1 April 2026 — New data from Sweden’s leading public health research institute, CAN, confirms that daily smoking among adults has fallen to just 3.7%, well below the WHO’s and EU’s 5% smoke-free threshold. Smoking rates have been cut roughly in half since 2013, with declines seen across all age groups and both sexes.

The numbers are striking. Among 18-29 year-olds, daily smoking is down to 2.9 %. Nicotine pouch and snus use among the same age group is 29%. The pattern is clear: as less harmful alternatives became more accessible, smokers switched. Sweden didn’t ban its way to this result, but rather it gave people options.

Michael Landl, Director, World Vapers’ Alliance, said:

“Sweden proves what harm reduction can achieve when policymakers base policies on evidence and trust consumers. Reaching effective smoke-free status is not luck, it is the direct result of giving adult smokers access to less harmful alternatives for decades. While Brussels debates flavour bans and higher taxes, Sweden is showing the rest of Europe what a genuinely smoke-free society looks like. The EU should be learning from Sweden, not undermining the very approach that delivered success.”

The contrast with EU policy could not be sharper. While Sweden is celebrating a public health milestone built on harm reduction, Brussels is moving in the opposite direction. Flavour restrictions, punitive taxes on alternative nicotine products, and growing pressure to treat all nicotine products the same as combustible cigarettes. These are the defining features of EU tobacco policy today. They are also precisely the policies Sweden never adopted.

Sweden has 41% fewer tobacco-related cancers and 44% lower tobacco mortality than the EU average. That gap did not happen by accident.

The World Vapers’ Alliance calls on EU policymakers to take the Swedish experience seriously. Risk-proportionate regulation works. Restricting less harmful alternatives does not reduce smoking; it just removes the exit.