France: OFDT report on trends in youth vaping between 2014 and 2024

Ten years after the first data on adolescent vaping in France, the OFDT paints a mixed picture: e-cigarette experimentation is increasing in high schools, but daily smoking has been divided by three since 2018. However, a careful reading of the report reveals several methodological limitations.

Vaping increases, smoking declines

On April 29, 2026, the French Observatory for Drugs and Addictive Tendencies (OFDT) published its report on the evolution of vaping among middle and high school students between 2014 and 2024.

The report begins by highlighting a decrease in the proportion of middle school students who have experimented with e-cigarettes, from 26.8% in 2014 to 19% in 2024. Experimentation, however, increased among high school students, from 35.1% to 46% between 2015 and 2024. As with smoking, inequalities exist. For example, the increase in the proportion of high school students who have experimented with vaping is three times higher in vocational streams than in general streams.

Daily e-cigarette use follows the same pattern. 11.1% of high school students in vocational high schools used an e-cigarette daily in 2024, compared to 5.3% of students in general or technical high schools.

Regarding smoking, the data provided in this OFDT report is unclear, as it does not separate the two products. It merely points out that in 2024, "nearly one in ten high school students (9.5%) reports daily use of tobacco cigarettes and/or e-cigarettes" and that 2.6% are dual users (vaping and smoking). By way of comparison, they were 8.6% and 1.2% respectively in 2022. The Observatory explains that this increase is exclusively due to the increased use of e-cigarettes, recalling that between 2018 and 2022, smoking alone strongly decreased, from 17.5% to 6.2%, then 5.5% in 2024. It should also be noted that this figure differs slightly from that of the EnCLASS report published in February 2026, which indicated 5.6%.

One of the key sentences in this report is probably the one that follows these figures. The OFDT indicates that "the increase in daily e-cigarette use between 2018 and 2024 therefore does not replace daily tobacco consumption – which has sharply declined over the period – notably due to the ten-point increase in the proportion of high school students who were neither tobacco users nor e-cigarette users between 2018 and 2022". In other words, young people did not simply switch from smoking to vaping; they became non-users. At least, for the period 2018-2022. Between 2022 and 2024, vaping resumed an upward trend, rising from 3.8% to 6.8%, while smoking continued to decrease, but more slowly.

The other point to highlight concerns high school smokers. In 2024, an increasing number of them also vaped. In 2018, 11% of daily smokers (1.9% of 17.5% of smokers) also vaped. In 2024, this figure rose to 47% (2.6% of 5.5% of smokers). The number of daily smokers has therefore drastically decreased, but the remaining high school smokers are increasingly also vapers. Do these figures indicate a progressive substitution of smoking with vaping among high school students? The OFDT report does not allow for such an assertion. However, the parallel increase in the number of exclusive vapers, from 0.8% to 4%, could indicate this. It should be noted, however, that these latter data simply refer to vapers who were not smoking at the time of the survey, which includes both former smokers and individuals who may never have smoked, without the report allowing for their distinction.

Puffs, a gateway to vaping

Finally, the OFDT notes in its publication that in 2024, 16.6% of middle school students and 39.4% of high school students had already used a puff, representing 87.5% and 85.5% respectively of e-cigarette experimenters. Middle and high school students were also 11.5% and 16.6% respectively to have experimented with puffs without ever having used a refillable vape, representing 61.2% and 36.7% respectively of e-cigarette experimenters.

"These proportions confirm the appeal of 'puffs' among adolescents, which very likely constituted a gateway to e-cigarettes, particularly among middle school students," notes the Observatory.

Conclusions that raise questions

In its conclusions, the French Observatory for Drugs and Addictive Tendencies notes that the spread of e-cigarettes continues among adolescents, particularly high school students. It emphasizes that "however, this greater spread does not, for the time being, undermine the marked decrease in smoking among all adolescents."

The OFDT notes, however, that "e-cigarette use does not appear to be a substitute for tobacco cigarettes, but increasingly appears to be a complementary, or even exclusive, product." This statement is questionable, as the figures provided in its report do not allow for an examination of this point.

Beyond these methodological questions, the Observatory warns about the increasing number of vapers: "Behind this spread of e-cigarettes lies the question of an increasingly present online marketing strategy centered on younger individuals, as observed for 'puffs'." The OFDT also points out that among young people who have experimented with both vaping and smoking, an increasing number start with e-cigarettes: they were 28.9% in 2018 and 39.6% in 2024.

Key figures for youth vaping in France