Sweden is getting close to becoming the first “smoke-free” country in the European Union (EU). The country of 10.5 million people has had the lowest percentage of smokers in the EU for many years. A country is “smoke-free” if less than five percent of the population smokes daily. Only 6.4 percent of Swedes over the age of 15 were daily smokers in 2019. That was the lowest percentage in the EU. The Eurostat statistics agency says that across the 27 countries of the EU, the average was 18.5 percent. Data from the Public Health Agency of Sweden show that the smoking rate has continued to fall, reaching 5.6 percent last year.