Smokefree Aotearoa 2025
Learn about the Smokefree Aotearoa 2025 goal.
Smokefree 2025 and the Plan
The Smokefree 2025 goal was to see fewer than 5% of all New Zealanders smoke by the end of 2025, across all population groups.
The rate of daily smoking has declined steadily since 2011/2012 when it was 16.4%. In 2024/25, the smoking rate was 6.8%.
We are on the right track, but there’s still more we can do to eliminate significant smoking-related inequities. Māori, Pacific peoples and people living in the most disadvantaged communities of Aotearoa suffer much more from the harms of tobacco.
Read the Getting to Smokefree 2025 document
History of Smokefree 2025
In 2010, the Māori Affairs Select Committee began an inquiry into the tobacco industry and the effects of tobacco use on Māori. The inquiry looked at how the tobacco industry had encouraged Māori to smoke and the impact of smoking on Māori health.
It found:
- while overall smoking rates were reducing, rates among Māori and Pacific peoples were increasing
- Māori women have among the highest rates of lung cancer in the world
- tobacco-related illnesses like emphysema, cancer and heart disease have terrible effects on the whole whānau
- smoking has devastating effects on young and unborn children
- the cultural cost of tobacco to Māori includes the premature loss of kuia and kaumātua, taking away the opportunity for cultural traditions, knowledge and histories to be passed on to younger generations.
For these reasons, and many more, the inquiry outlined measures “to remove tobacco from our country’s future in order to preserve Māori culture for younger generations”. It was because of this inquiry the Smokefree Aotearoa New Zealand 2025 goal was set.
Read the full inquiry report and related documents on the New Zealand Parliament website.
New Zealand Parliament — Report of the Māori Affairs Committee
New Zealand Parliament — Government response to the report of the Māori Affairs Committee
The first Smokefree Aotearoa Action Plan, released in December 2021, is also available.