The state Health Department says the fewest number of retailers ever appear willing to sell tobacco to youths.

An annual survey conducted by the department’s Alcohol and Drug Abuse Division and the University of Hawaii Cancer Center showed that 4.6 percent of 218 stores randomly sampled around the state sold tobacco to teenage volunteers aged 15 through 17.

The survey began in 1996, when it found that 44.5 percent of the sampled stores failed to comply with a state law that prohibits selling tobacco to minors.

Last year’s rate was a bit more than 6 percent.

The survey, which was unveiled Friday, found no stores on Kauai or the Big Island that sold to youths. On Oahu, 5 percent did so, as did almost 10 percent on Maui.