Key highlights
- In 2025, Germany taxed 664 billion cigarettes, an increase of 0.2% from 2024 (about +1 billion cigarettes);
- compared to 1991, the taxed cigarette quantity has decreased by over half from 1.465 billion to 664 billion.
- The taxed amount of fine-cut tobacco was 24,864 tons (a decrease of 1.2%); cigars and cigarillos were taxed at 21 billion (a decrease of 6.6%);
- and tobacco alternatives (such as e-cigarettes/vaporizer liquids) were taxed at 1.5 million liters (an increase of 18.2%).
2Firsts, Jan 26, 2026
According to figures released by Germany’s Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) on Jan. 23, 66.4 billion cigarettes were taxed in Germany in 2025, up 0.2% (about 0.1 billion sticks) from 2024. Over the long term, taxed cigarette volumes have fallen by more than half from 146.5 billion in 1991 to 2025 levels. Per-capita consumption stood at 795 cigarettes in 2025 (vs. 1,831 in 1991).
Beyond cigarettes, taxed fine-cut tobacco (rolling tobacco) totaled 24,864 tonnes in 2025, down 1.2% year over year. Taxed cigars and cigarillos declined 6.6% to 2.1 billion units. Waterpipe (shisha) tobacco fell 8.8% to 1,162 tonnes, while classic pipe tobacco rose 2.9% to 323 tonnes.
Taxed tobacco substitutes—including, for example, e-cigarette/vaporizer liquids—reached 1.5 million liters in 2025, an 18.2% increase from the previous year. Destatis noted that specific tax rates for waterpipe tobacco and heated tobacco were introduced in 2022, and that e-liquids have only been taxed and captured in official statistics since July 2022, limiting long-run comparability. Germany’s current Tobacco Tax Act sets out differentiated tax schedules through 2027.
Image source: Destatis (German Federal Statistical Office)
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