In Portugal, Vape Pens Gather Dust While Old Cigarettes Keep Burning

It is hard to miss the contradiction: Portugal appears on the podium of countries with the lowest uptake of electronic cigarettes, yet continues to sit well above the European average for old-fashioned cigarette smoking. New rules that place heated tobacco and vaping liquids under the same umbrella as Marlboro packs were supposed to start tilting the balance, but early figures suggest the nation is still lighting up more than it is plugging in.

Portugal’s smoking paradox: fewer vapes, more cigarettes

Until recently, Portuguese policymakers celebrated the country’s negligible appetite for e-cigarettes—only 1 % of adults used them in 2023, according to the latest World Health Organization estimates. The European mean is almost double, and among teenagers the gap is even wider: 5 % of Portuguese adolescents vape versus 11.6 % across the continent. At first glance that looks like a public-health victory. The caveat is that the same surveys show 28.6 % of adults still smoke conventional products, a rate that eclipses the European average of 24.1 % and sits close to the levels observed two decades ago. Experts at Lisbon’s National School of Public Health call the coexistence of “vanishing vapes and stubborn cigarettes” one of the oddest trends in Europe.

Why are Portuguese smokers sticking with tobacco?

Part of the answer lies in culture. In cafés from Braga to Faro, coffee–cigarette rituals remain a social lubricant, while vaping has never managed to shed its image as a gimmick. Price plays a role too: a standard pack still costs less than €6 in many districts, well below the €10-plus commonly seen in France or Ireland. Researchers also point to Portugal’s historically late adoption of comprehensive indoor-smoking bans, which only reached full force after 2019. Meanwhile, the aggressive taxation applied to vaping liquids—up to €0.77 per ml for disposable pods—makes the electronic alternative less attractive to price-sensitive smokers.

The legislative squeeze: what has changed since 2024

A sweeping decree that entered into force in January 2024 placed heated-tobacco sticks, nicotine pouches and e-liquids under almost the same display, packaging and advertising rules as traditional cigarettes. Graphic photo warnings now cover the slick foil pouches of tobacco-heating devices, and all flavoured cartridges were removed from shelves on 16 January 2024. The outdoor smoking perimeter widened around schools, hospitals and transport hubs, effectively pushing smokers off most pavements within city centres. From January 2025, kiosks and petrol stations inside those restricted zones will also lose the right to sell tobacco—an unprecedented limitation in Portuguese retail law.

Taxes, prices and the public-health calculus

Despite tougher rules, the government left excise-duty hikes out of the 2025 budget, a move that triggered fury among pulmonologists who describe it as “public-health malpractice”. Cigarette tax will edge up by only 4 %, keeping Portugal near the bottom of the EU price table. Heated tobacco faces a phased levy—currently 75 % of the minimum cigarette tax, rising to parity in 2026—while e-liquids already pay some of the continent’s highest rates. The Ministry of Finance defends the differentiation, saying lower-risk products should remain cheaper to encourage switching. Health-care economists counter that early-2025 fiscal data signal a 50 % surge in tobacco revenue, hinting at rising consumption rather than substitution.

Youth habits: cautious optimism or statistical mirage?

When it comes to teenagers, the narrative looks rosier. The prevalence of vaping among 13- to 15-year-olds appears to have plateaued at 5 %, below both the 2019 experimentation rate of 22 % and the global average of 7.2 %. Yet epidemiologists warn that comparison is slippery: the older surveys measured one-time experimentation, whereas current figures track regular use. Moreover, the same WHO report estimates that Portuguese youth who do take up vaping are nine times more likely to progress to cigarettes than their non-vaping peers. In other words, low prevalence today does not guarantee a smoke-free cohort tomorrow.

What happens next: targets, skepticism and the road to 2040

Lisbon has repeatedly vowed to deliver a “Tobacco-Free Generation” by 2040, aligning with more ambitious Nordic benchmarks. The legislative muscle is clearly flexing, but critics say the absence of large-scale public-awareness campaigns, coupled with modest tax rises, risks turning the slogan into a hollow marketing line. A mid-2025 evaluation by the Liga Portuguesa Contra o Cancro will offer the first hard numbers on whether the new perimeter bans and retail restrictions are nudging smokers toward quitting rather than simply relocating their habit. Until then, Portugal’s position remains paradoxical: it is the country where vaping is rare, but the whiff of cigarette smoke is still an everyday soundtrack.