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:
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
Start the new year with a New Statesman subscription from only £8.99 per month.(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.
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