1.1 billion smokers

The estimated total number of smokers globally – at 1.1 billion – is static, the same number as in 2000 and predicted to be the same in 2025, disproportionally affecting poor and marginalised groups, especially in LMIC.

And despite a more globally hostile environment for tobacco harm reduction, our exclusive survey of global prevalence of safer nicotine products (SNP) estimates that the total number of users of SNP stands at approximately 98m, of whom 68m are vapers. While from a public health perspective this is good news, it still means that after more than a decade of product availability, there are only nine users of SNP for every 100 smokers.

The highest number of vapers live in the United States, China, the Russian Federation, United Kingdom, France, Japan, Germany and Mexico. Japan has the highest number of heated tobacco product (HTP) users while Sweden and the US have the highest number of snus consumers. Use of SNP is holding up in countries such as the UK, Norway, Sweden, Iceland and Japan, although in the latter country, sales of HTP have slackened, possibly due to the number of early/younger adopters reaching saturation point.

See also p.6 of the report: Burning Issues: The Global State of Tobacco Harm Reduction 2020