Fewer young people exposed to secondary smoking

• Fewer young people exposed to other people's tobacco smoke in 2025 than in 2019.
• The older young people are, the more likely they are to be exposed to other people’s tobacco smoke.
• Most children aged under 12 with a parent who smokes are not exposed to tobacco smoke indoors.

The proportion of young people who are exposed to other people’s tobacco smoke was lower in 2025 than it was in 2019. These are young people who do not smoke themselves, but are exposed to other people’s tobacco smoke indoors. The fall is mainly among people aged 18 to 24 years who are exposed to tobacco smoke at least once a week. Statistics Netherlands (CBS) reports this in its National Youth Monitor, which is based on figures from the National Health Survey/Lifestyle Monitor conducted by CBS in cooperation with the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) and the Trimbos Institute.

In 2025, 16 percent of people aged 12 to 17 years, and 18 percent of those aged 18 to 24 years, were exposed to other people’s tobacco smoke at least once a week. In 2019, the shares were 21 percent and 33 percent, respectively. The percentage fell in both these age groups between 2019 and 2021, and remained fairly stable after that. Among children aged under 12, the share exposed to tobacco smoke every week was lower throughout the whole period, and remained broadly unchanged.

There are also young people who are sometimes exposed to other people’s tobacco smoke, but less frequently than every week. The share of people aged 18-24 years who were exposed to other people’s tobacco smoke at least once a week in 2025 was lower than it was in 2019. The percentage exposed less than once a week remained unchanged. Among young people aged 12-17 years, the proportion exposed to other people’s tobacco smoke less than once a week went down over the same period.

Incidence of secondary smoking rises with age

The share of non-smoking young people who are sometimes exposed to other people’s tobacco smoke rises with age. In 2025, 4 percent of young people aged under 12 years were sometimes exposed, compared with 24 percent of those aged 12-17 years and 34 percent of those aged 18-24 years.

The fact that more people aged 18-24 years are exposed to tobacco smoke than people aged 12-17 years is mainly because in the older group, more people are exposed to other people’s tobacco smoke less than once a week. There is hardly any difference between the two age groups when it comes to daily exposure.

Previous research has shown that daily exposure to tobacco smoke is more common among children living below (or just above) the poverty line than among children in families with a higher income or sufficient buffer assets.

7 percent of young children with a parent who smokes are exposed to tobacco smoke every week

Most children younger than 12 with a parent who smokes are not exposed to tobacco smoke indoors. However, they are exposed to tobacco smoke more frequently than children who do not have a parent or guardian who smokes. 7 percent of young children with a parent who smokes are exposed to tobacco smoke indoors on a weekly or even daily basis. Among children with parents who do not smoke, the percentage is 1 percent. This percentage has been fairly stable since 2019.