Image: Roni Rekomaa / Lehtikuva

There are now more young teetotallers among those aged 12 to 16 than at any time since the 1990s, reveals a study carried out at Tampere University.

Smoking by young people has also decreased in the last two years.

Twelve percent of teenagers aged 14 and 18 now smoke -- that's less than half as many as at the turn of the millennium, when one in four smoked. Meanwhile the average age of trying cigarettes for the first time and of beginning to smoke regularly have risen.

The use of snuff or snus tobacco seems to have stabilised. One in three 18-year-old boys has tried it.

More than 4100 youngsters aged 12 to 18 responded to the survey, which has been carried out every other year since 1977. It is funded by the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health.