1-in-5 adults still addicted to tobacco, WHO says
The world is smoking less, but the tobacco epidemic is far from over. A new WHO global report shows the number of tobacco users has dropped from 1.38 billion in 2000 to 1.2 billion in 2024, WAM reported.
Since 2010, the number of people using tobacco has dropped by 120 million – a 27% drop in relative terms. Yet, tobacco still hooks one in five adults worldwide, fuelling millions of preventable deaths every year
“Millions of people are stopping, or not taking up, tobacco use thanks to tobacco control efforts by countries around the world,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General. “In response to this strong progress, the tobacco industry is fighting back with new nicotine products, aggressively targeting young people. Governments must act faster and stronger in implementing proven tobacco control policies.”
For the first time, WHO has estimated global e-cigarette use – and the numbers are alarming: more than 100 million people worldwide are now vaping. This includes:
- Adults: at least 86 million users, mostly in high-income countries.
- Adolescents: at least 15 million children (13–15 years) already using e-cigarettes. In countries with data, children are on average nine times more likely than adults to vape.
The tobacco industry is introducing an incessant chain of new products and technologies for its aim to market tobacco addiction with not just cigarettes but also e-cigarettes, nicotine pouches, heated tobacco products among others, which all harm people’s health, and more worryingly the health of new generations, youth and adolescents.
“E-cigarettes are fuelling a new wave of nicotine addiction,” said Etienne Krug, WHO Director of Health Determinants, Promotion and Prevention Department. “They are marketed as harm reduction but, in reality, are hooking kids on nicotine earlier and risk undermining decades of progress.”
While there has been a steady decline in tobacco use for both men and women across all age-groups during 2000–2024, women have been leading the charge to quit tobacco. They hit the global reduction target for 2025 five years early, reaching the 30% milestone back in 2020. Prevalence of tobacco use among women dropped from 11% in 2010 to just 6.6% in 2024, with the number of female tobacco users falling from 277 million in 2010 to 206 million in 2024.
By contrast, men are not expected to reach the goal until 2031. Today, more than four out of five tobacco users worldwide are men, with just under 1 billion men still using tobacco. While prevalence among men has fallen from 41.4% in 2010 to 32.5% in 2024, the pace of change is too slow.
