The sustainable development goal ‘Good health and well-being’ (SDG 3) aims to ensure health and promote well-being for people of all ages by improving reproductive, maternal and child health, ending epidemics of major communicable diseases, and reducing non-communicable and mental diseases. It also calls for reducing behavioural and environmental health risk factors.
One of the Eurostat indicators to measure progress in SDG 3 is the smoking prevalence in population aged 15 years and older. In 2023, 24% of the EU population aged 15 and older smoked, indicating a 2 percentage points decrease compared with 2017 (26%). Among men, the share was 28%, while 21% of women smoked.
Sweden reported the lowest share of smokers (8%) among the population aged 15 and older, followed by the Netherlands (11%) and Denmark (14%). These 3 countries also recorded the lowest smoking rates for both men and women: Sweden (9% of men and 8% of women), the Netherlands (13% and 10%) and Denmark (16% and 12%).
smoking prevalence by sex and country, 2023, % of population aged 15 and older. Chart. See link tot he full dataset below.
