-63.2] 52.9 [48.2-57.7] 47.0 [37.7-56.3] 42.8 [34.7-50.7] 42.3 [37.1-47.5]
2012 63.2 [56.7-69.7] 58.0 [52.4-63.6] 52.9 [42.1-63.7] 47.6 [38.8-56.3] 40.6 [35.2-46.1]
2013 57 [48.2-65.7] 61.3 [54.0-68.7] 52.2 [40.4-63.9] 51.7 [41.3-62.0] 44.2 [38.9-49.0]
2015 65.0 [54.6-75.4] 61.6 [54.1-69.1] 59.9 [48.8-71.0] 47.5 [37.4-57.6] 47.7 [41.6-53.8]
2017 50.8 [41.1-60.6] 51.4 [44.6-58.2] 44.5 [29.4-59.6] 50.8 [38.2 -63.4] 43.7 [36.8-50.6]
2019 49.7 [36.8-62.5] 51.9 [42.4-61.4] 52.4 [40.8-63.9] 44.1 [35.0-53.2] 41.5 [36.7-46.3]
2020 ! 54.0 [44.6-63.4] 45.5 [33.6-57.3] 44.5 [33.9-55.1] 43.0 [37.4-48.6]

*Note: In 1999-2002, this question was asked of current smokers; 2003 (data not shown) included only smokers who had tried to quit in the past two years; 2004-2020 included current smokers and former smokers who had quit in the past 12 months.
**In 1999, only Cycle 2 was asked the relevant survey items. 
! Estimate for age 15-19 in 2020 suppressed due to unacceptable quality.
Data source: Canadian Tobacco Use Monitoring Survey, 1999-2012; Canadian Tobacco, Alcohol and Drugs Survey, 2013, 2015, 2017; Canadian Tobacco and Nicotine Survey, 2019, 2020.