Tobacco smoking in Jordan

In Jordan, cigarettes are legally available and allowed for purchase and use under a regulated framework. Cigarettes can be purchased online, but not through vending machines. Their sale and purchase are restricted to individuals aged 18 years and older, health warnings on packaging are mandatory, and there are legal restrictions on smoking in public places. Tobacco advertising is regulated and subject to a ban on all types of advertising. The total tax rate on cigarettes is 78.02%, including a specific excise tax of 64.22%.

The prevalence of tobacco smoking among adults aged 15 years and older shows significant gender and temporal variations. As of 2024, the adult current smoking prevalence was 34.7%, with a prevalence of 55.1% among males, and a prevalence of 12.8% among females. This reflects a slight decrease from 2020, when the overall prevalence was 35.2%, with a prevalence of 57.4% and 12.7% among males and females respectively. The number of smokers in Jordan in 2024 was approximately 2.8 million individuals, which shows a slight increase from 2020 with 2,775,597 smokers. The adult daily tobacco smoking prevalence in 2020 was 37.3%, with 58.9% among males and 15.1% among females.

The impact of smoking is evident in health data from 2021, where tobacco smoking contributed to 9.41% of all deaths, with gender-specific mortality rates at 12.36% among males and 4.83% among females. This means that smoking resulted in 4,290 deaths in the country. These figures represent the ongoing public health challenge caused by tobacco smoking in Jordan, necessitating novel public health interventions to mitigate health impacts from smoking.