Bulgaria had the highest proportion of daily users of tobacco and related nicotine products in the European Union in 2025, even as smoking rates across the bloc edged lower, according to data published by Eurostat.

The EU's statistics office said 26.3% of people aged 16 and over in Bulgaria used tobacco or related products every day, ahead of Sweden at 23.9% and Croatia at 23.6%. At the other end of the scale, the Netherlands recorded the lowest daily usage rate at 9.9%, followed by Ireland at 11.7%, Belgium at 13.6% and Luxembourg at 13.8%.

Across the 27-member EU, 16.5% of people aged 16 or over reported using tobacco or related products daily in 2025, down from 17.5% in 2022. The figures cover traditional tobacco products as well as e-cigarettes, heated tobacco products and nicotine pouches.

More than three-quarters of the EU population, or 77.5%, said they did not use any of these products or had not done so in the previous 12 months.

Men continued to smoke at substantially higher rates than women, although usage declined slightly for both groups. Some 20.8% of men reported daily use in 2025, compared with 22.2% three years earlier, while the share among women slipped to 12.6% from 13.1%.

Smoking was most common among people aged 35 to 49, with 21.3% reporting daily use. The 25-34 and 50-64 age groups followed closely at 19.9% and 19.8%, respectively. Younger people aged 16-24 and those aged 65 or over recorded the lowest rates, at 12.1% and 9.1%.

The data showed that smoking habits continued to diverge across the bloc between 2022 and 2025.

Seventeen EU countries recorded a fall in the share of daily users over the three-year period. Spain and Luxembourg posted the largest declines, with rates dropping by 2.1 percentage points in each country.

By contrast, Croatia and Lithuania registered the biggest increases, with daily use rising by 2.7 percentage points in both countries.