Last week Health Canada updated the information it provides on tobacco sales in Canada, and transferred this information to the department's consolidated data platform (HealthInfobase.canada.ca). Provincial level information is presented for cigarettes; national level data is shown for other forms of tobacco, but provincial level information is downloadable.
Tobacco manufacturers are required to report to Health Canada the number of each brand of cigarettes and the number of kilograms of fine-cut tobacco they sell in each province each month.This information, together with national estimates of the number of smokers in each province, allows the calculation of the average number of cigarettes legally sold per smoker in each province.
Differences in these estimates over time or between provinces could suggest:
* changing patterns of nicotine use (if smokers are changing how many cigarettes a day they smoke, and/or substituting cigarettes with vaping products on some occasions).
* changes in survey methods which affect the estimates of smoking behaviour (the survey mode for the Canadian Community Health Survey was modified in 2015, 2020 and 2022).
* changes in purchasing behaviour (if smokers increase or decrease the number of cigarettes they buy which are not included in the manufacturers' reports, such as illicit supply, interprovincial sales and duty-free purchases related to travel).
A data sheet showing cigarette sales per smoker is available here.
As shown in the figures below (and on the data sheet) this information reveals that:
* Over the last 10 years, the number of reported smokers has decreased by about one-third (37%), but the number of cigarettes legally sold has decreased by half (48%).
* In some provinces, the difference between the drop in sales and smokers is very dramatic. The fall in the number of cigarettes sold was twice as large in Newfoundland and New Brunswick than the drop in the number of smokers (19% vs 69% in Newfoundland; 28% vs 61% in New Brunswick.
* The number of cigarettes legally sold per smoker varies considerably across Canada: from 16 cigarettes per day in Saskatchewan to 9 cigarettes per day in British Columbia and Newfoundland.
