Europe has the highest rate of tobacco use in the world, overtaking Southeast Asia, a report from the World Health Organization found Monday.

Just under a quarter (24.1 percent) of people aged 15 and over in Europe use tobacco, more than in any other WHO region, according to data from 2024. Women in the broader Europe region also have the highest global prevalence at 17.4 percent, the report found.

The study also recorded global vaping rates for the first time; the WHO said the figures were especially “alarming” among young people.

The data lands as the European Commission pledges to take a harder line against tobacco and vape products, with the EU health and tax commissioners pushing to hike taxes on both to curb related illnesses such as cancer and heart disease.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the WHO director general, said tobacco control efforts prevent millions of people from smoking. But, “the tobacco industry is fighting back with new nicotine products, aggressively targeting young people,” he said, urging governments to act “faster and stronger” in implementing proven tobacco control policies.

Taking the lead

Globally, in 2024, there were an estimated 1.2 billion tobacco users aged 15 years and older. Tobacco prevalence is falling worldwide, but at a slower rate in Europe than other regions.

The figures for the WHO’s Europe region include 53 countries and stretch as far east as Russia. However, the latest EU data also matches the WHO’s findings — a Eurobarometer survey from June 2024 found that 24 percent of people in the bloc smoked tobacco.

Prevalence in Europe fell from almost 35 percent in 2000 to a little over 24 percent in 2020. In Southeast Asia, meanwhile, tobacco consumption has plummeted from around 54 percent to over 23 percent during the same period.

Meanwhile, there were over 86 million adults who vape worldwide in 2024, the report found. The Americas and Europe had the highest prevalence rates of people aged 15 and over who use vapes, at 4.8 percent and 4.6 percent respectively.

The WHO pointed to “concerning” data among adolescents aged 13 to 15, where around 7.2 percent use e-cigarettes globally, equating to around 14.7 million children.

The U.N. organization cautioned, however, that the estimated total number of children using vapes is “almost certainly an undercount,” since only 75 percent of the world’s population are covered by national vaping surveys.

The WHO said countries had to crack down on the tobacco industry’s efforts to create new addicts through the marketing of vapes toward young people.

“E-cigarettes are fuelling a new wave of nicotine addiction,” said Etienne Krug, head of health determinants, promotion and prevention at the WHO. “They are marketed as harm reduction but, in reality, are hooking kids on nicotine earlier and risk undermining decades of progress.”

European leaders have taken an increasingly strong position on vapes as of late. Tax Commissioner Wopke Hoekstra told POLITICO that vapes were “killing our kids” and pledged to follow through with his plan to extend the Tobacco Taxation Directive to new products.

The vaping industry denied his claim, saying there have been no deaths caused directly by legal vapes.

Meanwhile, Health Commissioner Olivér Várhelyi told a health conference in Austria last week he wanted to eventually raise minimum taxes on vapes in line with tobacco.