Smoking Statistics Of Teenagers In Australia

Cigarette smoking rates have continued to steadily decline in Australia for two decades.

Improved public health messaging, government tobacco control strategies, improved smoking cessation tools, and the implementation of smoke-free environments have all contributed to a decrease in smoking among the Australian population.

Though smoking was once prevalent among young adults and teenagers, smoking rates among today’s youth continue to fall rapidly.

So, what does smoking look like among teenagers in Australia today? We take a look at the statistics.

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The Effects Of Smoking In Australia | The Statistics

Smoking costs the Australian community approximately $137 billion per year. However, the costs extend far beyond a dollar value.

Smoking is one of the leading causes of preventable death and disease in Australia. It’s estimated that smoking kills 20,500 Australians a year (13% of all deaths), and research estimates that 2 in 3 lifetime smokers will die from a disease cause by their smoking.

Tobacco use is linked to 39 different illnesses, including at least 19 types of cancer. 

Lung cancer, which is primarily caused by smoking, is responsible for the most cancer-related deaths in Australia.

Smoking In Australia in 2020 – 2021

While there have been limited studies undertaken during the 2020 – 2021 period, data from the most recent Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) study showed an insight into smoking prevalence during the COVID-19 pandemic.

• 10.7% of adults were daily smokers
• 8.3% of people aged 18 to 24 smoked daily
• 13.7% of people aged 55 to 64 smoked daily
• 3.4% of people aged 75 and over smoked daily
• Men were more likely to smoke than women, with smoking rates of 12.6% and 8.8% respectively
• 98% of 15 to 17-year-olds are current non-smokers.

Smoking in Australia 2022 – 2023

More recently, the National Drug Household Survey 2022-2023 , which involved 21,000 people in Australia over the age of 14, showed that smoking continues to decrease year-on-year in the country. 

According to the data:

• Less than 10% of people in Australia are smoking daily
• Those aged 14 and over who smoke daily have dropped by 24% from 1991 to just 8.3 in 2022-2023
• People in the same age group who have never smoked have risen from 49% in 1991 to 65% in 2022-2023

Teenage Smoking In Australia

Smoking rates among Australian school students have decreased by two-thirds since 1999. The recent National Drug Household Survey 2022-2023 shows evidence that this is true.

During the mid to late 1990s, the National Tobacco Campaign was launched and helped to significantly reduce smoking rates among adults.

While the campaign wasn’t targeted at teens and children, it still had an impact; the campaign correlated with a decrease in smoking rates among young people too.

Factors such as tobacco taxes, smoke-free environments, and stricter guidelines on selling tobacco products to minors are likely to have influenced the downward trend among teenagers.

The national strategy was updated in 2012 with a refreshed media campaign, plain tobacco packaging, and the implementation of more smoke-free environments.

While rates continue to fall, it’s believed that progress has slowed due to a lack of updated campaigning, as well as the creation of new tobacco products and brands that evade Australian laws and appear attractive to younger people.

A study by the Australian Secondary Students Alcohol and Drug Survey (ASSAD) found that in 2022-2023:

• 98% of people aged 14–17 had never smoked, increasing from 82% in 2001.
• About 4 in 5 people aged 18–24 had never smoked.
• Only 9.4% of 18-24 year olds are current smokers
• Only 1.6% of 14-17 year olds are current smokers
• 13.5% of students only smoked, down from 17.5% in 2017
• 3.4 of secondary students aged 12-17 had smoked the previous month, significantly lower than 7.5% in 2017

Daily Smoking Rates For Teenagers

Between 2001 and 2019, the daily smoking rate of teenagers and young adults decreased by about two-thirds. A study conducted by the National Drug Strategy Household Survey (NDSHS) in 2019 showed that:

• 5.19% of 18-24 year olds smoked daily, significantly lower than 24% in 2001.
• There are only 6.9% male smokers from the age group, significantly lower than 24.5% male smokers in 2001
• There are only 5.0% female smokers from the age group, significantly lower than 23.5% in 2001.
• 1 in 50 students aged 12-17 were current smokers or smoked at least 1 in the last week, lower than 4.9% in 2017
• People aged 18–24 were the most likely age group to currently use roll-your-own cigarettes or to have used an e-cigarette in their lifetime.
• About 2 in 5 (43%) smokers aged 18–24 currently used RYO cigarettes, which is a clear decrease from 2019 (63%).
• This is similar to the findings for people aged 14 and over where there was a decrease from 45% in 2019 to 41% in 2022–2023

In 2019, the age of smoking initiation was 16.6, up from 14.3 in 2001. Traditionally, females smoked their first full cigarette at a younger age than males.

2019 marked the first year that the age of smoking initiation was the same for both males and females.

In 2023 to 2024, the age of smoking initiation has remained the same at 16.3.

Vaping Rates Among School Students

Vapes, or e-cigarettes, are battery-operated devices containing cartridges of liquid. The liquid usually contains nicotine, flavouring, and other chemicals.

As vaping is a relatively new technology and there is a myriad of vaping products on the market, research into the long-term and likely harmful effects of vaping is still ongoing.

The 2022-2023 ASSAD study looked at vaping rates among secondary school students. Unsurprisingly, vaping rates were higher than cigarette smoking rates among young people. It found that:

• About half of people aged 18-24 hvae used an e-cigarette
• About 1 out of 5 are currently using NVPs
• About 87% of 18-24 year-old smokers have used e-cigarettes, up from 26% in 2019.
• 58% of the e-cigarette users in this age group never used cigarettes
• 26% of e-cigarette users in this group used them daily
• About 18.7% of them used it ever couple of weeks.

Furthermore, most students assume that almost all of their classmates vape, with majority of non-vaping students thinking it’s a serious problem.

Can the Vaping Ban Reduce Illicit Vaping in Teenagers?

Starting 1 January 2024, importing disposable nicotine vapes is prohibited – a scheme that the authorities hope will reduce illicit vaping among teenagers and non-smokers.

In March 2024, the government has banned the importation and sale of all non-therapeutic NVPs from overseas with the goal of stopping distributors and blackmarket actors from creating a new generation of teenage nicotine addicts

Illicit vapes are products imported from overseas manufacturers with the intent to profit off of motivated smokers and non-smokers, especially teenagers and even children as young as 5, with their attractive and fruity flavours.

These are also potentially hazardous products – unlike prescription vaping products, illegal vapes contain unidentified chemicals and up to 357mg of nicotine in a single device. 

Illegal vapes have also been found to contain nickel and lead and even human saliva.

As the enforcement of the ban begins to ramp up, its effects on teenagers and non-smokers who buy disposable vapes might be positive, especially if it cuts off blackmarket retailers from their suppliers and discourages them from selling any further.

Smoking Rates In Young Indigenous Australians

Though tobacco use continues to decline in Australia, it remains disproportionately high among Indigenous Australians.

The overall smoking rate among Indigenous people is approximately double that of non-Indigenous Australians.

Poverty, social disadvantage, and educational gaps play a part in keeping smoking rates higher among Indigenous communities, as do prevalent instances of mental illness, grief and loss, and early exposure to smoking as a social norm.

In 2022-2023, the Australian Burden of Disease Study found that:

• 49% of the burden in Indigenous Australians in 2018 was due to potentially modifiable risk factors
• Coronary heart disease was the leading individual disease contributing to burden in Indigenous Australians in 2018
• Indigenous Australians lost almost 240,000 years of healthy life due to illness and injury in 2018
• The rate of burden in Indigenous Australians decreased by 15% between 2003 and 2018

A 2022-2023 report from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare showed that smoking rates among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students have been decreasing over time, following a similar trend to that of the non-indigenous Australian population.

• Current smokers fell from 33% in 2019 to 13% in 2022-2023
• Those who reported never smoking increased from 62% to 85% 

Summary

Teenage smoking may have declined across the country, but efforts are needed to reduce it further, including the number of vaping teenagers in the country. 

With the right approach, there’s an opportunity to have little to no teenage smoking in Australia’s future.

If you’re also looking to quit smoking, we can help.

Smokefree Clinic gives you access to many medically reviewed and trustworthy resources that can inform and aid you in your path to wellness, so have a look around! 

If you’re ready to get started, Smokefree can connect you to friendly Australian healthcare professionals who excel in helping patients quit smoking for good, including via the use of pharmacy NVPs.

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