Switzerland: Tobacco consumption stagnates, consumption of new products explodes

In Switzerland, the prevalence of smoking remains high (24%), according to figures from the Swiss Health Survey (ESS). For Luciano Ruggia, director of the Swiss Association for the Prevention of Smoking, the inability of the public authorities to stem the tobacco epidemic in the country is explained by the pro-tobacco lobby[1].

According to the Swiss Health Survey, a quarter of the population aged over 15 smokes, and this proportion even reaches 26% among 15-24 year-olds. As the Swiss Association for the Prevention of Smoking points out, this situation can be compared with that of France, where the implementation of a set of public health measures has made it possible to reduce the daily smoking prevalence among 17-year-olds by nine points in five years, now standing at 16%. Given population growth, the absolute number of smokers in Switzerland therefore continues to increase, and with it the health, social, fiscal and environmental costs associated with smoking.

Heated tobacco, snus, puffs, consumption is exploding among adolescents

At the same time, a 2022 national study conducted by Health Behaviour in School-aged-Children (HBSC) among 10,000 Swiss schoolchildren shows a very clear increase in the consumption of new tobacco and nicotine products among this population. Indeed, at the age of 15, 4% of boys and 3% of girls had used heated tobacco in the thirty days preceding the survey, three times more than in 2018. Snus consumption has also increased sharply, with 13% of boys reporting having used it in the last 30 days, twice as many as in 2018. Among girls, the proportion increased from 1% to 6%. Finally, the consumption of electronic cigarettes is worrying, especially since it is regularly carried out alongside traditional tobacco consumption. Thus, 12% of 15-year-old adolescents had vaped. As the Swiss Association for the Prevention of Smoking points out, this increase in the consumption of these new products is linked to the growth in sales of disposable electronic cigarettes (Puffs). According to commercial data, these sales could have increased by 22,00% in 2022 alone.

Health costs set to increase in Switzerland in the coming years

As the absolute number of smokers continues to rise in Switzerland, the costs associated with smoking are also expected to increase. In Switzerland, smoking causes around 9,500 deaths per year, or 14% of all deaths[2]In 2017, a study commissioned by the Federal Office of Public Health estimated that the health costs associated with smoking amounted to 3 billion Swiss francs per year, or more than half of the health costs linked to addictions.[3]. The health costs associated with smoking, although higher than the tax revenues from tobacco sales, represent only a fraction of the total social cost of tobacco. In France, for example, this net social cost amounts to 156 billion euros per year.

Keywords: Switzerland, prevalence, lobby

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[1] Swiss Association for the Prevention of Smoking, Swiss health survey: a quarter of the population still smokes. New nicotine products are multiplying. 03/11/2023, (accessed 06/11/2023)

[2] Swiss Association for the Prevention of Smoking, Smoking-related mortality and morbidity, 07/2022, (accessed 06/11/2023)

[3] Polynomics, Volkswirtschaftliche Kosten von Sucht, 2021, (accessed 06/11/2023)