Prevalence of current tobacco use among adults aged ≥ 15 years (percentage)
Rationale for use
Prevalence of current tobacco smoking among adults is an important measure of the health and economic burden of tobacco, and provides a baseline for evaluating the effectiveness of tobacco control programmes over time. While a more general measure of tobacco use, including both smoked and smokeless products, would be ideal, data limitations restrict the present indicator to smoked tobacco. Occasional tobacco-smoking constitutes a significant risk factor for tobacco-related disease, and is therefore included along with daily tobacco-smoking.
Definition
Prevalence of current tobacco-smoking (including cigarettes, cigars, pipes or any other smoked tobacco products). Current smoking includes both daily and non-daily or occasional smoking.
Associated terms
The specific definition of non-daily or occasional smoking is not necessarily consistent between surveys.
Data sources
The WHO Survey Programme and World Health Survey compile comprehensive baseline information on the health of populations and on the outcomes associated with investment in health systems. The WHO Global InfoBase collects all country-level data on important noncommunicable-disease risk factors for all WHO Member States. It acts as a repository for all survey information relevant to eight risk factors, including tobacco use.
Methods of estimation
-
World Health Survey methods
Empirical data only. -
WHO Global Infobase metadata for surveys
The methods underlying WHO Global InfoBase data vary according to the source, and additional data may have been obtained from communications with authors.
Disaggregation
Varies by survey; includes disaggregation by sex, age, location and socioeconomic characteristics.
References
Database
Comments
Cross-country comparisons are problematic as survey methods and definitions may vary between sources. Footnotes in the year column of the tables indicate those surveys that were conducted in subnational populations, among adult subgroups, or for a sub-sample of smoked tobacco products (e.g. cigarettes only).