Younger people turning their backs on smoking
Greece has made strides in reducing smoking over the last decade, especially among young people.
Indicatively, the OECD report “Health at a Glance: Europe 2022,” showed that, for the first time, Greeks are not at the top of the list of EU countries with the most smokers.
The report, which cites 2019 data, says 25% of Greeks and Hungarians smoke on a daily basis, compared to 29% in Bulgaria and 26% in France.
At the opposite end of the spectrum are the Swedes (10%), Finns (12%), Danes and Portuguese (14%). Between 2010 and 2019, Greece was among the countries that considerably lowered – by more than 7 percentage points – the prevalence of smoking in the population.
On average, the reduction in the EU was by about 4 percentage points (from 23% to 19%). Among young Greeks aged 15-16, the picture is better, with just 15% stating that they have smoked at least once.
