Global efforts to decrease tobacco smoking have been effective over the 25 years since 2000, but there is still much work to do.
This effort is critical as smoking is a major driver of lung cancers, accounting for more than 80% of cases worldwide. A new report from the World Health Organization (WHO) highlights the progress made and calls for stronger tobacco control policies to keep the momentum towards preventing avoidable deaths due to tobacco.
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The 2000–24 WHO global report on trends in prevalence of tobacco reported impressive reductions in the number of regular tobacco users worldwide, with 120 million fewer smokers in 2024 than in 2000 – a 27% decrease. But even with this remarkable decrease, almost 20% of adults still use tobacco and nicotine products. Women have had more success than men with quitting, reaching the WHO goal of a 30% reduction in smoking five years ahead of schedule in 2020. Smoking in men, however, is decreasing more slowly, with 32.5% of men worldwide still smoking as of 2024, compared to 41.4% in 2010.
The new report also included e-cigarettes for the first time, highlighting how the tobacco industry is targeting young people to hook children on nicotine earlier. At least 15 million children are using e-cigarettes, and the report found that children were nine times more likely than adults to vape. Regionally, Europe is now the highest prevalence area globally, and the Eastern Mediterranean region is seeing some countries still increasing in tobacco use prevalence.
In brighter news, the prevalence of tobacco use by men in Southeast Asia has decreased from 70% in 2000 to 37% in 2024, accounting for more than half of the global decline in tobacco smoking. This report highlights that while much progress can be seen, there is still work to do to prevent tobacco addiction and the harm that comes from tobacco use, especially in young people.
GlobalData monitors lung cancers across the 16 major markets (16MM: Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, India, Mexico, Russia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, the UK and the US) and expects an increase in both small-cell (SCLC) and non-small cell lung cancers (NSCLC) by 2029. By 2029, GlobalData epidemiologists expect new cases of SCLC to increase by more than 7,000 new cases annually compared to 2024. NSCLC is also expected to increase from approximately 1.4 million new cases in 2024 to 1.8 million new cases in 2032. These cancers represent only a few of the cancers that are known to be attributable to tobacco use, and there are effects of tobacco use that are yet to be understood.
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By GlobalDataThis increase in cases will continue until these cancers are prevented through the avoidance and cessation of tobacco use. With global health funding in a particularly uncertain state, tobacco control efforts will need to shift more locally to close loopholes that allow marketing that targets children, regulate new nicotine products like e-cigarettes, raise tobacco taxes and expand cessation services to prevent avoidable illness and death.Global efforts to decrease tobacco smoking have been effective over the last 25 years, but there is still much work to do.
This effort is critical as smoking is a major driver of lung cancers, accounting for over 80% of cases worldwide. A new report from the World Health Organization (WHO) highlights the progress made since 2000 and calls for stronger tobacco control policies to keep the momentum towards preventing avoidable deaths due to tobacco.
