Smoking falls to historic low showing Australia’s comprehensive tobacco control measures are delivering results

Smoking has fallen to a historic low with new Australian Institute of Health and Welfare data showing just 5.6% of Australians 14+ were smoking daily last year. This is well ahead of Australia’s target of 10% or fewer adults smoking by 2025. Cancer Council Australia says the new data indicates that Australia’s tobacco control and nicotine policies over several decades continue to drive down smoking and vaping, saving lives.   

The National Drug Strategy Household Survey 2025, conducted every three years and released today, found daily smoking dropped dramatically from 8.3% in 2022–23 to 5.6% in 2025. Additionally, more than two-thirds of Australians 14+ (68.7%) have never smoked - a historic high.  

Cancer Council Australia CEO Jacinta Reddan said the data should put to rest suggestions that Australia's tobacco control settings need to be weakened in response to illicit tobacco. “This survey shows that Australia’s suite of world-leading tobacco controls is working to save Australian lives. Plain packaging, taxation, advertising restrictions and sustained public education on the harmful effects of smoking, which still kills 66 Australians every day, have seen smoking drop to among the lowest in the world," she said. 

Ms Reddan said the findings highlight a dual challenge: maintaining the policies that continue to reduce smoking while cracking down on the illicit market. According to the survey, the proportion of people who currently smoke reporting any recent illicit tobacco use rose to 34% in 2025, up from 16.7% in 2022-23, and more than half (57%) of those who purchased branded illicit tobacco did so from a tobacconist.  

"Illicit tobacco requires an enforcement and regulatory response, not a tax cut; we need to continue reducing demand for tobacco through proven public health measures while governments and authorities need to work together to disrupt the criminal networks supplying illicit products." Ms Reddan said. 

"Cutting tobacco tax won't stop criminal operators selling illicit products. It will simply make all cigarettes cheaper, increase consumption and boost tobacco company profits. Meanwhile criminal supply chains, who pay no tax at all, will simply further undercut the regulated market.” 

The survey also provides encouraging signs that recent vaping reforms are having an impact. Current vaping among 18–24-year-olds has fallen considerably from 20.6% to 14%, while daily vaping remained stable across all age groups, marking a significant shift from the increasing trend observed in previous surveys.  

However, the survey also points to an emerging challenge: illicit nicotine pouches and traditional snus, captured for the first time in this data, are gaining ground with younger Australians, with 8.4% of 18–24-year-olds using pouches and 3.8% using snus in the past year.  

Chair of Cancer Council’s National Tobacco Issues Committee, Alecia Brooks said this growth shows why any response must combine strong enforcement with measures that prevent uptake in the first place. "These products are illegal to sell in Australia, so a tax cut on legal tobacco does nothing to touch them. The only way to combat this is the same way we need to combat illicit tobacco: sustained, demand reduction control policies alongside enforcement, supply-chain disruption and closing off the retail channels illegally selling them in the first place." 

She added that the time to act is now. "We've seen this pattern before," Ms. Brooks said. "A new product enters the market and is heavily promoted by the tobacco industry, gaining ground fastest among young people. By the time the data catches up, a new generation is already addicted. We should act to stop the industry’s insidious tactics now, not in three years' time."