A smaller number of young people aged between 12 and 17 are now smoking, according to data released by Morgan Stanley.

Here's a graph of its slow but steady decline, via Business Insider [2]:

Morgan Stanley's David Adelman lists the causes:

(i) Reduced social acceptability

(ii) Increased prevalence of aggressive indoor smoking bans

(iii) Higher prices and higher excise taxes

(iv) Some shift to other tobacco products, including moist smokeless tobacco, as well as lower-taxed cigarette alternatives (e.g., “pipe-your-own”)

(v) Ongoing ethnic shifts toward Asian- and Hispanic Americans, who have a far lower smoking prevalence (as well as substantially lower per capita cigarette consumption among those who smoke)

(vi) The multi-year substantial and continuing decline in youth smoking prevalence. Total youth consumption is modest, but like a python eating a pig, the impact of these demographic dynamics will be visible over an extended period of time as today’s young adult cohort ages. Nine-month year-to-date US cigarette consumption is down ~3 per cent , despite only very modest net pricing.