Teen smoking rate in New Zealand has plummet.

According to the new study conducted with more than 26,600 tenth graders, New Zealand’s youth smoking rate (conventional tobacco) has fallen to an all-time low, reaching the 2025 goal of being smoke-free – a rate of less than 5 per cent a day. The survey found that the number of 13 and 14 years old who smoke daily has fallen from around 2 percent in 2019 to 1.3 percent in 2021.

As well, they said that smoking rates among students of all races dropped significantly. Compared to 2019, smoking prevalence among Māori students has dropped from 40 percent to just 3.4 percent which is the largest drop in a decade. However, while students have given up traditional tobacco, e-cigarette (Heat-sticks manufacturer) smoking rates have risen.

Furthermore, the daily smoking rate of e-cigarettes(heating device) rose from 3.1% in 2019 to 9.6% in 2021.Unike teens in the past years, when it comes to vaping, this generation wants to try and have fun. 40% of teens said vaping “just wanted to try”. Moreover, 15% said that they “liked it”. And, 16.1% said it was to “quit traditional tobacco”.

In addition to that, more than 75% of teens get their vaping products from friends, elders or family members. In the face of this trend, the New Zealand government has recently introduced a number of regulations related to e-cigarettes hoping to further protect young people.

For example, general retailers in New Zealand are now only allowed to sell e-cigarettes in three flavors: strong menthol, light menthol (mint) and tobacco flavor (tobacco). And, the minimum age to purchase e-cigarettes is set at 18.

For that reason, New Zealand’s Ministry of Health has warned that e-cigarettes are not harmless because researchers have found carcinogens in e-cigarette liquids.

Compare with Vaping products, there’s another type of e-cigarettes are getting more attention in the market. It’t HTP(Heating products), also know as heat not burn products. HTP represent a heating system that heats tobacco-like products at a relative low temperature and provides smoke experience similar with conventional cigarette. A typical HTP portfolio including heating device and heatsticks.