Cigarettes are losing ground in Europe, slowly. Eurostat’s latest figures, published on August 5, 2026 and picked up by Euronews on September 1, show that 16.5% of EU residents aged 16 and over used tobacco or a related product every day in 2025, down from 17.5% in 2022. That is still one adult in six, and the “related products” in the definition (e-cigarettes, nicotine pouches and heated tobacco) mean the daily-user pool is broader than the classic cigarette smoker.
For anyone who smokes and flies, the numbers explain two things at once: why Europe’s airports have gone almost entirely smoke-free indoors, and why the handful of exceptions still draw a crowd.
The headline figures
Eurostat draws the data from the EU statistics on income and living conditions survey (EU-SILC). The 2025 results:
- Daily users, all adults: 16.5% (2022: 17.5%).
- Men: 20.8% (2022: 22.2%). Women: 12.6% (2022: 13.1%).
- By age: 35 to 49-year-olds lead at 21.3%, then 25 to 34 (19.9%) and 50 to 64 (19.8%). The youngest adults, 16 to 24, are at 12.1%, and the over-65s at 9.1%.
Euronews adds the public-health context behind the EU’s push: tobacco is linked to about 1.1 million deaths a year in Europe, including roughly 153,000 from second-hand smoke, and the EU’s Beating Cancer Plan targets a “tobacco-free generation” with under 5% of the population using tobacco by 2040.
Country by country
The spread between member states is wide, and it maps closely onto where you will and will not find somewhere to smoke at the airport.
| Country | Daily users, 2025 | Airport smoking picture |
|---|---|---|
| Bulgaria | 26.3% (highest in the EU) | Airside options at Sofia (SOF), including a half-open area by gates B1–B4; see our Bulgaria guide |
| Sweden | 23.9% (much of it snus and nicotine pouches) | Indoor smoking rooms at Stockholm Arlanda (ARN), before and after security; see our Sweden guide |
| Croatia | 23.6% (up 2.7 points since 2022) | Airside smoking cabins at Zagreb (ZAG); see our Croatia guide |
| Luxembourg | 13.8% (down 2.1 points) | See our Luxembourg guide |
| Belgium | 13.6% | Three airside smoking areas at Brussels (BRU); see our Belgium guide |
| Ireland | 11.7% | Outdoor areas at Dublin (DUB), including The Garden Terrace after security; see our Ireland guide |
| Netherlands | 9.9% (lowest in the EU) | One outdoor area at Schiphol (AMS), before security; see our Netherlands guide |
Seventeen member states recorded a fall between 2022 and 2025. Spain and Luxembourg fell furthest, by 2.1 percentage points each, while Croatia and Lithuania rose the most, by 2.7 points each.
Sweden’s second place is the one that needs a footnote. Its cigarette-smoking rate is among the lowest in Europe; the daily-use figure is high because Eurostat counts snus and nicotine pouches, which are legal and widespread there. That distinction matters on a plane as well as in a survey, and our guide to nicotine pouches on a plane explains where pouches are legal to carry and where they are not.
What the trend means at the airport
Europe’s airports moved ahead of the survey years ago, and the two ends of the table look different on the ground. The lowest-rate countries are also the strictest at the airport: Schiphol has had no airside smoking since 2020, and Dublin’s only after-security option is an outdoor terrace. The high-rate end keeps indoor rooms at Sofia, Arlanda and Zagreb, and a band of hubs in between still runs enclosed smoking rooms or lounges after security: Frankfurt, Munich, Vienna, Zurich, Warsaw, Brussels, Athens and Milan Malpensa. Our inventory of airports with indoor smoking lounges lists each one, and the airports with smoking areas after security list covers the outdoor terraces and balconies that let you smoke without leaving the secure area.
Two practical consequences follow from the 2025 numbers:
- Expect fewer indoor options over time, not more. Recent changes at European airports have mostly run one way: closures, moves outdoors and tighter vaping rules. The 2040 target gives regulators cover to keep going.
- Vaping and pouches are being folded into the same rules as cigarettes. Eurostat now counts them together, and most European airports already apply the smoking rules to e-cigarettes. Assume a vape is a cigarette for the purposes of where you can use it.
Sources
- Eurostat — 1 in 6 people use tobacco or related products daily (news release, August 5, 2026): ec.europa.eu
- Euronews — Cigarettes are on the decline in the EU, but how popular are smoking and vaping still? (September 1, 2026): euronews.com