Every day more than 2,800 kids under 18 try smoking for the first time.2
Though very little data about
smoking is regularly collected for kids under 12, the peak years for first trying to smoke appear to be in
the sixth and seventh grades (or between the ages of 11 and 13), with a considerable number starting
even earlier.3
In 2013, nearly five percent of eighth grade students reported having had their first cigarette
by the end of fifth grade (ages 10 to 11), and 14.8 percent had tried smoking by the end of eighth grade.
More than one-fourth (28.7%) of twelfth grade students reported having used cigarettes by the end of
tenth grade.4