Cigarette smoking and other uses of tobacco are major contributors to preventable illness and death. A 2008 World Health Organization (WHO) report estimated that around 70 per cent of the adult male population in Russia was smoking. Another WHO study estimated that prevalence of smoking amongst women is about one fifth of that amongst men. Prevalence levels of daily smokers are generally lower.
This map shows the population aged 15 years and over who are reporting to smoke every day based on a 2014 WHO study.
While global prevalence has not changed significantly in the past decades, overall numbers of smokers are even increasing due to growing populations. Therefore, the WHO introduced measures to reduce demand for tobacco products in order to support countries in their policy making. The “Enforce bans on tobacco advertising” measure is one of the key policies, because “tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship can make smoking more socially acceptable, impede efforts to educate people about the hazards of tobacco use, and strengthen the tobacco industry’s influence over media, porting and entertainment businesses” (WHO).
The map contains additional information on how far each country’s legislation is banning any forms of tobacco advertising promotion and sponsorship, giving an insight into how daily smoking prevalence in recent years relates to these policy measures. The measures shown here range from a “complete absence of ban, or ban that does not cover national television (TV), radio and print media”,
a “ban on national TV, radio and print media only”, a “ban on national TV, radio and print media as well as on some but not all other forms of direct and/or indirect advertising” to a “ban on all forms of advertising”.
A modified version of this map was published in the May 2019 edition of Geographical Magazine. The content on this page has been created by Benjamin Hennig. Please contact me for further details on the terms of use.