Smoking initiation (average age), by age group and sex, household population aged 12 and over, smokers and former smokers, Canada, 2000/01

Smoking initiation Total, smoking initiation Smoking initiation age (5-11 years) Smoking inititation age (12-14 years) Smoking initiation age (15-19 years) Smoking initiation age (20 years and over)
Number Number % Number % Number % Number %
2000/2001                  
Total, 12 years and over 16,186,017 1,299,057 8.0 4,902,024 30.3 7,451,955 46.0 2,255,815 13.9
  Males
 8,626,545 872,895 10.1 2,663,590 30.9 3,878,802 45.0 1,021,246 11.8
  Females
 7,559,473 426,162 5.6 2,238,434 29.6 3,573,154 47.3 1,234,568 16.3
                 
12-19 years 1,092,328 157,055 14.4 588,075 53.8 319,685 29.3 F F
  Males
 544,779 83,733 15.4 268,226 49.2 173,079 31.8 F F
  Females
 547,549 73,321 13.4 319,849 58.4 146,606 26.8 F F
                 
12-14 years 154,146 45,131 29.3 101,437 65.8 F F F F
  Males
 72,284 23,453 32.4 44,200 61.1 F F F F
  Females
 81,863 21,678 26.5 57,237 69.9 F F F F
                 
15-19 years 938,182 111,924 11.9 486,638 51.9 319,685 34.1 F F
  Males
 472,496 60,280 12.8 224,026 47.4 173,079 36.6 F F
  Females
 465,686 51,644 11.1 262,612 56.4 146,606 31.5 F F
                 
20-34 years 3,899,945 307,967 7.9 1,287,068 33.0 1,921,193 49.3 335,088 8.6
  Males
 2,065,386 174,872 8.5 617,732 29.9 1,028,096 49.8 208,933 10.1
  Females
 1,834,559 133,094 7.3 669,336 36.5 893,097 48.7 126,155 6.9
                 
20-24 years 1,299,049 94,959 7.3 448,000 34.5 687,589 52.9 52,439 4.0
  Males
 689,594 56,191 8.1 219,077 31.8 371,269 53.8 31,054 4.5
  Females
 609,456 38,769 6.4 228,923 37.6 316,321 51.9 21,385 3.5
                 
25-34 years 2,600,896 213,007 8.2 839,069 32.3 1,233,604 47.4 282,649 10.9
  Males
 1,375,793 118,682 8.6 398,655 29.0 656,828 47.7 177,878 12.9
  Females
 1,225,103 94,325 7.7 440,413 35.9 576,776 47.1 104,770 8.6
                 
35-44 years 3,646,367 305,468 8.4 1,206,928 33.1 1,702,284 46.7 383,421 10.5
  Males
 1,880,810 185,504 9.9 585,801 31.1 844,841 44.9 229,052 12.2
  Females
 1,765,557 119,964 6.8 621,127 35.2 857,444 48.6 154,369 8.7
                 
45-64 years 5,215,138 375,353 7.2 1,389,107 26.6 2,496,806 47.9 882,233 16.9
  Males
 2,839,868 291,949 10.3 873,174 30.7 1,265,430 44.6 359,853 12.7
  Females
 2,375,270 83,404 3.5 515,933 21.7 1,231,376 51.8 522,380 22.0
                 
45-54 years 3,190,776 227,683 7.1 887,343 27.8 1,547,349 48.5 488,956 15.3
  Males
 1,712,667 171,421 10.0 529,347 30.9 779,814 45.5 205,653 12.0
  Females
 1,478,108 56,262 3.8 357,996 24.2 767,534 51.9 283,303 19.2
                 
55-64 years 2,024,363 147,670 7.3 501,764 24.8 949,457 46.9 393,277 19.4
  Males
 1,127,201 120,528 10.7 343,827 30.5 485,615 43.1 154,200 13.7
  Females
 897,162 27,142 3.0 157,936 17.6 463,842 51.7 239,077 26.6
                 
65 years and over 2,332,238 153,215 6.6 430,846 18.5 1,011,987 43.4 655,073 28.1
  Males
 1,295,701 136,837 10.6 318,656 24.6 567,355 43.8 223,409 17.2
  Females
 1,036,537 16,379 1.6 112,189 10.8 444,632 42.9 431,665 41.6
                 
65-74 years 1,454,843 102,592 7.1 290,679 20.0 650,533 44.7 372,508 25.6
  Males
 822,124 91,212 11.1 212,709 25.9 363,922 44.3 127,689 15.5
  Females
 632,719 11,380 1.8 77,971 12.3 286,612 45.3 244,819 38.7
                 
75 years and over 877,395 50,623 5.8 140,166 16.0 361,453 41.2 282,566 32.2
  Males
 473,577 45,625 9.6 105,947 22.4 203,434 43.0 95,720 20.2
  Females
 403,818 4,998E 1.2E 34,219 8.5 158,020 39.1 186,846 46.3
                 

1. Data source: Statistics Canada, Canadian Community Health Survey, 2000/01
2. Population aged 12 and over who reported being either a current or former smoker and who reported the age when they smoked their first cigarette.
3. Bootstrapping techniques were used to produce the coefficient of variation (CV) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs).
4. Data with a coefficient of variation (CV) from 16.6% to 33.3% are identified by an (E) and should be interpreted with caution.
5. Data with a coefficient of variation (CV) greater than 33.3% were suppressed (F) due to extreme sampling variability.
6. Health regions are defined by provincial governments as the areas of responsibility for regional health boards (i.e., legislated) or as regions of interest to health care authorities.
7. A "peer group" is a grouping of health regions that have similar social and economic characteristics.
8. In Newfoundland and Labrador, health regions are generally referred to as Health and Community Services (HCS) regions.
9. In Prince Edward Island, the two health regions divide the province into urban and rural components.
10. Prince Edward Island has defined these health regions for statistical purposes only; they bear no resemblance to the boundaries of the five actual administrative health regions.
11. In Nova Scotia, health regions are known as "health zones" and relate to the province's administrative health region boundaries.
12. In Ontario, Public Health Units (PHU) administer health promotion and disease prevention programs, and District Health Councils (DHC) are advisory, health planning organizations.
13. Because of the small population of Churchill, Manitoba (population: 1,110 in 1996), the Canadian Community Health Survey only collects data for the aggregation of Burntwood/Churchill (regions 4680, 4690).
14. In Saskatchewan, "service areas" (SA) have been created from groupings of the 33 health districts.
15. In Alberta, health regions are referred to as Health Authorities (HA) or Regional Health Authorities (RHA).
16. The following symbols are used in Statistics Canada publications: (..) for figures not available and (...) for figures not appropriate or not applicable.
17. CANSIM table number 01050052.