Teen Smoking in Canada: What the Data and Laws Show

Youth smoking in Canada is at its lowest recorded level. Health Canada reports that youth aged 12 to 17 smoked at under 2% in 2024, and its second legislative review puts the rate for ages 15 to 19 at 1.6% in 2022, down from 25.5% (about 532,000 people) in 2001. The pressure has moved to nicotine vaping, which is covered separately below. Figures here are from Health Canada surveys; where they come from different surveys they are not directly comparable.

How many young people smoke in Canada?

Measure	Result	Source survey
Smoking, ages 12 to 17	Under 2% (2024)	Canadian Health Survey on Children and Youth
Current smoking, ages 15 to 19	1.6% in 2022; 25.5% in 2001	Cited in the second legislative review
Ever tried a cigarette, grades 7 to 12	15% (327,000 students) in 2021-22; 19% in 2018-19	Canadian Student Tobacco, Alcohol and Drugs Survey
Currently smoking, grades 7 to 12	2% (43,000 students) in 2021-22	Same
Average age at first cigarette	13.3 years in 2021-22	Same

Do not mix the rows. The student survey is school-based and counts grades 7 to 12; the 15 to 19 figure is a population age band. Both point the same way.

How do teens get cigarettes?

Mostly through other people. In 2021-22, 73% of students who had smoked in the past 30 days usually got their cigarettes from social sources rather than from stores. Among those in grades 7 to 9 it was 85%. Even so, 59% of students told the survey it would be fairly easy or very easy to get a cigarette if they wanted one, which Health Canada reports as perception, not as a purchase rate.

That pattern is why the law targets both the shop and the supplier. See retail licensing and display bans for how stores are policed.

What about vaping?

The student survey found that 29% of students in grades 7 to 12 (623,000) had ever tried an e-cigarette and 17% (352,000) had used one in the past 30 days in 2021-22. Of past-30-day nicotine vapers, 79% got devices from social sources and 21% from retail sources. Health Canada’s later figures show a decline: youth vaping aged 12 to 17 was 13.2% in 2019, 7.2% in 2023 and 6% in 2024, below the federal target of 10% by 2025.

Health Canada says that nicotine exposure matters more for young people because the brain keeps developing into early adulthood, and that it can take less nicotine for teens to become dependent than adults. More on the product side in the e-cigarette risks and benefits guide.

Which laws protect young people from tobacco?

1. No sales to minors. Under the Tobacco and Vaping Products Act it is an offence to furnish a tobacco or vaping product to a young person, meaning anyone under 18. Provinces can set a higher age; the second legislative review says six provinces and three territories use 19 and one province uses 21 for tobacco. The full list is in the legal smoking age guide and for vapes in legal vaping age by province.
2. No youth-appealing promotion. Section 27 prohibits furnishing or promoting a tobacco product if its brand element appears on a thing or service associated with young persons.
3. No flavours in most products. Schedule 1 of the Act prohibits flavouring additives in cigarettes, little cigars, blunt wraps and certain cigars. See menthol and flavoured tobacco.
4. Plain packaging and warnings. Drab brown packs with graphic warnings remove the pack as a marketing tool; details are in plain packaging in Canada.
5. Retail limits. Self-service displays and vending machines are prohibited, and provinces add display bans and age checks.

Is it working?

The numbers say mostly yes. Health Canada’s 2025 strategy report lists youth smoking at a record low and retailer compliance up from 69% in 2019 to 90% in 2025. It also says any tobacco use among Canadians fell from 29% in 2001 to 13% in 2024. The risk it flags is dual use and vaping among youth, not a rebound in cigarette smoking. For the wider national numbers see smoking statistics in Canada and the federal plan in Canada’s tobacco strategy.