Tobacco smoking in Bhutan

In Bhutan, smoking is legal but certain regulatory restrictions exist for tobacco products including cigarettes. Based on these regulations, cigarette sales are allowed, and consumers are permitted to purchase them online as well as through vending machines. Moreover, import of cigarettes for commercial trade is allowed with an appropriate license. The country also mandates health warnings on all cigarette packaging and enforces a minimum legal purchase age of 18 years. Notably, no legal restrictions exist for smoking in public places. However, a comprehensive ban on all forms of tobacco advertising is enforced, and a total taxation rate of 12.46% without any excise tax is applied on cigarettes in Bhutan.

Bhutan reported a current tobacco smoking prevalence of 7.8% among adult individuals aged 15 years and older in 2024. The current smoking prevalence indicates that 3% of adult females and 12% of adult males were current smokers in 2024. This equals to approximately 48,000 smokers. The data show an increase both in the prevalence and total number of smokers than previous years. For reference, the adult daily smoking prevalence in 2017 was 4.3%, including 6% among males and 2.1% among females.

In terms of smoking-related mortality, data from 2021 show that there were 329 deaths attributable to smoking in Bhutan, representing 7.43% of all deaths in the country that year. This includes 248 deaths among males, accounting for 10.3% of all male deaths, and 81 deaths among females, making up 4.02% of all female deaths. These statistics highlight the ongoing public health burded of smoking in Bhutan, despite regulatory efforts to control its prevalence and impacts.