Image: YLE / Markku Karvonen

THL figures for 2010 show that 23 percent of males between the ages of 15 to 64 smoke daily. For 16 year-old boys, the figure is close to the overall average, standing at 21percent.

Sixteen year-old girls puff slightly more frequently. Daily smoking is a habit with 22 percent of them. But the average for females between the ages of 15 to 64 is considerably lower at 16 percent.

Even so, smoking among the young has been falling.

Few pensioners smoke these days. Only 10 percent of men between 65-85 smoke every day and a mere 5 percent of women in the same age group light up.

But a cigar...

Statistics on tobacco consumption meanwhile show that cigars have grown in popularity among Finns. The consumption of cigars rose last year by about 9 percent. Altogether, 123 million cigars bought and paid for in the country went up in smoke.

Sales of loose tobacco meanwhile fell by about one third between 2000 and 2010. Sales of loose tobacco and pipe tobacco totalled 657,000 kilos.