Cigarette use

ESPAD average Cigarette use (%) ^a
	Average	Min.	Max.
Lifetime	46	16	66
Last 30 days	21	6	37

^a Percentage of students reporting use of cigarettes.

Lifetime

Lifetime prevalence rates of cigarette smoking range between 16 % and 66 % (Table 5). In 15 of the 35 ESPAD countries, more than half of the students had tried smoking at least once. The highest prevalence rates were found in the Czech Republic (66 %), followed by Lithuania (65 %), Croatia and Slovakia (62 % each). The lowest rates were found in Iceland (16 %), Norway (28 %) and Malta (29 %). These rates were well below the average of 46 % for all ESPAD countries. The average prevalence of cigarette smoking was about the same among boys (47 %) and girls (44 %). Across countries, boys were generally more likely than girls to have tried cigarettes. Countries with the largest gender differences were Moldova (50 % for boys versus 15 % for girls), Georgia (54 % versus 30 %) and Albania (49 % versus 27 %). The largest gender differences where girls reported higher rates were found in Monaco (61 % for girls versus 51 % for boys), Bulgaria (60 % versus 51 %) and Malta (33 % versus 25 %).

Table 5. Cigarette use: prevalence of lifetime and 30-day use (percentage)

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Country	Lifetime	30-day	Lifetime		30-day
Country	Lifetime	30-day	Boys	Girls	Boys	Girls
Albania	37	11	49	27	18	5
Austria	53	28	54	53	27	28
Belgium (Flanders)	31	15	33	29	16	14
Bulgaria	55	33	51	60	30	37
Croatia	62	33	61	63	32	34
Cyprus	35	18	40	31	22	13
Czech Republic	66	30	65	67	27	32
Denmark	39	19	37	41	17	21
Estonia	60	21	62	57	22	21
Faroes	49	19	50	49	17	20
Finland	47	22	50	44	22	21
FYR Macedonia ^a	38	24	44	33	27	21
France	55	26	54	56	24	28
Georgia	43	18	54	30	26	9
Greece	39	19	41	37	21	17
Hungary	55	29	55	55	28	30
Iceland	16	6	16	16	5	7
Ireland	32	13	33	32	13	13
Italy	58	37	55	60	35	40
Liechtenstein	57	29	56	58	27	31
Lithuania	65	24	69	60	27	22
Malta	29	15	25	33	12	18
Moldova	33	9	50	15	16	3
Monaco	56	26	51	61	20	33
Montenegro	34	15	37	31	18	12
Netherlands	39	21	38	39	20	21
Norway	28	10	29	26	10	10
Poland	55	25	56	54	24	25
Portugal	37	19	37	37	18	21
Romania	52	30	53	51	31	30
Slovakia	62	31	62	61	29	34
Slovenia	47	22	44	50	19	25
Sweden	33	13	33	34	11	14
Ukraine	51	18	59	44	23	13
AVERAGE	46	21	47	44	22	21
Latvia	66	24	70	61	24	25
Spain	37	22	35	39	20	23
United States	20	6	20	19	6	6

^a Official name former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.

Last 30 days

On average, 21 % of the students in the ESPAD countries had used cigarettes during the last 30 days. The highest rates were found in Italy (37 %), Bulgaria and Croatia (33 % each). Countries which reported last-30-day prevalence of 10 % or lower include Iceland (6 %), Moldova (9 %) and Norway (10 %). Countries with high smoking rates for boys were Italy, Romania and Croatia (31-35 %), and countries with high smoking rates for girls were Italy, Bulgaria, Slovakia and Croatia (34-40 %). The average ESPAD rates for boys and girls were about the same, and the gender rates were also close in most countries. In four countries, there are noticeable gender differences, with higher rates among boys than among girls: Georgia (26 % versus 9 %), Moldova (16 % versus 3 %), Albania (18 % versus 5 %) and Ukraine (23 % versus 13 %). In Monaco, rates were higher among girls than boys (33 % versus 20 %) as well as in Slovenia (25 % versus 19 %) and Malta (18 % versus 12 %).