BACKGROUND-AIM:
In 2014, France adopted its first National Tobacco Reduction Plan (PNRT) for the period 2014–2019, followed by two other plans. A variety of measures were implemented, including plain packaging, increased tobacco prices, the denormalisation of tobacco smoking through the expansion of smoke-free areas, reimbursement of nicotine replacement therapies, and the renewal of anti-smoking campaigns, notably the creation of Mois sans tabac (Tobacco-Free Month) in 2016. The third plan, for the period 2023–2027, reaffirmed the goal of achieving a tobacco-free generation by 2032. This paper aims to describe the evolution of smoking prevalence in France between 2000 and 2024, focusing on the last 10 years.

METHODS:
The data used comes from Santé publique France’s Health Barometers, cross-sectional telephone surveys which were conducted between 2000 and 2022 on random samples of the population aged 18-75 residing in France (between 3,229 and 28,224 people interviewed depending on the year). In 2024, the method evolved with the introduction of online data collection, and 28,066 people responded to the survey.

RESULTS:
In mainland France in 2024, 25.0% of people aged 18 to 75 reported smoking tobacco, and 18.2% were daily smokers. The prevalence of daily smoking varied from 13.2% among college graduate people to 22.6% among those with no qualification or less than high school diploma. It ranges from 9.9% among retirees, 12.4% among students, 19.4% among employed individuals, to 30.9% among unemployed ones. Following a period of relative stability between 2000 and 2016, a sharp decline in daily smoking prevalence was observed between 2016 and 2019, falling from 29.4% to 24.0%. Between 2019 and 2021, there was no significant variation in the prevalence of daily smoking among 18–75-year-olds overall, but it increased among those with lower levels of education and among women. Between 2021 and 2024, daily smoking in adult population fell from 25.3% to 18.2%. The downward trend observed since 2016, which was interrupted during the Covid-19 pandemic, is resuming. Since the launch of the PNRT in 2014, the number of daily smokers aged 18 to 75 has fallen by 4 million. At the same time, in 2024, 8.4% of people aged 18–75 reported vaping, and 6.5% reported vaping daily. These proportions have increased since 2016.

CONCLUSIONS:
The decline in smoking in France confirms the effectiveness of the tobacco control policies that have been implemented over the past 10 years. However, significant social inequalities in smoking prevalence mean that these measures must be continued and strengthened so that the benefits of this trend can be observed over the entire population.