Global tobacco use continues to decline around the world. There is increasing awareness of the serious health problems that smoking entails, but even so, in some places it is a vice that is far from being eradicated.
Our World in Data has created an interactive map in which you can check the percentage of the smoking population in each country on the planet, and also, how the data has evolved in the last 20 years.
Nauru, an island in the Pacific, is the nation with the most smokers (48.5%). Curiously, it is the country with the highest percentage of obese in the world. After Nauru is Myanmar (44.1%) and Kiribati (40.6%).
At the other end of the spectrum, smoking prevalence rates are below 5% in some parts of africa. Ghana ranks last on the list (3.5%), according to the most recent global data for 2020 published by the data tracking site. It is followed by 3.7% from Nigeria, and 5% from Panama.
And Spain? 27.7% of adults smoke, a figure that in the year 2000 was 36.8%.
Most smoking countries
- Nauru: 48,50%
- Myanmar: 44,10%
- Kiribati: 40,60%
- Serbia: 39,80%
- Papua New Guinea: 39.30%
- Timor: 39,20%
- Bulgaria: 39,00%
- Lebanon: 38.20%
- Indonesia: 37,60%
- Latvia: 37.00%
least smoking countries
- Ghana: 3,50%
- Nigeria: 3,70%
- Panama: 5.00%
- Ethiopia; 5.10%
- Turkmenistan: 5.50%
- Sao Tome and Principe: 5.70%
- Togo: 6,80%
- Benin: 6.90%
- Senegal: 6,90%
- Cameroon: 7.30%