(07 December 2016) – While slightly over three-quarters (76.0%) of those aged 15 or over living in the European Union were non-smokers in 2014, 19.2% smoked any kind of tobacco products on a daily basis and a further 4.7% on an occasional basis.
In addition, slightly more than a fifth (21.6%) of the EU population aged 15 or over was exposed, on a daily basis, to tobacco smoke indoors (64.2% in Greece).
The lowest shares of current smokers in 2014 among the population aged 15 or over were recorded in Sweden (16.7%) and the United Kingdom (17.2%), ahead of Finland (19.3%), Portugal (20.0%), Luxembourg (20.4%), Denmark (20.9%) and Germany (21.7%).
At the opposite end of the scale, about 1 in 3 persons aged 15 or over was a smoker in Bulgaria (34.7%) and Greece (32.6%), followed by Austria (30.0%), Slovakia (29.6%) and Latvia (29.5%).
The share of current smokers differs between genders, with a higher proportion of men (28.7%) smoking than women (19.5%).