Quit success (point abstinence)

In 2020, of all respondents who had tried to quit smoking for one day or longer in the past year (i.e., 44.5%a of smokers and recent quitters), 15.4% were still quit at the time they were surveyed. This represents no significant change in quit success from 2019.31

While comparison from 1999 to 2020 is not possible due to changes in question coverage and availability of data,* since 2004, quit success appears to have generally remained around 10-14%, with some year-to-year fluctuation (Figure 5.13).

Line graph showing percentage of current smokers and recent quitters who attempted to quit in the past 12 months and were still abstinent at the time of survey from 2004 to 2020. Trends described in text. Data table below with 95% confidence intervals.

Figure 5.13 data table with 95% confidence intervals
Figure 5.13: Percentage of current smokers and recent quitters* who attempted to quit in the past 12 months who were abstinent for at least one month at the time of survey, 2004-2020
  % abstinent for >1 month
2004 10.8 [8.3-13.4]
2005 14.3 [11.1-17.4]
2006 10.5 [8.1-12.8]
2007 12.5 [9.6-15.3]
2008 10.8 [8.0-13.7]
2009 10.6 [8.1-13.1]
2010 10.1 [7.6-12.6]
2011 10.7 [8.0-13.4]
2012 13.2 [9.9-16.4]
2013 11.1 [7.1-15.2]
2015 13.3 [9.7-17.0]
2017 12.3 [7.7-17.0]
2019 11.5 [8.4-14.6]
2020 15.4 [10.9-19.9]

*In 1999-2002 this question was asked of current smokers (data not shown); 2003 included only smokers who had tried to quit in the past two years (data not shown); 2004-2020 asked current smokers and former smokers who had quit in the past 12 months.
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.

95% confidence intervals for in-text estimates 

a: 44.5 [40.2-48.9]