Table 7

Percentage of those who have tried tobacco, daily smokers, and daily numbers of cigarettes among daily smokers by age and sex (AHLS)

	1977	1979	1981	1983	1987	1989	1991	1993	1995	1997	1999	2001	2003
Tried tobacco (%)
Boys
12	50	47	47	45	35	32	41	35	33	33	30	30	17
14	68	71	67	66	62	61	67	64	62	63	59	56	47
16	80	78	83	81	78	74	80	76	81	75	78	73	67
18	84	86	85	87	83	81	85	81	85	84	83	82	82
Girls
12	32	27	27	24	20	17	24	24	26	24	21	23	12
14	60	58	60	60	57	52	63	59	63	66	64	59	50
16	77	76	76	78	77	72	78	78	78	78	81	78	75
18	79	83	81	80	82	80	84	79	82	81	83	81	82
Daily smokers (%)
Boys
14	11	9	15	15	14	16	14	15	12	14	12	13	7
16	30	25	30	27	33	36	32	29	30	26	28	29	24
18	41	33	36	34	37	38	36	35	36	33	34	33	35
Girls
14	15	9	12	13	10	13	15	13	13	17	17	15	11
16	27	25	25	23	28	29	27	26	26	27	29	31	30
18	32	26	26	25	32	29	28	25	27	28	29	31	36
Number of cigarettes (mean)
Boys
14	7.5	7.4	7.7	7.9	9.5	9.6	10.0	9.3	9.1	9.7	9.5	9.5	11.0
16	10.2	10.8	10.4	11.5	11.6	12.7	13.2	11.5	11.7	11.5	11.8	11.7	12.1
18	13.7	13.6	13.2	13.2	14.2	14.7	14.5	13.3	12.5	13.5	13.6	13.3	13.3
Girls
14	5.4	7.3	6.3	7.0	7.4	8.8	9.5	7.6	7.4	7.4	9.1	8.2	8.7
16	8.0	8.3	7.5	8.9	8.5	9.0	10.4	8.8	9.1	8.8	9.4	9.8	9.9
18	9.4	9.2	9.2	10.2	10.7	9.7	11.1	11.4	10.4	10.0	10.0	10.1	10.0