Smoking habits among university students in Tartu, Estonia (819 males, 1470 females), were surveyed in 1992–93 with a questionnaire, comparisons being made with a similar study performed in Oulu, Finland (2846 males, 3084 females) during 1990. The time of the survey was marked by Estonia's transition to an independent economy and western-type cigarettes. In Tartu, 31.0% of males and 14.0% of females smoked regularly (with 19.7% of males and 5.2% of females smoking daily), whereas in Oulu those percentages were 22.6% and 15.9% (with 13.5% and 7.6% smoking daily), respectively. The more pronounced sex differences in smoking in Tartu than in Oulu point to more traditional smoking patterns in Estonia. The percentages of ex-smokers were lower in Tartu (16.9% in males, 17.7% in females) than in Oulu (28.4% and 33.5%). In Tartu the percentage of daily smokers increased by age, from 9.6% in 18-year-old males to 30.6% in males older than 23 years, the corresponding percentages in females being 2.3% and 11.8%. Such a trend was not seen in Oulu. We also noticed that especially female students in Tartu started smoking at the older age than in Oulu. There were also wide variations between the faculties, in Tartu there were more smokers in the faculties of Theology, Philosophy and Medicine, the lowest percentage was in the Faculty of Exercise and Sport Sciences. Surprisingly, 27.1% of male and 5.9% of female medical students in Tartu reported current daily smoking. In Oulu the biggest percentage of daily smokers was in the Humanities and the smallest in Medicine (7.0% of male and 5.1% of female medical students). A follow-up survey is planned for 2009 to find out whether the differences between Oulu and Tartu smoking habits have disappeared.