Tobacco smoking is one of the world’s largest health problems. Millions of people live in poor health because of smoking and researchers estimate that every year around 8 million people die an early death due to smoking.
It has been a major health problem for many decades. For the entire 20th century it is estimated that around 100 million people died prematurely because of smoking, most of them in rich countries.
The share of smokers among the world population is falling and because smoking is such a large health problem today this is one of the most positive developments in global health. It makes it possible that millions of people can live a longer and healthier life.
Read more: https://ourworldindata.org/smoking
Hannah Ritchie and Max Roser (2013) – “Smoking”. Published online at OurWorldInData.org. Retrieved from: ‘https://ourworldindata.org/smoking‘ [Online Resource]