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Southeast Asian smokers are the largest group in the world, but also the fastest-decreasing.
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According to WHO, Southeast Asia has the highest average rate of tobacco use compared to all other regions, at around 50% in 2000 and 29% in 2020. The lowest average rates are in Africa, at around 18% in 2000 and 10% in 2020. These two regions maintained their positions as the regions with highest and lowest average rates in all years, but the gap between them has narrowed and will keep narrowing to 2025. Southeast Asia is tracking towards an average prevalence rate of 26% in 2025, and Africa is tracking towards 9%. Source: WHO global report on trends in prevalence of tobacco use 2000-2025, fourth edition.
Despite dropping smoking rates globally, Southeast Asia has the world’s highest number of smokers, based on data from the fourth edition of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) global report on trends in prevalence of tobacco use released in mid-November.
In 2020, Southeast Asia had 432 million smokers, dropping from 444 million in 2015, 454 million in 2010, 467 million in 2005, and 479 million in 2000. In comparison, figures for 2020 showed that the Western Pacific region had 406 million smokers, Europe had 180 million, the Americas had 128 million, Eastern Mediterranean had 92 million, and Africa had 61 million. In total, the world had 1.298 billion smokers last year. In 2020, 22.3% of the global population used tobacco, 36.7% of all men and 7.8% of the world’s women.
WHO estimates that the number of smokers in 2025 will drop to 1.27 billion globally, with 418 million from Southeast Asia, 408 million from Western Pacific, 168 million from Europe, 118 million from the Americas, 96 million from Eastern Mediterranean, and 62 million from Africa.
Report data also showed that aside from having the most smokers, Southeast Asia is also the region in which that number is declining fastest.