Close to one in five people in Germany continue to reach for a cigarette or a shisha pipe. The proportion of smokers among those aged 15 and over stood at 19.1 percent in 2025, the Federal Statistical Office (Statistisches Bundesamt) announced on Tuesday in Wiesbaden, ahead of World No Tobacco Day on the coming Sunday. Compared to 2021, there was barely any shift in the numbers, the smoking rate at that time was 18.9 percent.
Among younger people, however, smoking has become somewhat more popular in recent years, according to the statisticians. In the 15 to 24 age group, the share of those who smoke at least occasionally rose from 14.5 percent in 2021 to 15.6 percent in 2025. The highest smoking rate was recorded among 40- to 44-year-olds, where it reached 26 percent in 2025, according to the Federal Statistical Office.
There remains a significant gap between male and female smoking rates. In 2025, 22.4 percent of men smoked at least occasionally, while the figure for women was 15.8 percent, according to official statistics.
Conventional cigarettes continued to be the most popular tobacco product by a wide margin. A total of 78.5 percent of all smokers said they predominantly used cigarettes. The share of e-cigarette users stood at 9.2 percent in 2025. The remaining smokers were spread across shisha pipes and other forms of tobacco consumption such as pipe tobacco and cigars.
The findings are based on the so-called Mikrozensus, a large-scale official household survey conducted in Germany. Questions on health-related topics are included once every four years, and participation in this section of the survey is voluntary.
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