In 2013, 21% of adults globally were
current smokers – 950 million men and
177 million women. Despite increasing
global population between 2007 and 2013,
smoking prevalence has actually declined
worldwide from 23% in 2007, preventing
an increase in the number of smokers
in the world. The total remains at 1.1
billion smokers globally in 2013. Smoking
prevalence is highest in high-income
countries, with a quarter of adults (25%)
in 2013 being current smokers. In contrast,
21% of adults living in middle-income
countries and 16% of adults in low-income
countries were current smokers
As a result, 2.2 billion people in 65
countries (30% of the world’s population)
were covered by effective tobacco use
surveillance in 2014 through recent,
representative and periodic surveys of
both adults and youth, up slightly from
the 2 billion people in 65 countries (28%
of the world’s population) covered by
effective tobacco use surveillance in 2012.
More than two thirds of high-income
countries adequately monitor tobacco use
among both adults and youth, a level of
achievement accomplished by a quarter of
middle-income countries and one lowincome
country (Nepal)