Smoking is still a major public health challenge across the European Union, even after years of anti-tobacco campaigns, graphic warning labels, and indoor smoking bans. Some countries have made real progress, while others still see nearly one in three adults lighting up every single day.
Based on Eurostat’s European Health Interview Survey, which tracks daily cigarette smoking among people aged 15 and older, the 2019 figures reveal a clear picture of where tobacco use is most deeply rooted. Get ready to explore the ten EU countries where smoking rates remain stubbornly high.
Bulgaria
Bulgaria holds the unenviable top spot in the EU for daily cigarette smoking, and the numbers are striking. A full 28.7% of Bulgarians aged 15 and older reported smoking cigarettes every single day in the Eurostat survey.
That means nearly three out of every ten people in the country are lighting up on a daily basis.
The gender gap here is also one of the widest in the EU. A massive 37.6% of Bulgarian men were daily smokers, compared with 20.7% of women.
Bulgaria also topped the EU for heavy smokers, with 12.9% of the population smoking at least 20 cigarettes per day.
By 2023, the situation had barely improved. The European Commission’s Eurobarometer found that 37% of Bulgarian respondents currently smoked tobacco products, again the highest share in the entire EU under that broader survey measure.
Decades of low cigarette prices and limited public health funding have made quitting a tough sell for many Bulgarians.
Greece
Greece has a long, complicated romance with tobacco, and the statistics reflect it clearly. Ranked second in the EU, 23.6% of Greek residents aged 15 and older smoked cigarettes every day according to Eurostat’s 2019 survey.
Coffee and cigarettes remain a deeply ingrained social ritual across much of the country.
Men drove the numbers higher, with 29.9% smoking daily compared to 17.9% of women. Still, there is a silver lining worth mentioning: Greece’s daily smoking rate had been 27.0% back in 2014, so the 3.4 percentage point drop by 2019 shows some real, measurable progress over those five years.
The 2023 Eurobarometer still placed Greece near the very top, with 36% of respondents identifying as current smokers. That figure sits just one point below Bulgaria under the broader tobacco-smoking definition.
Greece has introduced stricter anti-smoking laws in recent years, but enforcement in cafes, restaurants, and public spaces has historically been inconsistent, making culture change a slow and ongoing process.
Latvia
Latvia’s overall daily smoking rate of 22.1% tells only half the story. The real headline is the enormous gap between men and women.
Eurostat recorded daily smoking among Latvian men at a staggering 34.4%, while just 12.1% of women reported the same habit. That 22.3 percentage point divide was one of the largest gender gaps anywhere in the EU.
Despite the high numbers, Latvia was moving in the right direction. The rate dropped from 24.1% in 2014 to 22.1% in 2019, suggesting that tobacco control efforts were slowly gaining traction.
Latvia has implemented cigarette tax increases and stronger health warning requirements over that period.
Even so, the 2023 Eurobarometer placed Latvia among the EU’s top smokers, with 33% of respondents describing themselves as current tobacco users. That compares to an EU-wide figure of just 24%.
Social and cultural attitudes toward smoking, particularly among older men in rural areas, continue to make large-scale behavior change a long-term challenge for public health officials.
Germany
Germany’s entry on this list comes with a genuine statistical head-scratcher. While most countries near the top of this ranking showed declining rates between 2014 and 2019, Germany’s Eurostat figure moved in the opposite direction.
The 2019 survey recorded 21.9% of Germans aged 15 and older as daily cigarette smokers, including 25.4% of men and 18.6% of women.
Eurostat’s 2014 table listed Germany at just 15.0%, which would suggest a dramatic jump. However, researchers and public health experts caution that changes in survey methodology between rounds make such a large shift hard to interpret as a straightforward worsening of the situation.
Comparing these figures requires careful context.
Germany has historically been slower than many EU neighbors to adopt strict smoking bans in bars and restaurants. Indoor smoking rooms remained legal in some states for years longer than elsewhere.
The 2023 Eurobarometer found 24% of German respondents were current smokers, which exactly matched the EU-wide average, suggesting Germany sits in the middle of the pack under that broader, more recent measure.
Croatia
Croatia trailed Germany by just one-tenth of a percentage point, with 21.8% of people aged 15 and older smoking cigarettes every day. What makes Croatia stand out slightly from its neighbors is that the gender gap here was notably smaller than in countries like Latvia or Cyprus.
Men smoked at a rate of 25.1% compared to 19.2% for women, a relatively modest difference by regional standards.
Progress was visible between survey rounds. Croatia’s daily smoking rate fell from 24.5% in 2014 to 21.8% in 2019, a drop of 2.7 percentage points.
Public health campaigns and increased tobacco taxes contributed to that shift over the five-year period.
But the 2023 Eurobarometer delivered a sobering cross-check. A full 35% of Croatian respondents said they were current smokers under the broader definition, placing Croatia third only to Bulgaria and Greece in that newer survey.
Smoking remains deeply embedded in Croatian social life, from seaside promenades to city cafes, and changing those habits at a population level will require sustained, long-term effort from policymakers.
Cyprus
Cyprus recorded a daily cigarette-smoking rate of 21.2%, but the national average hides a dramatic split between the sexes. About 30.1% of Cypriot men smoked cigarettes daily, while only 12.8% of women did the same.
That 17.3 percentage point gap ranked among the largest gender differences anywhere in the EU, pointing to a very male-dominated smoking culture on the island.
On the positive side, Cyprus achieved one of the more notable improvements between the two Eurostat survey rounds. Daily cigarette smoking fell from 25.2% in 2014 down to 21.2% in 2019, a four-point reduction that reflected real policy progress.
Stricter enforcement of indoor smoking bans and higher tobacco taxes played a role in that decline.
The 2023 Eurobarometer still found 29% of Cypriot respondents identifying as current smokers, placing the island well above the EU-wide figure of 24% under that broader measure. Cyprus faces a familiar challenge shared by many Mediterranean countries: smoking is often tied to social settings like outdoor cafes and family gatherings, making cultural change a gradual and complex process.
Slovakia
Just over one in five Slovaks smoked cigarettes every day according to Eurostat’s 2019 survey, with a national rate of 20.4%. Men were significantly more likely to smoke, at 26.1%, compared to 15.1% of women.
That 11 percentage point difference reflects a pattern seen across much of Central and Eastern Europe, where male smoking rates have historically been far higher.
Slovakia was headed in a better direction, though. The daily-smoking prevalence had stood at 22.6% in 2014, so the 2019 result marked a meaningful decline of 2.2 percentage points.
Increased cigarette taxes and public awareness campaigns contributed to that downward trend over the five-year period between surveys.
The 2023 Eurobarometer offered a slightly different view. Under its broader definition of current tobacco smoking, 27% of Slovak respondents said they currently smoked, placing Slovakia three percentage points above the EU-wide average.
Young adults and lower-income groups tend to show the highest smoking rates within the country, which is why Slovakia’s public health strategy has increasingly focused outreach and cessation programs on those specific demographics.
Austria
Austria squeaked past the one-in-five mark with 20.2% of residents aged 15 and older reporting daily cigarette smoking. Men and women were closer together here than in many other high-smoking EU countries: 23.1% of men smoked daily versus 17.5% of women, a gap of just 5.6 percentage points.
That relatively narrow divide is one of the more distinctive features of Austria’s smoking profile.
The longer-term trend was encouraging. Austria’s daily-smoking rate had been 23.9% in 2014, dropping 3.7 percentage points by 2019.
Austria was historically one of the last Western European countries to implement a comprehensive indoor smoking ban, finally doing so in November 2019 after years of political debate and delays. That late reform may partly explain why the country still ranks in the top ten.
Yet the 2023 Eurobarometer raised eyebrows, finding 32% of Austrian respondents were current smokers under its broader tobacco definition. That was a notable jump from the previous comparable Eurobarometer wave.
Public health researchers are watching closely to understand whether that figure reflects genuine behavioral change or simply a difference in how questions were framed across survey editions.
Spain
Spain landed just below the 20% threshold, with 19.7% of people aged 15 and older smoking cigarettes every day. The rate reached 23.2% among men and 16.4% among women, a gender gap of 6.8 percentage points.
Spain is one of the few countries in this top ten where women’s smoking rates are relatively high compared to the EU average for women overall.
The trend line pointed in the right direction. Daily cigarette smoking fell from 22.2% in 2014 to 19.7% in 2019, pushing Spain below the one-in-five mark for the first time.
Strong tobacco legislation, graphic health warnings, and smoke-free outdoor space regulations in certain regions all contributed to that progress over the five-year window.
The 2023 Eurobarometer provided a more flattering picture for Spain. Under its broader current-smoking definition, 24% of Spanish respondents said they smoked, exactly matching the EU-wide average rather than standing out as a high-prevalence country.
That result suggests Spain may be converging toward the European middle ground, though daily cigarette smoking among younger adults remains an area of ongoing concern for health authorities.
Malta
Tiny Malta rounds out the top ten with 19.4% of people aged 15 and older smoking cigarettes every day. Eurostat measured the rate at 21.9% for men and 16.8% for women, a relatively modest gender difference of 5.1 percentage points.
For such a small island nation, those numbers represent a significant public health burden on a healthcare system that serves a compact population.
What sets Malta apart from most others on this list is that its rate actually crept upward between survey rounds. Daily smoking increased from 18.9% in 2014 to 19.4% in 2019, bucking the downward trend seen in most neighboring countries.
That small but notable rise raised questions about the effectiveness of tobacco control measures during that period.
The 2023 Eurobarometer offered a more optimistic signal. Under its broader tobacco-smoking definition, 22% of Maltese respondents said they currently smoked, which sat below the EU-wide average of 24%.
That gap between the two surveys illustrates how different questions and definitions can produce very different impressions of the same country’s smoking habits, making careful, consistent data interpretation essential for policymakers.
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