Manager Kim in His 30s Who Used to Stick to Conventional Cigarettes Has Changed: "Feeling Self-Conscious Because of the Smell"

Conventional Cigarette Smoking Rate Among Men in Their 30s at 29% in 2024
Overall Tobacco Product Use Rate Stands at 40.1%

A smoking booth in downtown Seoul. Photo by Asia Economy Database

The proportion of men in their 30s who smoke conventional cigarettes (cigarettes with tobacco rolled in paper) has dropped by 19.5 percentage points compared to nine years ago.

According to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency's "2024 National Health and Nutrition Survey" released on October 9, 2025, the smoking rate of conventional cigarettes among men in their 30s was 28.5% in 2024, a decrease of 19.5 percentage points from 48.0% in 2015. During the same period, the smoking rates of conventional cigarettes among men aged 19-29 and those in their 40s dropped by 16.1 percentage points and 8.9 percentage points, to 22.6% and 36.9%, respectively.

In contrast, there was no significant change in the smoking rates of conventional cigarettes and the rate of change compared to 2015 among men aged 50 and older: 34.1% (-2.4 percentage points) for those in their 50s, 26.4% (+0.3 percentage points) for those in their 60s, and 13.5% (-3.5 percentage points) for those aged 70 and above. Therefore, the decline in conventional cigarette smoking rates was particularly pronounced only among younger age groups who are more socially active. This trend is interpreted as being due to the perception that the strong smell of tobacco is unpleasant to others.

Overall decline in tobacco product usage rate falls short of expectations

A citizen looking at signs for a rest area and a smoking zone. Unrelated to specific article content. Photo by Asia Economy Database

The decrease in the "tobacco product usage rate," which encompasses conventional cigarettes, liquid-type and heated tobacco electronic cigarettes, and other tobacco products, was far less significant. Statistics on tobacco product usage rates have been released since 2019. Last year, the tobacco product usage rate among men in their 30s was 40.1%, a decrease of only 4.9 percentage points compared to 2019. During the same period, the conventional cigarette smoking rate among men in their 30s dropped by 10.7 percentage points.

Similarly, the decrease in the tobacco product usage rate among men aged 19-29 (10.5 percentage points) was much less than the decrease in their conventional cigarette smoking rate (15.2 percentage points). For men in their 40s, while the conventional cigarette smoking rate dropped by 1 percentage point, the tobacco product usage rate actually increased by 1.6 percentage points. This suggests that increased use of alternatives such as electronic cigarettes has contributed to the decline in conventional cigarette smoking rates. Some smokers turn to electronic cigarettes believing they are less harmful to health, but experts point out that electronic cigarettes are just as harmful as conventional cigarettes.

While conventional cigarettes produce smoke through combustion (burning), electronic cigarettes generate vapor through heating. Because electronic cigarettes do not burn tobacco, they contain little tar or carbon monoxide, but they are by no means harmless. In particular, like conventional cigarettes, they contain nicotine, and harmful substances such as formaldehyde and acetaldehyde are generated during heating. Some of the flavoring agents used in electronic cigarettes are also known to cause lung inflammation and allergic reactions.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.