Global statistics

STATISTICS - UK

• About 12 million adults in the UK smoke cigarettes - 28% of men and 24% of women.
• In the UK approximately 450 children start smoking everyday. Smoking rates are highest amongst those aged 20-24 years: 38% men and 34% women
• About one fifth of Britain’s 15 year olds – 18% boys and 26% girls – are regular smokers – despite the fact that it is illegal to sell cigarettes to anyone under 16 years of age
• Deaths caused by smoking are five times higher than the 22,833 deaths arising from: road traffic accidents (3,439), other accidents (8,579), poisoning and overdose (881), alcoholic liver disease (5,121), murder and manslaughter (513), suicide (4,066), and HIV infection (234) in the UK during 2002. (source)
• Smoking causes about thirty per cent of all cancer deaths (including around 84% of lung cancer deaths), 17% of all heart disease deaths and at least 80% of deaths from bronchitis and emphysema.


Arteriosclerosis - This is the inside of an artery partly blocked by cholesterol, a fatty material. Smoking worsens this problem leading to serious circulatory problems.

• Lung cancer is the second most common cancer in the UK after breast cancer.
• There are over 38,000 new cases of lung cancer each year in the UK.
• In the UK, around 114,000 smokers die as a result of their habit every year. On a positive note though, people do give up – 21% of women and 27% of men are ex-smokers

STATISTICS – GLOBAL

• It is estimated that there are 1.3 billion smokers worldwide, almost 1 million are men – this is equivalent to about one third of the global population aged 15 years and above.
• Among young teenagers (aged 13 to 15), about one in five smokes worldwide.
• Between 80,000 and 100,000 children worldwide start smoking every day - approximately half of whom live in Asia.
• About 15 billion cigarettes are sold daily – equivalent to 10 million every minute.
• Estimated numbers of smokers in millions and smoking prevalence for people aged 15 and over in the world (latest available data) (source)

	Estimated number of smokers			Smoking prevalence
Countries	Males	Females	Total	Males	Female
Developed	275	150	425	35%	22%
Developing	700	100	800	50%	9%
World	975	250	1225	47%	12%

• By 2030, tobacco is expected to be the single biggest cause of death worldwide, with an estimated 10 million people world wide dying of tobacco related causes. Around 3 million of these will occur in the developed world and 7 million in developing countries. (source)
• Since the 1950s, more than 70,000 scientific articles have shown that prolonged smoking causes premature death and disability worldwide.  Overall, one in two smokers will die prematurely, with one quarter dying in middle age, losing 20-25 years of life.
• Smoking alone is estimated to have caused 21% of deaths from cancer worldwide Smoking was linked to 856,000 deaths worldwide from lung, bronchial and tracheal cancers, 184,000 oesophageal cancers and 131,000 oral cancers in 2001. In developed countries, cardiovascular disease is the most common smoking-related cause of death.