How Ireland's smoking rates compare to rest of Europe

In Ireland, some 13.8% described themselves as daily smokers, breaking down into 15% of men and 12.7% of women.

About one in eight Irish people smoke cigarettes daily, but are less inclined to light up than many of their European counterparts.

Data from Eurostat, the analysis wing of the European Commission, shows 18.4% of the EU population aged 15 or older described themselves as daily cigarette smokers in the year before the Covid-19 pandemic.

While 12.6% of the EU population smoked fewer than 20 cigarettes per day, just under 6% consumed 20 or more daily.

In Ireland, some 13.8% described themselves as daily smokers, breaking down into 15% of men and 12.7% of women.

The data show just over 4% of Irish smokers say they light up more than 20 cigarettes a day, with more than 5% of those being men and 3% women.

Besides the health implications of smoking, the cost has changed beyond all recognition in recent years, with a packet of 20 cigarettes now about €15, following six consecutive years of 50c hikes in tax come budget time.

In comparison to fellow EU citizens, Ireland is far below the average for the bloc.

Eurostat said across the EU member states, the countries with the largest shares of daily cigarette smokers were Bulgaria (28.7%), Greece (23.6%), Latvia (22.1%), Germany (21.9%) and Croatia (21.8%).

In contrast, the countries with the smallest shares of daily smokers were Sweden (6.4%), Finland (9.9%), Luxembourg (10.5%), Portugal (11.5%) and Denmark (11.7%), the analysis body said.

There is a vast discrepancy between the countries with the fewest 20-a-day or more habits, the data show.

“The proportion of smokers who consumed 20 cigarettes or more per day ranged between 1% in Sweden and 12.9% in Bulgaria. At the same time, the share of smokers who consumed fewer than 20 cigarettes varied between 5.3% in Sweden and 15.8% in Bulgaria,” Eurostat said.

Men more likely to be smokers

As is the case in Ireland, men are more likely to be smokers across the continent.

“In 2019, there were more smokers among the male population than the female population: 22.3% of men aged 15 years old and over were daily cigarette smokers, compared with 14.8% of women,” Eurostat said.

The exceptions to this are in Denmark and Sweden, where more women prefer to light up.

Bulgarians love their cigarettes more than any other nation, the data find.

“The number of men who smoked daily ranged from a low of 5.9% in Sweden to a high of 37.6% in Bulgaria. For women, this ranged between 6.8% in Sweden and 20.7% in Bulgaria.

“In all EU member states, the proportion of daily cigarette smokers was higher among men than among women, apart from in Sweden and Denmark. In Sweden, the share of men who smoked daily was 0.9 percentage points less than the share of daily female smokers, while in Denmark the proportion of male smokers who smoked daily was 0.1 less,” Eurostat said.

In Ireland, Health Minister Stephen Donnelly said recently there was currently no plan to limit the number of cigarettes in a single packet to 20.

"There is currently a dearth of evidence to indicate that a measure preventing the sale of packs of more than 20 cigarettes would impact on consumption or prevalence," he said.