TOBACCO USE IN CANADA: 2012 EDITION

Tobacco use continues to be a leading preventable cause of death, with a substantial social and economic impact on the Canadian population. This document pulls together existing data to create a “big picture” overview of tobacco use patterns and trends in Canada, with the aim of enabling those responsible for tobacco control policies, programs, advocacy, research, evaluation and surveillance to assess progress and to update action plans, based on the best possible evidence about tobacco use in our country.

This report uses data from national surveys conducted by Health Canada and Statistics Canada (CTUMS and YSS), primarily between 1999 and 2010, with a focus on the current year.

The report has three main sections:
I. Tobacco Use among Canadian Adults, including demographic trends in prevalence and consumption, use of tobacco products other than cigarettes, as well as summary measures at the provincial level.
II. Quitting Smoking, including quit rates, plans to quit, quit attempts, quit success, and use of various forms of cessation assistance.
III. Tobacco Use among Canadian Youth (grades 6-9 and age 15-19), including prevalence and consumption, sources of cigarettes, use of other tobacco products, and quitting-related measures.

Over 100 figures and tables summarizing trends in tobacco use in Canada are included in the report, and can be downloaded individually. In addition, data tables for each figure are available for download, including confidence intervals for estimates, in order to enable the extraction of more precise numbers.

This report updates the previous (2011) Edition, which can be accessed here.

Download the full report

Download the Policy Supplement