The French Observatory for Drugs and Addictive Tendencies (OFDT) has confirmed a significant shift in adolescent nicotine consumption. According to the newly released EnCLASS 2024 survey, traditional smoking is drastically declining among French youth, but high school vaping rates are climbing rapidly, increasingly serving as adolescents’ first introduction to nicotine.
The report, tracking trends from 2014 to 2024, highlights a clear generational divide. While middle schoolers (collégiens) are actually vaping less, high schoolers (lycéens) are adopting e-cigarettes, including disposable “puffs,” at record rates.
Demographic breakdowns reveal that high school girls are now more likely to have tried vaping than boys (48.7% vs. 43.2%). Furthermore, the educational track plays a major role in usage rates.
| Student Demographic | Experimentation Rate (2014/2015) | Experimentation Rate (2024) |
|---|---|---|
| Middle School (Collégiens) | 26.8% | 19.0% |
| High School (Lycéens) – Overall | 35.1% | 46.0% |
| General/Tech High Schools (LEGT) | 34.2% | 41.5% |
| Vocational High Schools (LP) | 36.8% | 58.7% |
Daily vaping among high schoolers has also more than doubled, rising from 2.8% in 2018 to 6.8% in 2024. Again, vocational students report significantly higher daily usage (11.1%) compared to their peers in general education (5.3%).
Crucially, the data shows that vaping is no longer just a transition tool away from combustible tobacco; it is becoming the primary habit. An increasing number of teens who experiment with e-cigarettes have never smoked traditional tobacco.
Among high schoolers who have tried both products, 39.6% tested the e-cigarette first in 2024, a notable increase from 28.9% in 2018.
This shift is most evident in daily consumption habits. Between 2018 and 2024, the rate of students who exclusively vape daily rose from 0.8% to 4.0%. Conversely, the rate of students who exclusively smoke traditional cigarettes daily experienced a massive collapse, dropping from 15.5% to a mere 2.9%.
