Tobacco use: young people smoking

By age and gender

The Scottish Schools Adolescent Lifestyle and Substance Use Survey (SALSUS) provides estimates of the proportion of under-16s in school who smoke, drink alcohol and/or use illegal drugs. Detailed data tables are available on the SALSUS webpage and UK Data Service.

SALSUS has since been replaced by the Health and Wellbeing Census Scotland (HWCS) . The first and most recent reports 

• That 1.6% of S2 pupils and 4.3% of S4 pupils were regular smokers.
• 9% of males and 2.5% of females in S2 and S4 were regular smokers.
• 2% of pupils in the most deprived 20% (SIMD 1) reported being regular smokers, compared to 1.5% in the least deprived (SIMD 5).

Stop Smoking

Information on young people who access Stop Smoking services in Scotland can be drawn from the annual Stop Smoking statistics published by PHS (2022/23). In the financial year 2022/23 

• 44 young people under 16 tried to quit smoking, a figure that has decreased over the years from 380 recorded in 2013/14.
• There were 141 young people in the age groups under 16 and 16-17 who attempted to quit smoking (compared to 1,200 in 2013/14).
• 32% of the under 16s, and 22% of 16-17-year-olds had successfully quit smoking by 12 weeks These quit rates were an improvement from 5% for under 16s and 4% for 16-17 year olds , in 2013/14.

European comparison

The Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) survey allows smoking prevalence in young people to be compared across 41 countries and regions which all use a standard methodology. The target population is school attenders aged 11, 13 and 15 years, and the most recent survey for which results are currently available was carried out in 2013/14. Charts 2 and 3 below compare smoking prevalence among 15-year-old boys and girls across selected EU countries.

Chart 2 (15Kb) shows that smoking prevalence among boys (11%) was lower in Scotland than most of the other EU countries (EU average = 12%), though seven countries (Sweden, Ireland, Wales, Portugal, Flemish Belgium, Spain and England) had a lower prevalence. The prevalence of smoking among boys in Scotland had fallen from 14% in 2009/10.

Chart 3 (14Kb) shows that the position in relation to girls was similar. In 2013/14, 10% of 15-year-old girls in Scotland were current smokers compared with an EU average of 15%. The prevalence of smoking among girls in Scotland had fallen from 23% in 2006.