While slightly over three-quarters (76.0 percent) of those aged 15 or over living in the European Union (EU) were non-smokers in 2014, 19.2 percent smoked some kind of tobacco products on a daily basis and a further 4.7 percent on an occasional basis.
In other words, explained Eurostat, nearly 1 in every 4 persons (24.0 percent) aged 15 or over in the EU was a current smoker in 2014.
The share of current smokers differs between genders, with a higher proportion of men (28.7 percent) smoking than women (19.5 percent) in the EU in 2014.
In addition, slightly more than a fifth (21.6 percent) of the EU population aged 15 or over was exposed, on a daily basis, to tobacco smoke indoors.
Among the EU Member States for which data are available, the lowest shares of current smokers in 2014 among the population aged 15 or over were recorded in Sweden (16.7 percent) and the United Kingdom (17.2 percent), ahead of Finland (19.3 percent), Portugal (20.0 percent), Luxembourg (20.4 percent), Denmark (20.9 percent) and Germany (21.7 percent).
At the opposite end of the scale, about 1 in 3 persons aged 15 or over was a smoker in Bulgaria (34.7 percent) and Greece
(32.6 percent), followed by Austria (30.0 percent), Slovakia (29.6 percent) and Latvia (29.5 percent).
Portugal also had one of the lowest rates of passive smokers, just 8.6 percent, only behind Sweden (5.9 percent) and Finland (6.3 percent).
With an average of 25 percent of smokers overall, men (28.7 percent) were more likely to be smokers than women (19.5 percent) in all countries.
In Portugal the difference was even greater since 27.8 percent of men smoked compared with just 13.2 percent of women.