Statistics Canada sheds light on income disparity in vaping. (There isn't much)

In recent weeks, Statistics Canada updated its public data tables to include information on the difference in health behaviours in 2022 as related to income and education.  

Significantly, this is the first government data release which provides income and education-related information on the use of electronic nicotine products. 

The Canadian Community Health Survey, from which these tables are constructed, did not include questions on vaping until the 2022 survey year. Of the 9 questions asked about electronic cigarettes and vaping, information on two has been released: whether people have tried using an e-cigarette and whether they have used one in the 30 days prior to responding to the survey.

These survey results show that the income gradient associated with smoking is not as dramatic with e-cigarettes. Smoking is twice as frequent among the poorest Canadians as the richest, but there is only one (statistically significant) percentage point difference for vaping.

With respect to education, Canadians with post-secondary certificates are much less likely to smoke than are those without (9.6% vs. 18.4% for those with only high school and 21.9% for those who never graduated from high school). 

The pattern is does not hold for vaping: those with post-secondary certificates are more likely to use e-cigarettes than are those who do not have high school. Statistics Canada does not provide an immediate way to compare income and education-related estimates by age or by sex, although provincial breakdowns are provided.

Age- and sex-disaggregated data is available on a different table provided by the agency, although this does not provide information on other socio-demographic factors.  As shown below, the age profile of cigarette and e-cigarette use is very different. 

There are roughly twice as many cigarette smokers as e-cigarette users in Canada (3.8 million vs. 1.9 million), but not so for younger Canadians. Smoking among teenagers is too small to be picked up by this survey - but vaping is not. Among Canadians under 35, for every 10 smokers there are 14 vapers. Among Canadians over 35, for every 10 smokers there are 2 vapers.

For the coming year, the CCHS will ask 8 questions about e-cigarette use and will also ask a sub-sample about their use of nicotine pouches. (Rapid Response Tobacco Alternative Products)   This will the first time the use of pouches will be surveyed by the federal government. 

Statistics Canada Tables cited above

• Table 13-10-0097-01 Health characteristics, annual estimates, by household income quintile and highest level of education
• Table 13-10-0096-01 Health characteristics, annual estimates