Around 6 million people may die each year worldwide staring in in 2010 because of smoking and tobacco related disease, according to the World Health Organization – including over 438,000 Americans, 650,000 Europeans and 1.2 million people in China.

Tobacco use will kill 1 billion people worldwide in the 21st century if current smoking trends continue.

6.6 billion people are on this planet and 1.3 billion are smokers, the International Union against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (The Union) and the World Lung Foundation (WLF) told the 38th Union World Conference on Lung Health.

66 percent of all smokers live in just 15 countries, according to The Union and the WLF.

1.8 billion young people aged of 10 to 24 smoke cigarettes, according to the World Health Organization.
* More than 85 percent of these young smokers live in developing countries (WHO).

One billion men and about 250 million women use tobacco every day around the world, according to a study presented at the 14th World Conference on Tobacco or Health.

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There are thought to be 800 million smokers in developing countries and only 1.1 billion smokers worldwide (WHO).

Learn more about how many people smoking kills worldwide.

45+ million Americans smoked in 2006. That's 20.8 percent of Americans, according to estimates from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

American men smoked at a rate of nearly 24 percent of the population, while 18 percent of women smoked.

2.4 million cases of cancer in the US from 1999 to 2004 were caused by tobacco use, according to the CDC.

Read on for more international smoking facts.

• More than two thirds of the world's smokers live in just 10 countries (WHO):
  1. China
     
  2. India
     
  3. Indonesia
     
  4. Russia
     
  5. US
     
  6. Japan
     
  7. Brazil
     
  8. Bangladesh
     
  9. Germany
     
  10. Turkey

• Tobacco is a "major health problem" in Southeast Asia. "Approximately 50 percent of males smoke and youths, especially girls, continue to take up smoking," experts from eight of the 10 Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) members said. ASEAN consists of Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

• The global anti-smoking pact was operational beginning February 27, 2005 for countries that have actually ratified it. It was the first international treaty against smoking, including an advertising ban, and was signed by more than 190 countries on May 21, 2003.

• In China, there are about 350 million smokers (about 25 percent of the population). It's also one-third of the world's smokers, according to World Health Organization statistics.
      * 100 million smokers in China are under the age of 18, according to the Chinese health ministry.
      * Chinese smokers polish off more than 37 percent of the world's cigarettes.
      * 60 percent of Chinese men smoke.
      * Did you you that just 10 percent of Chinese Americans smoke in the US as opposed to the 36 percent smoking rate in China itself?
      * About 40 million of China's 130 million children aged 13 to 18 had tried smoking, according to a Health Ministry report.
      * 56.8 percent male Chinese doctors smoke, highest in the world, according to a report by the China Preventive Medicine Association.

• Spain deals low price tobacco brands a blow. 9 months after passing tough new legislation limiting lighting up in public places, which set off a bitter price war by tobacco manufacturers, Spain hiked cigarette tobacco taxes to 70 euros (90 dollars) per 1,000 cigarettes.

• "20 million cigarettes are smoked every day in Egypt (that's billions of cigarettes each year). . . There are no accurate figures for shisha (hookahs) but it is becoming a modern trend," Egyptian Health Minister Hatem al-Gabal said.
      * "An average of 2.5 percent of household income is spent on tobacco in Egypt, which is more than on health and leisure," Dr Fatima el-Awa, from the World Health Organization's (WHO) regional office said.

• Did you know that the regular tobacco waterpipe (hookah) smoker is exposed to larger amounts of nicotine, carbon monoxide and certain other toxins than the typical cigarette smoker? (WHO).

• In India, tobacco use causes nearly 40 percent of all health problems and 50 percent of all cancers, according to Health Minister, Anbumani Ramadoss.
      * Nearly 17 percent of students in India, aged 15 and under, use some form of tobacco, mainly cigarettes, according to a survey conducted by the World Health Organization.
      * Can you believe some 37 percent of kids below the age of 10 tried smoking cigarettes? This, however, is down from 49 percent of Indian children who tried their first cigarette (from WHO study above).
      * Teaching tobacco use? More than a third of school personnel, including teaching staff, are tobacco users (from WHO study above).

  
  

  Numbers Don't Lie: Percentage of International Smokers

  
  

• Mexico has 13 million smokers within its population of 105 million.
  * Around half the adult population are smokers or ex-smokers, according to the National Statistics Institute.

• In Russia, 60 percent of men smoke and 30 percent of women as well.
      * In 1992, 7 percent of Russian women smoked vs almost 15 percent by 2003, according to a journal Tobacco Control report (see below).
      * The number of Russian men who smoke rose from 57 percent to 63 percent.

• In India, an estimated 120 million people smoke. But unlike Western countries, smoking is on the rise in India.
  * Cigarettes compromise just 19 percent of tobacco consumption. Bidis account for 53 percent, according to the Bidi Smoking and Public Health report by the Union Ministry of Health and Family.
      * Did you know that 800 million bidis are sold in India each year (see above)
      * Bidis contain more tar, nicotine and other toxic substances but less tobacco than traditional cigarettes.

• In Egypt, nearly 60 percent of the men use tobacco in some form in a country of 79 million people. Nearly half the men smoke.

• In Vietnam, not long ago more than 70 percent of men and nearly 5 percent of women regularly light up. Now just 56% of men and 1.8% of women smoker.
  * Young smokers make 31% of the total.

• In Turkey, nearly 66 percent of men, 20 percent of women and 11.7 percent of school children smoke. That's 25 million smokers in a country of 75 million smoking 115 billion cigarettes a year. Wow!

• Around half of Venezuela's 26 million people smoke.

• In Pakistan, over half of the adult population is addicted to tobacco in one form or another.

• In Greece, 45 percent of people smoke.
  * An estimated 600 people die each year from passive smoking.
  * Around one in three 12-18 year olds tried smoking.
  * 10 percent of Greek 12-18 year olds is addicted to smoking, according to a 2007 survey.
  * Smoking-related diseases cost Greece more than 2 billion euros a year.

• In Italy, between 14 and 16 million people smoke out of a total population of 58 million. In 2004, more than 26 percent of Italians smoked. That dropped to 24.3 percent in 2006 following the country's ban on January 10, 2005.

• Over a third of Indonesia's 230 million people smoke vs. just over 25 percent about a decade ago. This reverses smoking trends worlwide.
      * 63 percent of Indonesian men smoke
      * Indonesia is the world's 5th largest cigarette market.
      * A traditional clove cigarette, called "kretek", first introduced in the late 19th century to ward off illnesses, is still the cigarette of choice in Indonesia for about 90 percent of smokers.
      * "Kreteks" have about twice the nicotine and tar levels of ordinary cigarettes.
      * Some Indonesians smokers begin as early as 5 years old, government figures show.
      * Over 90 percent of Indonesia children have watched cigarette TV ads, according to the South-East Asia Tobacco Control Alliance (SEATCA).

• In Japan, 24.9 percent of adults smoke, a record low. The number of Japanese smokers has continued to fall since 1996. Young 20-something smokers clocked in at 14.3 percent, while 32.7 percent of those age 60 and up smoked, according to the annual survey by Japan Tobacco Inc, Japan's largest tobacco maker.
      * Japanese men's smoking rate was 60 percent in 1990 and currently 38.9 percent.
      * Japanese women's smoking rate now 11.9 percent down from 15 percent.

• In the Philippines, up to 35 percent of the country's 89 million people use tobacco.
      * 4 million Filipino young people between 11 and 19 years old smoke. About 21.6 percent of all young Filipino smokers vs about 18 percent in 2005 and 15 percent in 2003. And that number may continue to grow, in spite of new restrictions on tobacco ads, according to a 2007 survey commissioned by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the Philippines health department.
      * 1.8 million of these young smokers were girls.
      * Put your money where your butt is. Rural Green Bank of Caraga (Agusan del Norte province) offers an alternative quit-smoking program, a savings account. They teamed up with the non-government group Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA). A smoker, wanting to quit, opens a savings account where they deposit the money he would have spent on cigarettes for 6 months. If they are smoke-free aftter 6 months they can claim the account and are encouraged to start a small enterprise. Failure means the amount deposited goes to charity (there is a second follow up nicotine test made 3 weeks later).
      * Fr. Robert Reyes, a priest whose brother Vincent died of smoking, continues his brother’s P500,000 damage suit against Philip Morris and urges smokers to sue cigarette companies.
      * 80 billion sticks (cigarettes) are sold annually in the Philippines.

• In Nigeria, 13 million people smoke - - the smoking rate for adults is 17 percent and growing.

• In Iran, there are more than 10 million smokers and more than 45% of Iranians exposed to secondhand smoking.
  * The average smokers smokes 14 cigarettes a day.
  * Around 17,400 billion rials are spent on cigarettes each year, according to Tobacco Control Headquarters.

• In Nepal, 49 percent of the men and 29 percent of the women are smokers.

• Around 38 percent of the Slovak population of 5.5 million smoked (2006).

• British adults smoke were about 25 percent of the population. That's 10 million people.
      * Just 67% of UK smokers polled said they wanted to quit smoking in 2008/2009, well under the 74% number of smokers polled in 2007 (ONS).
      * Dance, dine and then quit smoking. Smokers first get tips to cook up tasty treats at a Preston restaurant; next they receive salsa dancing lessons; and finally, they are shown how to quit smoking by the NHS Central Lancashire Stop Smoking Service along with The Olive Press in Winckley Square, Preston, Lancashire.
      * Around 31 percent of smokers surveyed by the Office for National Statistics in the UK said that they wanted to kick the habit. The reasons: too expensive and smoking was a waste of money.
      * Football team Hartlepool United drafted Nicotinell for a promotional campaign to get fans trying to quit smoking to register online and complete a questionnaire. They won £20,000 for the effort.

• About 33 percent of adults smoke in Argentina. The country is also one of the world's top 10 tobacco suppliers.

• About 33 percent of Uruguay's 3.4 million people smoke, anti-smoking groups estimate.

• In the Balkans, 30% to 40% of all adults smoking, making this European region one of the highest in Europe.

• 37 percent of Bosnians actively smoke and about 95 percent of 13-15 year old children are exposed to secondhand smoke at home.

• In Croatia, 32 percent of the 4.4 million people who live there smoke.

• The Czech Republic's smoking rate is 26.6 percent. Unfortunately it was 26.2 percent 10 years ago.
  * In 2006, 8.4 percent of Czech 15 year olds smoked, up from 5.8 percent in 1994.

• Around 30 percent of Europeans aged 16 or more admit to being smokers, according to a study by pollsters at Eurobarometer published by the European Commission. Highlights of their findings:
  * Greece with 42 percent of responders saying they smoked daily or occasionally.
  * Bularia 39 percent
  * Latvia 37 percent
  * France 34 percent
  * England 28 percent
  * Sweden 25 percent
  * Slovaks at 22 percent * 5 percent of the 26,500 European polls calling themselves occasional smokers
  * 10 percent of smokers claimed they had gone to another EU country to buy cheaper smokes in the past year
  * Less than a third of respondents believe the smoking kills warning on cigarette packets was effective
  * 20 percent of smokers said the smoking kills warnings would persuade them to cut down or quit
  * 22 percent of those surveyed said they quit smoking
  * 46 percent of respondents said they had never smoked

• South Africa's was 22 percent in 2006; that's down from 2 percent in 1995.
  * The South African smoking declined 40%: From around 2 billion packs of cigarettes in 1990 to 1.3 billion packs in 2005, according to a WHO report.
  * In the the 1990s, tobacco tax rates skyrocketed 250 percent (see above).

• In Iceland, about 24 percent of Icelanders smoke, 2005 was the most recent year statistics were avaiable.

• 22 percent of Finns smokes, Finalnd.

• In Sweden, 14 percent of the population smokes, according to The Swedish National Institute of Public Health (Dagen's Nyheter newspaper). Low for Western Europe.
  * 200,000 Swedes are no longer regular smokers in the past 5 years.
  * Women smoke than men in Sweden. This is rare.
  * Men who were sick or on disability were the only segment that increased smoking, up 19 percent.
  * Swedes are turning to suns as a smokeless tobacco replacement for cigarettes, especially wonen.
  * 14 percent.

• The South Korean smoking rate was 21.9 percent in 2007, according to the Health ministry (Yonhap news agency).
  * about 50 percent of South Korean men smoked, until 2006, when for the first time, the number of male smokers fell below 50 percent.

• In Hong Kong, around 14 percent, or 800,000 of the city's 7 million people have the smoking habit. A low number compared to most countries.

• In Macao, 17 percent of the population smokes, according to the Macao Special Administrative Region's Health Bureau.

• In Malaysia 21.5 percent of the adult population smoked in 2006, down from 25 percent in 1996, according to the Third National Health and Morbidity Survey.
      * The percentage of Malaysian women smokers has doubled to 480,000 in recent years, according to Health Ministry parliamentary secretary Lee Kah Choon.
      * There were more than 2 million smokers overall.
      * Malaysian smoking is increasing despite increasing prices and stepping up campaigns on smoking's health risks.
      * 467,000 smokers were between 13 and 17 years old with almost 10 percent being girls.

• In Thailand, the number of smokers fell to 9.4 million (17 percent) out of a population of 65 million.
      * Thai smokers puff through 110 million cigarettes daily.

• In Australia, 19 percent of the population smokes. That's down from 34 percent in 1980
      * 140,000 Aussie children were weekly smokers.
      * 32 percent of students tried smoking in 2007 (8 percent) VS 52 percent in 2001, according to a Auckland University survey.
      * 16.5 percent of Victorians smoke regularly today vs 21.1 percent in 1998, according to a Cancer Council survey.
      * Australian asthmatics health problems and increased risks fail to spur them to quit smoking, according to a report by the Australian Centre for Asthma Monitoring.

  - 55% of Australian men were more likely to quit or cut down on cigarettes vs. 44% of New Zealanders, according to a survey commissioned by Bayer Healthcare.

  This is revealed in a survey of 25 to 44-year-olds commissioned by Bayer Healthcare

• New Zealand's smoking rate is 19.9 percent for people age 15 and older, the lowest level in more than 30 years. There are 150,000 fewer smokers in New Zealand now.

• In lreland, smoking has increased since the 2004 smoking ban. 33% of the population smoked in 1998 that decreased to 27% by 2002 but rose to 29% in 2007, according to the Irish Government-commissioned National Health and Lifestyle Survey (SLÁN 2007).

• In Canada, 5 million people smoke or 17 percent, according to the Ministry of Health.
      * Canada's target for smokers in the country by 2011, 12 percent of the population. That's down from the current down from 19 percent of Canadians that smoke, according to Health Minister Tony Clement.
      * WOW! 58 percent of Canadian Inuits smoke on a daily basis.
      * Since 1999, more than 1 million Canadians have quit smoking (Canadian Cancer Society).
      * Canada estimates $16 billion dollars is paid by its government each year because of smoking and tobacco, including $4.4 billion in direct health care costs.     * The 22 percent rate of Quebecers who smoke has held steady for 4 years.
      * More than 100,000 Ontarians have quit smoking since 2006.

• In Saudi Arabia, an estimated 35 to 40 percent of those above the age of 15 smoke.

  * Around 24 percent of 13 to 15 year old male students smoke.
  * 8 percent of girl students in the Kingdom smoke.
  * The Saudi Arabian government spent about SR12 billion treating smoke-related ailments between 2000 and 2004.
  * Smokers in the Kingdom must now pay higher premiums for their health insurance.
  * In Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, a state-of-the-art smoking treatment clinic is being set up in 2009.
  * There are more than 50 regular anti-smoking clinics in the kingdom now.
  * Purchasing, supplies and maintenance departments in the Health ministry can't do business with tobacco companies (no more contracts).
  * Tobacco companies and their board members can no longer register as contractors with the Health ministry.
  * The Kingdom is the top Arabian tobacco importer with Iran in 2nd place, Jordan 3rd, Turkey 4th, Morocco 5th and Egypt 6th (using 2007 statistics).

• In Syria with nearly 20 million people, up to 60 percent of men and 24 percent of women smoke, according to a report by an official Syrian tobacco institution (the state news agency SANA).
  * There has been a 15 percent rise in the number of smokers in Syria's smokers in spite of bans on tobacco ads and public place smoking (2006).
  * Around 26 billion Syrian pounds (600 million dollars) is spent on tobacco and cigarettes by smokers each year.
  * Around 8 percent of Syrian smoker's income is spent on 3.6 kilogrammes (about 8 pounds) of tobacco per smoker each year.

• Singapore's smoking rate has risen. 13.6 percent of those aged 18 to 69 were daily smokers in 2007 vs 12.6 perent in 2004, according to the National Health Surveillance Survey 2007.
  * 25 percent of males smoked 13 cigarettes a day on average daily.
  * One in 27 females smoked 9 cigarettes daily.
  * Mandatory counseling for under-aged first-time smoking offenders begins May 2009 because young adults aged 18 to 29 were the heaviest daily smokers.
  * "No Butts Project" targets young adults who can redeem stamps when they attend smoking cessation events or counseling sessions.
  * Singapore’s Malay smokers faced the 2009 Muharam Challenge in which Malays ended the month long challenge with a 15% success rate of people quitting smoking vs. last year’s 10.5 percent.

• Bulgaria, where 52.4 of men are active smokers, is the third most active smoking nation among European members, according to a survey by the organizers of the "Help - a life without smoking" campaign.
  * 50% of Bulgarians pregnant women are active smokers.
  * 38.1% of women smoke today vs. 19% in 1986.
  * About 33% of kids aged 10 to 19 is an active smoker.
  * 1.9 million Bulgarians smoke an average of a pack a day.

• In Pakistan, tobacco and its by-products suck Rs1.2 billion out of people each year.
  * 24 percent of male and 16 percent female college students in Karachi are regular smokers.

• In France 2008 cigarette sales were down 2.3 percent from 2007, a record low, according to research by British American Tobacco.
  * 54.4 billion cigarettes were sold in 2008 at 5.30 euros a packet.
  * 1998 cigarettes sales were almost 85 billion at 2.96 euros a packet.

• UK: In 2008, 4,068 expected to quit on the Island out of 190,000 people estimated to attempt quitting in the South East, according to Smoking Toolkit study by Professor Robert West, a leading tobacco control expert.
      * More than 164,000 people have stopped smoking since the England and Wales smoking bans started.
      * Dundee, Scotland will give smokers from poor parts of the city $25 a week to buy fresh food. They must take weekly tests to prove they did not start back smoking again.
  * In 2008, over 12,000 people contacted Stop Smoking Wales to help them quit smoking.
      * 32 percent of Welsh smokers said they were smoking fewer cigarettes as a result of the ban.

• Yemeni (Yemen) people spend more than USD 107 million on cigarettes, according to a study by the National Program for Combating Smoking.
      * Yemenis smoke 6.4 billion cigarettes a year.
      * Cigarettes cost just YR 80 or almost US 40 cents a pack in Yemen.
      * Yemenis spend USD 156 million on chewing qat, a leafy narcotic, according to a study by the University of Hodeidah.

• Governments lost more than $40 billion in taxes because about 600 billion cigarettes were smuggled in 2006 or 11 percent of the world's consumption, according to the Framework Convention Alliance (FAC), an umbrella group of hundreds of anti-tobacco organizations, estimates.

Yes, smoking kills. Smoking is an international problem. Smoking around the world clearly will not end overnight. Are you part of the problem or part of the solution?

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