Smokefree Aotearoa 2025

A smokefree Aotearoa

Being smokefree helps us to embrace the health and wellbeing of our whānau and community. 

Being smokefree means:

• you will be healthier
• there is less chance that your children will smoke
• you won’t be breathing in second-hand smoke, which causes a lot of health problems
• you can save money
• you will not be supporting an industry that contributes to over 8 million deaths globally each year.

The rate of daily smoking has declined steadily since 2011/2012, when it was 16.4%. In 2023/2024, the smoking rate was 6.9%, similar to the previous year 6.8%. Get more facts about our smoking rates.

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.

Smokefree 2025 and the Plan

The Smokefree 2025 goal is to see fewer than 5% of all New Zealanders smoke by the end of 2025, across all population groups.

As of November 2024, the Government has put a plan in place with a final push to achieve Smokefree 2025. Mahi will focus on harm reduction and building on proven tools and approaches such as:

• energised and supported smoking cessation services
• effective marketing and health promotion messaging
• community mobilisation
• a connected and collaborative health response
• innovation, including additional reduced-harm products to help people quit smoking.

The Getting to Smokefree 2025 plan builds on actions we know are working and includes new actions to accelerate progress.

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 Māori Affairs Select Committee Inquiry Report.

You can also read the Government’s response to the inquiry. The first Smokefree Aotearoa Action Plan, released in December 2021, is also available.

Smokefree 2025 Resources

The Smokefree 2025 and Auahi Kore 2025 logos can be downloaded from the World Smokefree May NZ website.

The Smokefree2025 and Auahi Kore 2025 stickers can be ordered free of charge from the Health Promotion resource store.

Getting involved

This website and a range of services in your community is a great place to start to make Smokefree 2025 a reality. You can also:

• get support to stop smoking
• help someone else to stop smoking
• make your community smokefree
• protect your family from second-hand smoke
• learn about vaping and how it can help some people to stop smoking
• be informed by the smoking trends in Aotearoa
• become informed about the health effects of smoking.