Compare the cheapest and most expensive countries to buy cigarettes
ADVERTISEMENTThe price of a packet of cigarettes in Europe varies wildly from country to country – by more than ten euros.
A packet of the most popular cigarettes in Europe costs 11.23 euros in Norway, with Iceland, Ireland and the United Kingdom following closely behind.
While in Ukraine the same packet costs less than one euro, or 88 cents, making them almost 13 times cheaper.
Cigarettes in Eastern Europe are among the cheapest, rising around six-fold in Western Europe and peaking in the Nordic countries of Norway and Iceland.
The research in to cigarette prices in dozens of European countries was carried out by numbeo.com
The UK comes in as the fourth most expensive country to buy the Marlboro cigarettes at 10.26 euros.
Switzerland follows as the fifth most expensive, but the cost takes a fall to just over 7 euros.
While in Sweden, Germany, Finland and Belgium the same packets costs around 6 euros.
In France a packet will set you back on average 7 euros.
However, the French health minister Agnès Buzyn has said smokers should expect a price hike from 2018.
The minister said her goal is that the generation being born today will be the first not to smoke.
A number of countries have begun slapping heavy taxes on cigarettes in recent years, in a bid to discourage people from smoking.
In the UK smokers pay tax at a rate of 16.5% of the retail price, plus around 4.70 euros on a packet of 20.
Over the past few decades some countries have also begun introducing other deterrents, such a smoking bans in public places, graphic warnings on cigarette packets and enforcing plain packaging.