Smoking is increasingly associated with poverty and disadvantage. Aboriginal Canadians smoke at among the highest rates in the world. Smoking is also more common among Canadians who work in primary resource industries and those who have been unemployed for long periods. Smoking rates vary considerably by region and by social grouping.
Canadian women are among the world's heaviest smokers In Canada, slightly more men than women smoke.
There are about 3.1 million Canadian women who smoke currently. For years, men smoked at much higher rates than women. Over the last decades, the rate of smoking among men has fallen at a much faster rate than the rate of women who smoke. Canada has the 7th highest rate of women's smoking in the world, according to the World Health Organization. For men, Canada ranks 73rd.