Smoking Statistics For Teens Continue a Worsening Trend

It seems unfortunate that every year, smoking statistics continue to worsen. Doctors are able to track and report more of smoking’s harmful effects on the human body and the environment itself, and so are able to more accurately pinpoint these exact effects. But, people continue to smoke in alarming numbers. Obviously, we must do something to help these children stop smoking.

What is truly sad is the smoking statistics that deal with adolescents and teens who smoke. Despite all the knowledge and research that they have, younger people are continuing to start smoking with each generation, and unfortunately, they also suffer the consequences of that smoking, including increased cases of asthma, heart disease, and cancer.

Some Sobering Smoking Statistics By Age:

- Each day, nearly 6,000 children under 18 years of age start smoking
- Nearly 2,000 will become regular smokers.
- Annually 800,000 new smokers join the ranks of the diseased.

Approximately 90 percent of smokers begin smoking before the age of 21. According to the latest smoking statistics in 2001, a national survey of high school students revealed that the overall prevalence of current cigarette use was 28 percent. Nearly 20 percent of 12th graders, 12 percent of 10th graders and 5.5 percent of 8th graders smoke cigarettes daily.