WHO: tobacco use is decreasing globally
Over the past two years, the number of tobacco users in the world has decreased by 19 million people. Today this figure is 1.25 billion people.
This was stated by the head of the WHO Department of Health Promotion, Dr. Rüdiger Krech, pointing out that such a decrease has been observed for the first time despite the continued growth of the world population.
A downward trend in tobacco consumption is observed in 150 countries.
Thus, according to WHO, the fastest rates of decline in tobacco consumption are in countries with lower middle income levels. Just 20 years ago, in these same countries this indicator was one of the highest.
The largest number of people who use tobacco live in the countries of Southeast Asia - 26.5% of the population. But it is in this same region that the prevalence of nicotine use is declining at the fastest rate.
In Europe, this figure is 25.3%.
The African region now has the lowest prevalence of tobacco use, declining from 18% in 2000 to less than 10% in 2022. In the Western Pacific region, tobacco consumption is also declining.
More than a third of countries in South and North America region are on track to meet the 30% tobacco reduction target by 2030. This makes the region second only to Africa in terms of the number of countries able to achieve the targets.
The only region where the number of consumers is expected to grow is the Eastern Mediterranean.
The activities of Turkmenistan in the fight against tobacco smoking have been repeatedly noted by the World Health Organization. The country has developed and approved the National Program for transforming Turkmenistan into a tobacco-free country for 2022–2025 and the Action Plan for its implementation.
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