The document summarizes the results of a 2010 survey on smoking conducted in 18 European countries with over 18,000 participants. Some key findings include: - Overall tobacco tax evasion based on invalid health warnings or tax stamps was less than 8%, highest in Latvia, Bulgaria, and Sweden. - Around 80% of non-smokers and 50% of smokers supported a 5% price increase for cigarettes if funds support smoking cessation. - Assuming a 20% price increase, 14% of current smokers would quit, 31% would reduce consumption, and 22% would switch to cheaper cigarettes.

1. The PPACTE survey on the economic
aspects of smoking in Europe
Silvano Gallus
Department of Epidemiology
Istituto di Ricerche Farmacologiche Mario Negri, Milan
Barcelona, 5 July 2012
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2. European survey
• Within WP2 of the PPACTE project, in 2010 a face-to-
face European survey on smoking has been
conducted in 18 European countries.
• Sample size for each country: around 1,000
individuals, representative of the population aged 15
years or over.
• A total of 18,056 subjects (8,653 men and 9,403
women) were enrolled.
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3. European countries
• Albania [AL]
• Austria [AU]
• Bulgaria [BG]
• Croatia [HR]
• Czech Republic [CZ]
• Finland [FI]
• France [FR]
• Greece [EL]
• Hungary [HU]
10. Ireland [IE]
11. Italy [IT]
12. Latvia [LV]
13. Poland [PO]
14. Portugal [PT]
15. Romania [RO]
16. Spain [ES]
17. Sweden [SE]
18. England [UK]
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4. Objectives
Among the main objectives of the survey in various
European countries there was the evaluation of:
• Cigarette purchasing patterns and extent of tax
evasion;
• Attitudes towards increasing in price;
• Behaviours towards fiscal policy.
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5. Cigarette purchasing pattern
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6. Tax evasion score (TES)
• To validate self-reported information on smuggling,
smokers were asked to show their latest purchased
pack of cigarettes. Interviewers collected information on
health warning and tax stamp.
• TES smokers were those with at least one of the
following characteristics:
4. Self-reported smuggling
5. Inappropriate health warning
6. Inappropriate tax stamp
7. Extremely low price
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7. Tax evasion score (TES)
The overall proportion
of TES was 7.5%.
The highest prevalence
was observed in Latvia
(38.8%), followed by
Bulgaria (24.1%) and
Sweden (19.4%). The
countries with the
lowest prevalence of
TES were France
(2.6%), Greece (2.1%)
and Portugal (0.0%).
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8. Tax evasion score (TES)
• Overall, tobacco tax evasion is less than 8%.
• Tax evasion more frequently affects less educated
subjects (OR=1.96), compared to more educated ones.
• Evaders more frequently live in countries with a land or
sea border with Ukraine, Russia, Moldova or Belarus
(OR=3.22).
• This confirms that the supply of the illicit cigarettes is
an important factor which contributes to tax evasion.
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9. Attitudes towards an increase
in cigarette price by 5 or 20%
Individuals (%) moderately to strongly in favour of an increase in price once
revenues were allocated to support smoking cessation measures
Increase by 5% Increase by 20% 9

10. Smoking behaviour assuming
a 20% increase in prices
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11. Conclusions
• In Europe, the extent of illicit trade for cigarettes likely
ranges between 4% (self-reported) and 8% (validated
with objective information).
• Around 80% [70%] of non smokers and 50% [40%] of
smokers support an increase in price by 5% [20%].
• Assuming a 20% increase in price, 14% of current
smokers would quit, 31% would reduce consumption,
22% would switch to cigarettes with lower prices and
34% would not change their habit.
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12. Thank you for your attention!
Silvano GALLUS, Alessandra LUGO, Carlo LA VECCHIA, Paolo
BOFFETTA, Frank J CHALOUPKA, Paolo COLOMBO, Laura CURRIE,
Esteve FERNANDEZ, Colin FISCHBACHER, Anna GILMORE, Fiona
GODFREY, Luk JOOSSENS, Maria E LEON, David T LEVY, Gunnar
ROSENQVIST, Hana ROSS, Joy TOWNSEND, Luke CLANCY.
PPACTE WP2: European survey on smoking. 2012.
The project ‘Pricing Policies and Control of Tobacco in
Europe (PPACTE)’ is partly funded by the European
Commission Seventh Framework Programme Grant
Agreement HEALTH-F2-2009-223323
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13. Methods
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14. Smoking prevalence
Overall, 56.8% of
18,056 participants
described themselves
as never smokers,
16.0% as ex-smokers
and 27.2% as
current smokers
(24.9% daily and 2.3%
occasional; 30.6% of
men and 24.1% of
women).
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