People living across Europe, Russia and Central Asia together account for the highest number of tobacco users globally and it’s unlikely to change before 2030, according to the World Health Organization. 

This follows a 2025 report that the group of nations collectively known as the WHO European Region now lead the world for per capita tobacco use and are likely to miss their end-of-decade targets to reduce consumption.

It’s not just typical tobacco products like cigarettes and cigars that people are using. The addictive chemical nicotine extracted from tobacco plants is also used in e-cigarettes and so-called smokeless tobacco. Smokeless products include chewing tobacco, or nicotine pouches placed between the teeth and gums.

WHO European Region Director Hans Henri Kluge said the tobacco industry had directly targeted young people to introduce them to tobacco, despite efforts by some countries to regulate advertising and catch new product development. 

Who smokes in the European region? 

Among children in the WHO European Region aged 13-15:  

• Four million use tobacco products 
• One in seven use e-cigarettes — the highest rate of any region 
• Girls use tobacco more than their counterparts in the other five WHO regions  

"It’s the result of a deliberate industry strategy targeting young people with flavored products and sophisticated social media marketing," Kluge said. 

But countries like Belgium, Denmark and the Netherlands were proving "it is possible to push back, by regulating novel products, banning flavors and restricting advertising," he said. 

Female smokers also have been slower to kick the habit. Around two-in-five of the world's female smokers now live in the region. 

Uneven regulations leave Europe struggling to combat tobacco 

The WHO said there are weak points across the region allowing tobacco products to take hold in youth populations.  

Until 2025, the Southeast Asian region had the world’s highest tobacco use among the six WHO health regions.  

It changed that by adopting health warning labels on product covers, smoking bans, in-school education, and celebrity role models. Europe’s efforts are less uniform.

The WHO said that only a third of its European region nations have implemented smoke-free public space laws.  

A quarter of those countries have national helplines, cost-free "quit" services, or ban tobacco advertising. The price of tobacco is also cheaper in two thirds of European countries now than it was a decade ago. 

Kluge said 1.1 million people living in the European region die from diseases caused by tobacco use.

Edited by Z Abbany