Almost a third (31%) of Ukrainians use tobacco or nicotine products, including 27% daily and 4% non-daily, according to the results of a nationwide survey “Use of tobacco and nicotine products” conducted by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology from February 14 to March 4, 2025.
Compared to October 2024, the share of those who use tobacco or nicotine products increased from 27% to 31%, including from 23% to 27% of those who use them daily.
Among men, 45% of respondents use tobacco or nicotine products, among women – 19%. Younger and middle-aged people use tobacco or nicotine products more, both among men and women. Among 18-29 year olds, 45% use such products, and then the rate decreases to 11% among those aged 70+. At the same time, the increase in use was primarily among 18-39 year olds.
Among consumers of tobacco or nicotine products, the vast majority (73%) smoke manufactured cigarettes. This is followed by tobacco products for electric heating (19%), electronic cigarettes (17%), hookahs (9%), and tobacco (8%). The fewest respondents mentioned nicotine patches (3%).
For all these products, except for plain tobacco, the current figures are the same as in 2024 (i.e., all differences are within the statistical margin of error). In the case of plain tobacco, the figure rose from 4% to 8% (primarily due to older respondents).
The use of HTPs, e-cigarettes, and hookahs is more prevalent among predominantly young respondents. The use of such products is most prevalent among respondents aged 18-29. Thus, among 18-29 year old respondents who currently use tobacco or nicotine products, 37% use tobacco products for electric heating, 39% use electronic cigarettes, and 24% use hookahs.
In regional terms, tobacco is most commonly used in eastern Ukraine (35.7%), less in the south (33.7%) and in the center (31.7%), and least in the west (25.6%).
Tobacco use is highest in large cities with a population of 100,000 or more (34.5%) and lowest in villages (24.8%).
Tobacco use is also more common among people with average incomes (32.8%) than among those with low and high incomes, but lowest among people with very low incomes (25.1%).
The survey was conducted using computer-assisted telephone interviews (CATI). A total of 2,029 adult respondents from all regions of Ukraine under government control were interviewed. Formally, under normal circumstances, the statistical sampling error (with a probability of 0.95 and a design effect of 1.1) does not exceed 2.4% for indicators close to 50% and 0.5% for indicators close to 1 or 99%.
