A new study from the UK found that almost everybody who starts smoking ends up regretting their habit.

The study survey, conducted by YouGov, found that almost 85 percent- smokers and ex-smokers- regret that they took up smoking.

The survey included more than 4,000 people. A majority of them, 77 percent, started smoking at a very early age.

Many respondents said that they started smoking to "fit-in" with their peer group. Also, many started using the same cigarette brands as their relatives or friends were using.

"This survey shows just how addictive tobacco can be with most smokers wishing they’d never started in the first place. With so many smokers starting at a young age, everything possible must be done to remove the remaining forms of tobacco marketing via glitzy, colourful cigarette packs that are designed to attract young people," said Jean King, Cancer Research UK's director of tobacco control, in a statement.

“Tobacco is highly addictive and is very hard to quit – especially if people have started at such a young age. And we know smoking kills one in two long term users," said King.

Previous research has shown that graphic warnings on cigarette packs are more effective than verbal warnings. Graphic warnings aid recall about the negative health outcomes of smoking.

“We have a unique opportunity to protect children from the marketing of this deadly product. This is about us as a society saying that it is wrong for tobacco – a product that kills half of all its long term users – to be marketed to children as though it were a bag of sweets. We know that standardised packs with large health warnings make cigarettes less attractive to young people and the dangers of smoking clearer. We urge the Government to introduce plain packaging as soon as possible," Sarah Woolnough, director of policy at Cancer Research UK, said in a press release.

In February this year, a U.S. district court judge said in a hearing that a federal rule that requires large graphic health warnings on cigarette packs may violate the free speech rights of tobacco companies, Medical Daily reported.

According to a recent survey, cigarette use in the U.S., decreased by four percent in teen smokers, from 12 percent in 2004 to around eight percent in 2010. Adult smokers had an even greater decrease, from close to 40 percent in 2004 down to approximately 34 percent in 2010.