Statistics: More than a quarter of Romanians aged 15 and over are smokers

One in four Romanians are smokers but the share of men who smoke is 40% while the share of women smokers is only 12%. Thus, Romania ranks fifth for the share of male smokers in the EU and second-to-last for the share of female smokers. A total of 25.7% of Romania’s population aged 15 and over were smoking in 2014, the figure being close to the EU average of 24%, according to data from the European Union’s statistical office Eurostat. The lowest shares of current smokers in 2014 among the population aged 15 or over were recorded in Sweden (16.7%) and the United Kingdom (17.2%), while the highest shares were registered in Bulgaria (34.7%) and Greece (32.6%). In Romania, 19.8% of the population was smoking on a daily basis, and 5.8% was only smoking occasionally. By gender, almost 40% of Romanian men aged 15 and over were smoking in 2014, this being the fifth highest share in the EU, after the one registered in Bulgaria (43.3%), Latvia (43.1%), Cyprus (41.9%), and Lithuania (40.3%). While 32.3% of Romanian men were current smokers, 7.5% were smoking only occasionally. In women’s case, the situation is different. With only 12.5% of women aged 15 and over smoking in 2014, Romania ranked second to last in the EU, after Lithuania where the share of smoking women amounted to 12.3%. On the other hand, the highest shares were registered in Bulgaria (26.8%), and Greece (26.4%). When it comes to passive smoking, around 1 in 5 persons (21.6%) in the EU aged 15 or over was exposed daily to tobacco smoke indoors in 2014. The highest proportion of passive smokers was registered in Greece (64.2% of the population), followed by Croatia (44.7%), Bulgaria (40.5%), and Romania (37.6%). In contrast, the lowest shares were recorded in Sweden (5.9%) and Finland (6.3%), followed by Portugal (8.6%), and Hungary (9.9%). Romania has made firm steps in combatting pasive smoking by smoking in enclosed public spaces in mid-March this year. Romania may also ban smoking in cars with children Romanian MP wants to ban tobacco for all citizens born after January 1, 2017 Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com