Tobacco Update

Survey reveals smoking attitudes of secondary school pupils

An annual survey of secondary school pupils in England in years 7 to 11 (mostly aged 11 to 15) has found that in 2016, 19 per cent of 11 to 15-year-old pupils had ever smoked, which is similar to 2014, although there has been a steady decline since 1996, when 49 per cent of pupils had smoked at least once. Around half of pupils who had ever smoked said that they had only tried smoking, while the remaining half was split fairly evenly between regular, occasional and previous smokers. Girls (20 per cent) were more likely to have tried smoking than boys (18 per cent).