Sweden reaches smoke-free mark as nicotine use shifts to snus, vapes

Sweden recorded 4.8% of its population as daily cigarette smokers in 2025, clearing the smoke-free benchmark of under 5% for the first time, but 24% of Swedes still use nicotine every day through snus and vaping products, according to a new report by the Swedish Council for Information on Alcohol and Other Drugs.

The milestone, documented by Sweden's CAN research body and reported by The Korea Times, offers a cautionary model: cigarette rates can be dramatically cut through alternative products, but the long-term health consequences of those replacements remain largely unstudied — a tension increasingly relevant to U.S. public health debates over nicotine regulation.

Sweden's daily smoking rate fell from 16% in 2003 to 4.8% in 2025, according to CAN — the Swedish Council for Information on Alcohol and Other Drugs — as reported by The Korea Times. The European Union uses under 5% daily smokers as the informal benchmark for declaring a country smoke-free.

The decline tracks closely with Sweden's expanded use of snus, a moist smokeless tobacco that the rest of the EU banned in 1992. Sweden secured an exemption when it joined the EU in 1995, allowing domestic snus sales to continue. Daily snus use rose from 12% of the population in 2007 to 19% in 2025, with women accounting for a notable share of that growth — their snus use climbed from 4% to 14% over the same period, according to the CAN report.

Newer nicotine products are accelerating further. Sales of vape liquid surged 640% between 2021 and 2024, while white snus — a tobacco-free, flavored variant launched in 2016 — saw sales rise 180% over that same span. The CAN report noted that white snus "may contain higher nicotine" levels than comparable tobacco products.

Health experts urge caution about declaring victory. "While the health effects of cigarette smoking are well known, we know far less about snus and the new nicotine products," CAN said in its report. The council also cited research showing that "vaping can, among other things, increase the risk of certain lung diseases."

Women between the ages of 50 and 84 now form the largest single group of daily cigarette smokers in Sweden, at 6%, while younger demographics have shifted heavily toward snus and vaping, the data show.

Sweden's trajectory — sharply lower cigarette rates paired with rising snus and vape use — presents regulators worldwide with a fundamental question: whether smoke-free means health-free, or simply marks a transition to addiction with fewer studied risks.