Smoking prevalence
![Bar chart showing current smoking prevalence, grade 7 to 9 from 2018 to 2019, and age 15 to 19 in 2020. Trends described in text. Data table below with 95% confidence intervals.](/tobacco-use-canada/sites/default/files/uploads/images/7_1_2022_figure_0.jpg)
In 2018-19, smoking prevalence among students in grades 7-9 was 1.0% overall. Among adolescents aged 15-19, 3.1% were current smokers in 2020 (Figure 7.1).
Smoking prevalence among students in grades 7-9 dropped by more than half between 1994 and 2002, and has since remained low (Figure 7.2). Between 2016-17 and 2018-19, there were no significant changes in overall,daily, or non-daily smoking prevalence.38-40
Among youth aged 15-19, overall smoking prevalence decreased significantly between 2019 and 2020.41 Beginning in 1999, prevalence declined steadily for several years before levelling off and then again decreasing to another plateau; over the past decade, prevalence appears to have declined gradually (Figure 7.2). Most of the decline in smoking observed over time among 15- to 19-year-olds appears to be due to decreasing daily smoking, although estimates of daily and non-daily smoking were not reportable in the most recent years.
![Bar chart showing current smoking prevalence (daily and non-daily), grades 7 to 9 and age 15 to 19 from 1994 to 2020. Trends described in text. Data table below with 95% confidence intervals.](/tobacco-use-canada/sites/default/files/uploads/images/7_2_2022_figure_0.jpg)