In 2025 German authorities collected taxes on 66.4 billion cigarettes, a rise of about 0.1 billion items-roughly 0.2 percent-over the 2024 total, the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) reported on Friday. Yet, when the figures are compared with 1991, the year in which more than 146 billion cigarettes were taxed, the volume has fallen by more than half.
Per‑capita consumption in 2025 was 795 cigarettes, down sharply from 1,831 in 1991. The quantity of fine‑cut tobacco subject to tax slipped 1.2 percent, reaching 24,864 tons. Sales of cigars and cigarillos also declined, dropping 6.6 percent from the previous year to 2.1 billion pieces.
Hookah tobacco sales totaled 1,162 tons in 2025, a decrease of 8.8 percent from the year before. The July 1, 2024 amendment to the tobacco tax regulation has restored the availability of all package sizes for hookah products; the 25‑gram maximum introduced on July 1, 2022 has been lifted. In contrast, the market for classic pipe tobacco grew by 2.9 percent compared with 2024, reaching 323 tons.
Finally, the volume of tax‑assessed substitutes for tobacco-such as e‑cigarette liquids and vaporizers-hit 1.5 million liters in 2025, an increase of 18.2 percent relative to the prior year, according to Destatis.