World consumption of cigarettes 1880-2020

In 2020, around 5.2 trillion cigarettes were consumed worldwide. This was a decrease from the total number of cigarettes consumed in previous years. The region with the highest number of cigarettes consumed worldwide, excluding China, is Europe. However, China alone consumed over double the number of cigarettes that Europe did in 2020.

Smoking continues to decrease around the world

Overall, the prevalence of tobacco smoking has decreased around the world. In the year 2000, it was estimated that around 27 percent of the world population smoked, with this number decreasing to 17 percent by the year 2020. Every region around the world has seen a decrease in tobacco smoking, but some places have seen larger declines than others with South-East Asia seeing the largest change from 2000 to 2020. Men continue to smoke at much higher rates than women, although the prevalence of tobacco smoking among both men and women has declined over the past two decades. In 2020, around 29 percent of men and five percent of women worldwide smoked. In the year 2000 an astonishing 44 percent of men smoked tobacco.

Which countries smoke the most?

As of 2019, the country with the highest number of smokers was China. As of that time, there were around 341 million people in China who smoked. However, given that China is the country with the largest population worldwide, it may not be surprising that it has the highest number of smokers. When looking at the percentage of the population that smokes, China is not even among the top 20 countries. The countries with the highest prevalence of smokers are Kiribati, Nauru, and Papa New Guinea. On both of the small Pacific Island countries of Kiribati and Nauru around 37 percent of the population smokes tobacco.