Tobacco and nicotine

Smoking

In 2017, 13  per cent of the Finnish adult population over the age of 20-64 years smoked daily: 15 per cent of men and 12 per cent of women. Smoking has decreased among all age groups, particularly among men: for example, in the 1980s, one in three men and one in five women smoked daily.

Four out of five people who smoke daily are worried about the health effects of the habit. More than half would like to quit and a little over a third have attempted to quit smoking.

In 2017, 4.7 per cent of academically educated women and 5.3 per cent of men smoked. On the other hand, 14.1 per cent of women with lower level of education and 17.1 per cent of men smoked daily.

A majority of young Finnish people do not smoke. According to the Adolescent Health and Lifestyle Survey, only seven per cent of 14–18-year-old girls and boys smoked daily in 2017. Consumption increases slightly with age: one in ten 16–18-year-olds smokes cigarettes daily. At the beginning of the millennium, this number was as high as 31 per cent.

Education has an impact

Smoking among parents continues to decrease. The mothers of more than two-thirds and the fathers of slightly more than one-half of young people have not smoked during their child’s lifetime. All in all, it is rare that a young person is exposed to tobacco smoke for more than an hour per day.

In 2017, there continued to be great difference between schools in the prevalence of smoking: 23 per cent of young people attending vocational institutes smoked, whereas only a little over three per cent of secondary school students smoked. 6.9 per cent of 8th and 9th graders at comprehensive school smoked.