China is The World's Biggest Consumer of Cigarettes

China remains the world's biggest consumer of cigarettes, with an average 4,124 cigarettes smoked each year by adults in the country (11-12 per day), according to the latest data from the World Health Organization (WHO) published ahead of World No Tobacco Day, May 31, 2017.

With an average 3,831 cigarettes smoked per adult per year, Belarus comes in second place in the ranking of 182 countries, followed by Lebanon (3,023), Macedonia (2,732) and Russia (2,690), according to the latest data from the World Health Organization (WHO), mapped on the website of the British online newspaper, The Independent.

At the other end of the scale, countries with the lowest consumption of cigarettes include Guinea, ranking lowest with an average 15 cigarettes per adult per year, The Solomon Islands (26 cigarettes), Kiribati (28 cigarettes), Uganda (41 cigarettes) and Rwanda (53 cigarettes).

France comes 61st in the list, with an average 1,023 cigarettes smoked per adult per year, just behind the USA, which ranks 57th. The European countries with the highest consumption of cigarettes are Belgium (7th), Czech Republic (11th), Austria (16th) and Germany (33rd).

Countries seeing a significant drop in consumption include the UK (a 27% reduction in smokers since 1974), which ranks 74th with an average 826 cigarettes smokes per adult per year.

On a global scale, around 40% of men smoke compared to 9% of women. However, the exponential growth of tobacco use among females is worrying. By 2030, tobacco use could kill up to 2.5 million women compared to 1.5 million today, according to the WHO.

Among male populations, Indonesians are the heaviest smokers (76%), followed by Jordanians (70%), Chinese (47%) and Russians (59%).

According to the WHO, more than 5 million people die every year from tobacco use, and approximately 1.5 million of those are women. Most (75%) of these women live in low- and middle-income countries. Unless urgent action is taken, tobacco use could kill up to 8 million people every year by 2030, of which 2.5 million would be women.

May 31, 2017, is World No Tobacco Day.