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The tobacco epidemic continues…

Tobacco control is clearly helping to save millions of lives but the scale of the epidemic demands our continued attention and support. Though consumption is declining, smokers are still buying trillions of cigarettes each year and the use of newer tobacco products is increasing in some countries.

The latest on the Tobacco Atlas

We are back with this 7th edition with new data, analyses and developments. We present the key tobacco-related challenges that the world faces and the solutions that are working to help beat the epidemic.

State of global tobacco

Between 2007 to 2021, the percentage of adults who smoked declined.
22.7%
2007
17%
2021
Read more about Prevalence State of global tobacco
Yet, because of an ever growing population, the number of smokers is still enormous.

Half will die from their habit.

Read more about Cessation Tobacco deaths
Today’s total number of smokers

1.13 billion people

Read about Deaths
The health care costs and lost productivity from premature death and sickness are staggering.

Nearly $2 trillion annually

Read more about Health Effects Health effects
With a sinister focus on replenishing their customer base and offer of new products, tobacco profits have continued to rise.

$60+ billion USD in 2019

Read more about Product Sales Tobacco Product Sales

Tobacco taxes work

Implementing taxes in these countries showed a significant decrease in consumption…
Sri Lanka
1.2
Change in score
-44.3%
Change in consumption
Kazakhstan
1.2
Change in score
-29.5%
Change in consumption
Chile
1.5
Change in score
-25.9%
Change in consumption
Colombia
1.8
Change in score
-37.5%
Change in consumption
Ukraine
1.8
Change in score
-36.3%
Change in consumption
Philippines
2.3
Change in score
-43.2%
Change in consumption
Peru
2.7
Change in score
-73.5%
Change in consumption
Georgia
2.75
Change in score
-40.6
Change in consumption
Saudi Arabia
3
Change in score
-37%
Change in consumption
Qatar
3.3
Change in score
-22.9%
Change in consumption

Tobacco taxes are the most effective tobacco control intervention but the least implemented. A sufficiently large tax increase will raise tobacco product prices—making them less affordable—thereby discouraging initiation, encouraging quitting, and driving down consumption.

Read about Taxes

The 2nd edition of the Tobacconomics Cigarette Tax Scorecard measures cigarette tax policy performance in 160 countries in four key areas – price, affordability change, tax structure and tax share. These scores help policymakers to evaluate their success and provide a roadmap for improvement.

Visit Tobacconomics Cigarette Tax Scorecard

Coming Next

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  • New Chapters

    Secondhand Smoke; Smokefree Spaces; Industry Strategies; Countering the Industry; Illicit Trade; Comorbidities; Waterpipe; and Regulating Novel Tobacco Products.

  • Costing Tool

    An interactive tool to generate up-to-date direct and indirect costs of tobacco for most countries. It will allow governments to estimate the costs of tobacco to society and users to change parameters to imagine how things could be better.

  • Pricing Data

    Tobacco product price data are vital for policy makers but often are poor or do not exist. A phone app for users to collect original tobacco price data. These data will be vetted and live for public use.

Chapters

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