All adult residents of the countries where Gallup specialists worked were asked to answer the question: "Have you smoked in the past week?" It turned out that the largest number of smokers live in Cuba – 40% of Cubans smoked at the time of this survey. In Russia, Belarus, Kuwait, Chile, and Bangladesh, 37% smoke. In Estonia, Latvia, Azerbaijan, and Indonesia, the number of smokers is slightly lower – 36% of respondents. In Kazakhstan, 35%; in Lithuania, 34%; in Argentina and China, 33% each; in Ukraine and Vietnam, 32% each. The most "smoky" countries also include Cyprus, Mauritania, and Slovakia (31% each). South Africa and Burundi are not far behind – there, about 30% of people have the bad habit. The latest data for the US shows that 24% of Americans smoke, and this is a record low.
The fewest tobacco lovers were found in Nigeria – 6%. Among the countries where the majority of residents are not susceptible to this bad habit are also El Salvador and Ghana (8% smokers each).
At the same time, researchers do not note a dependence between income level and smoking addiction, which sociologists talked about several years ago. For example, in the most smoking countries, the gross domestic product (GDP) per capita ranges from $700 to $23,100 per year. On the other hand, absolutely all countries with the smallest number of smokers are among the most underdeveloped states. At the regional level, the most smoking occurs in the countries of the former USSR and Central Europe, where on average smokers make up 29% of the adult population. The European Union is not far behind (28%). Central America and South Asia can be considered non-smoking, where only 12% of smokers are counted.
Artem OPARIN.
"Novye Izvestia"