Key facts

• Tobacco kills up to half of its users who don’t quit (1-3).
• Tobacco kills more than 8 million people each year, including an estimated 1.3 million non-smokers who are exposed to second-hand smoke (4).
• Around 80% of the world's 1.3 billion tobacco users live in low- and middle-income countries.
• In 2020, 22.3% of the world’s population used tobacco: 36.7% of men and 7.8% of women.
• To address the tobacco epidemic, WHO Member States adopted the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC) in 2003. Currently 182 countries are Parties to this treaty.
• The WHO MPOWER measures are in line with the WHO FCTC and have been shown to save lives and reduce costs from averted healthcare expenditure