The White Paper Smoking Kills noted that people who start smoking at an early age are more likely than other smokers to smoke for a long period of time and more likely to die prematurely from a smoking-related disease.

• About two thirds of respondents who were either current smokers or who had smoked regularly at some time in their lives had started smoking before they were 18, and well over one third started before they reached the age of 16.
• Men were more likely than women to have started smoking before they were 16; 43% of men who had ever smoked regularly, compared with 33% of women had done so.
• One fifth of women who had ever smoked did not start until they were in their twenties or older, compared with only 15% of men.

In 2000, as in previous years, those in manual socio-economic groups were more likely than those in non-manual groups to have started smoking early.

• For example, among those who had ever smoked regularly, 57% of men in the unskilled manual socio-economic group, but only 28% of men in the professional group, started smoking before the age of 16.