Ongoing bi-monthly since 2016, the German Smoking Behaviour Survey (DEBRA), revealed that smoking among teenagers in Germany is still the rise, greatly outpacing the use of vaping products. Currently, 14.9% of 14 to 17-year-olds smoke, compared to just 2.3% who vape. Moreover, the nation has actually experienced an increase in smoking rates across all age groups over the past eight years.

Clearing the Air highlighted that the reason for this could lie in the fact that unlike some other countries, where vaping is increasingly used and encouraged as a smoking cessation tool, local health professionals do not commonly recommend vaping as a method to quit smoking. For example, in the UK, the National Health Service (NHS) has promoted vaping for smoking cessation, contributing to a significant decline in smoking rates from 24.1% in 2010 to 12.5% as per recent surveys.

About 30% of all Germans are smokers

The survey which has been monitoring tobacco and nicotine product use for almost a decade, summarized the overall increase in smoking as follows:

• Teenagers (14-17 years old): Smoking rates have risen from 12.1% in 2016 to 14.9% in 2024, while vaping rates have remained steady at 2.3%.
• Young Adults (18-24 years old): Smoking rates have increased from 35.3% in 2016 to 37.6% in 2024, alongside a slight increase in vaping from 3.5% to 4.2%.
• Adults (25 and older): Smoking rates have jumped from 27.9% in 2016 to 34.4% in 2024, while vaping has decreased from 1.7% to 1.4%.

Ultimately the combined data indicated that an average of 30% of the total German population is currently smoking, but this was not the only concerning figure. The survey also revealed a sharp decline in the number of smokers attempting to quit, from 26.9% of smokers having made at least one serious attempt to quit in 2016, compared to just 8.1% in 2024.

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