Is It Too Late to Quit Smoking at 50, 60 or 70?

People often assume the damage is done after decades of smoking. The research does not support that assumption, and Health Canada’s quit pages say it plainly: it is never too late to quit smoking, and everyone, regardless of age or situation, can experience the benefits. The size of the gain does depend on age, and the studies below show how.

What the studies found about life expectancy

A 2013 study of US national survey data followed more than 200,000 adults. It found that smokers lose at least a decade of life expectancy compared with people who never smoked. Adults who quit at 25 to 34, 35 to 44 or 45 to 54 gained about 10, 9 and 6 years of life, compared with those who kept smoking. The published abstract gives no figure for people who quit at 55 or older.

A 2024 study in NEJM Evidence pooled four national cohorts from the United States, United Kingdom, Norway and Canada. It covered 1.48 million adults aged 20 to 79. The authors report that quitting at any age was linked to longer survival, with the largest gains for people who quit before 40, and that benefits showed up as early as 3 years after quitting. Across all ages, people who had quit for 10 or more years averted about 10 years of life lost.

For the 50 to 59 group, quitting for fewer than 3 years was linked to 63% lower excess mortality risk in women and 54% in men, compared with continuing to smoke. Both studies are observational, so they show an association. They do not predict what will happen to one person.

We found no official figure for years of life gained at 60 or 70, so this page does not give one.

What improves, and when

Health Canada lists these time points for people who quit:

• 20 minutes: blood pressure drops to a level similar to before your last cigarette.
• 24 hours: heart attack risk begins to fall.
• 2 weeks to 3 months: airways relax and breathing gets easier.
• 1 to 9 months: coughing decreases and the lungs get stronger.
• 1 year: added coronary heart disease risk is half that of someone who still smokes.
• 5 years: stroke risk matches that of a non-smoker, and the risk of mouth, throat, esophagus and bladder cancer is halved.
• 10 years: lung cancer risk is about half.
• 15 years: coronary heart disease risk is similar to that of a non-smoker.

The page does not split these by age. Better taste and smell, deeper breaths and more energy are listed as benefits that start right away. For the full timeline and what withdrawal feels like, see what happens when you quit smoking. For the heart in particular, see smoking and heart disease, and for the lungs, how lungs recover after quitting.

If you already have a health condition

Health Canada says quitting can improve treatment outcomes and quality of life for people with a chronic health condition. A doctor or pharmacist can tell you whether quitting affects how any of your current medications work, and that is worth asking before you set a quit date.

Getting help as an older adult in Canada

Many people who have smoked for 40 or 50 years have tried to stop before. Relapse is common and does not rule out a later success; how many tries it takes to quit covers what the evidence says.

Health Canada lists provincial and territorial quit services and an online quit planner. What is free differs by province, so check what quit-smoking help is free where you live. For prescription and over-the-counter options, see medications to quit smoking in Canada. A doctor, a pharmacist or a health line such as 811 (in provinces that offer it) can explain which options suit your health and what your coverage includes. This page is general information and not medical advice.

What we could not confirm

• An official Canadian figure for years of life gained by quitting at 60 or 70. The 2013 abstract stops at the 45 to 54 group.
• Whether the benefit timeline above differs for people who quit after 65. Health Canada’s page does not break it down by age.