WHO says tobacco users down by around 19M globally in last 2 years

By Beyza Binnur Donmez

GENEVA (AA) - Global tobacco users have decreased by around 19 million globally in the last two years, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday.

"Globally there are 1.25 billion adult tobacco users worldwide, according to the latest estimates in the WHO global tobacco trends report released today. This is welcome news, particularly as the number is projected to keep going down as more and more people quit using tobacco or do not get started," Ruediger Krech, WHO director of health promotion, told a UN press briefing in Geneva.

"This is despite the continuing growth of the world’s population, which added approximately 149 million adults over the same period," he added.

Tobacco use rates have globally continued to decline, with only about one in five adults consuming tobacco in 2022, a significant decrease from one in three in 2000, the report underlined.

Krech said that 150 countries are now on a downward trend in tobacco use, with 56 of them already tracking toward the global target of a 30% reduction by 2025.

The report showed that the world collectively will only make a 25% relative reduction in tobacco use unless more concerted efforts are made to adopt stronger tobacco control measures, he noted.

The lower-middle-income group of countries is currently experiencing the fastest decreases in tobacco use, despite having the highest rates of tobacco use two decades ago, he said and added that this success demonstrates the effectiveness of tobacco control efforts even in challenging environments and low-resource settings.

According to the report, the highest prevalence of tobacco users is in the WHO South-East Asian Region, while the current lowest is in the African Region.

Krech urged countries to continue implementing tobacco control policies and the “fight against tobacco industry interference.”

He added that countries are set to meet in Panama next month for the 10th Session of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) Conference of Parties.