What is the average age to start smoking

As always, you should consult with your healthcare provider about your specific health needs. On average, at what age do people in the U. Michael Roizen, MD. Internal Medicine.

I believe the average age for starting to smoke in the United States is a high school senior, age 18, but the range is from age 12 to age In the US, The data in the report came from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health , in which adults who had ever smoked cigarettes daily were asked about their first experiences with smoking. Across European countries, the rates of smoking initiation peaked at 16 among boys and 15 among girls in the s, according to a study published in the journal PLOS One on Wednesday.

Read More. Girls might start smoking earlier than boys because they might mature earlier , said Alessandro Marcon, first author of the study and an assistant professor in the Department of Diagnostics and Public Health at the University of Verona in Italy. More Videos What tobacco does to your health Some social and environmental factors are related to lower smoking levels among youth.

Among these are: 2. It is important to keep working to prevent and reduce the use of all forms of tobacco product use among youth. Skip directly to site content Skip directly to page options Skip directly to A-Z link. Section Navigation. Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Syndicate. Youth and Tobacco Use. Minus Related Pages. Youth use of tobacco products in any form is unsafe. Tobacco product use is started and established primarily during adolescence. On This Page. Top of Page. Nicotine is the known addictive substance in tobacco.

Regular use of tobacco products leads to addiction in many users. Researchers are also looking at other chemicals in tobacco that make it hard to quit. In the brains of animals, tobacco smoke causes chemical changes that are not fully explained by the effects of nicotine. The average amount of nicotine in one regular cigarette is about 1 to 2 milligrams mg. The amount you actually take in depends on how you smoke, how many puffs you take, how deeply you inhale, and other factors.

About 2 out of 3 of people who smoke say they want to quit and about half try to quit each year, but few succeed without help. This is because they not only become physically dependent on nicotine.

Nicotine affects behavior, mood, and emotions. If a person uses tobacco to help manage unpleasant feelings and emotions, it can become a problem for some when they try to quit.

Someone who smokes may link smoking with social activities and many other activities, too. All of these factors make smoking a hard habit to break. In fact, it may be harder to quit smoking than to stop using cocaine or opiates like heroin. In , researchers reviewed 28 different studies of people who were trying to quit using the substance they were addicted to.