After a decline between 2016 and 2019, and a period of relative stability at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, the prevalence of daily smoking is decreasing compared to 2021, reveals a study by Public Health France (SPF), published this Tuesday November 1, 2024.
In 2023, more than three people aged 18-75 in ten reported smoking (31.1%). Less than a quarter report smoking daily, i.e. 23.1%, with a higher level among men (25.4%) than among women (20.9%). It is about “the lowest prevalence of daily smoking ever recorded since this indicator existed”underlines Public Health France.
This downward trend can be explained “possibly with the implementation of national plans to combat smoking, interrupted during the Covid-19 pandemic period” which seem “to resettle”analyzes the study.
Occasional smoking has, for its part, increased since 2021, when it stood at 6.4%. In 2023, it reaches 8%. The prevalence of smoking, daily or occasional, is therefore generally stable between 2021 and 2023. These trends “will be confirmed in the years to come”according to SPF.
The observed developments are consistent “with tobacco sales data which has been declining in recent years, going from 43,188 tonnes delivered to tobacconists in 2021 to 37,120 tonnes in 2023 (-14%)”. Sales of tobacco cessation aid treatments made in pharmacies (reimbursed or not) are also “up over the same period, with an increase of 17% in “equivalent months of treatment” », Details the investigation.
Very marked social inequalities
Furthermore, social inequalities in smoking remain very marked, the study supports. A gap of 12 points regarding daily smoking is thus observed between low incomes (28.9%) and the highest (17.3%). A gap that we find according to the level of diploma or according to professional situation.
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However, the overall downward trend in daily smoking also concerns less advantaged socio-economic categories. Between 2021 and 2023, the decrease is significant among the least qualified, the lowest incomes and unemployed people, while the changes are not significant among the most qualified and employed workers, notes Public Health France.
Daily vaping on the rise since 2016
The issue of vaping is also addressed in the survey. Thus, in 2023, 41.8% of 18-75 year olds declared having tried electronic cigarettes. This figure rises to 45.1% among men and 38.7% among women. The same year, 8.3% of 18-75 year olds reported vaping.
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The prevalence of daily vaping was 6.1% (6.8% among men and 5.4% among women). Proportions which have been increasing since 2016.
The Public Health France survey took place by telephone from March 22 to July 29, 2023, among 14,984 people, aged 18 to 75, and residing in mainland France.
