The Eurobarometer survey on Attitudes of Europeans towards tobacco and related products provides information on the prevalence and consumption of tobacco and related products in the EU, as well as European citizens’ attitudes to tobacco, e-cigarette and heated tobacco products control policies.
The survey is organised every two years and was carried out by the Kantar Public network, on behalf of the European Commission’s Directorate-general for Health, in the 27 EU Member States between 10th of May and 5th of June 2023 when 26,358 respondents were interviewed. The 2023 Eurobarometer No 539 has been released in June 2024.
“The latest Eurobarometer clearly confirms that the presence of a differentiated regulatory treatment for niche and traditional products, like cigars/cigarillos, has neither led to increasing sale volumes nor to a change of smoking behaviours.
In fact, this report provides, once again, publicly funded evidence that cigars/cigarillos constitute special tobacco products, not only because of their unique production characteristics, but also due to their specific patterns of consumption and consumer profiles that clearly set them apart from mass-consumed tobacco and nicotine products. In this regard, the latest Eurobarometer report also confirms that cigars/cigarillos are not products associated with smoking or nicotine initiation.
In the absence of a clear change of circumstances in terms of consumption patterns, ECMA firmly believes that cigars/cigarillos should continue to be treated differently from mass- consumed tobacco and nicotine products.”, ECMA Director General, Paul Varakas stated.
Findings on EU cigars/cigarillos
The 2023 Eurobarometer confirms that following facts about cigars/cigarillos:
o Cigars/cigarillos are not smoking initiation products, whereby most smokers or former smokers have their first tobacco experience with boxed cigarettes.
o The daily consumption of both cigars and cigarillos has not increased since the last Eurobarometer and remains at 1%. The report confirms that the consumption of these products has remained stable since 2012 (even in the presence of labelling and ingredient exemptions): “Only 1% of smokers smoke cigarillos, cigars or pipes on a daily basis; these tobacco products are more likely to be smoked on an occasional basis or tried only once or twice.” The report continues to support that “other tobacco products like cigars, cigarillos and pipes are consumed regularly only by a minority.”
o The proportion of smokers continue its downward trend and has declined in the vast majority of countries since 2006;
o The socio-demographic analysis shows the following:
o No daily consumption of cigars/cigarillos in the 15-24 age category.
o Cigars/cigarillos typically appeal to mature consumers, who tend to be higher- income and higher-educated.
o Among current cigars/cigarillos smokers, men are more likely than women to say they consumed these products.
