Lowest Prevalence of Smoking in High Income Countries (2015)
Knowledge•Action•Change (2018)- No Fire, No Smoke: The Global State of Tobacco Harm Reduction
Levels of smoking in many higher income countries have fallen since the early 1970s, and are now low by international standards as shown in this figure (and defined as under 20 percent of adults smoking). This is largely due to greater public awareness of the importance of a healthier lifestyle including exercise, nutrition, diet, lower alcohol consumption, as well as the introduction of various tobacco control measures including advertising bans, smoke-free environments and higher taxation.
The WHO statistics in this figure demonstrate the comparison between countries based on 2015 data. Prevalence data changes over time – for example the latest UK Office for National Statistics report says 15.1% of people aged 18 years and above smoked cigarettes, considerably lower than the WHO adult smoking estimate.
See also p. 18 of the report: No Fire, No Smoke: The Global State of Tobacco Harm Reduction 2018 — Global State of Tobacco Harm Reduction (gsthr.org)
