The likelihood of New Zealand becoming smokefree by 2025 appears to be lessening as the deadline creeps closer.

As part of an ongoing study, a team of University of Otago researchers have found that to achieve the Government's Smokefree 2025 goal – to see fewer than 5 per cent of the population smoke in 2025 – there would need to be five times as many Māori quitting per year and twice as many non-Māori.