Greece is among the top ten countries for the highest smoking rates according to data published by the World Population Review, citing statistics from the World Health Organisation.
According to the World Health Organisation.tobacco kills more than 8 million people per year, including both smokers and non-smokers who experience second-hand smoke.
Overall, the highest smoking rates are found in Southeast Asia and the Balkan region of Europe. Western European countries and the Americas tend to have lower smoking rates, However, this is not always guaranteed, as Chile turns out to have one of the highest smoking rates in the world. Of the top five countries with the highest smoking rates in the world in 2018, three are in the Pacific Islands, one is in Southeast Asia, and one is in South America.
In many South and Southeast Asian countries, the smoking rate tends to be very high for men and very low for women. In Indonesia, for example, the male smoking rate is 76.20%, and the female smoking rate is 3.60%.
In general, smoking rates have decreased around the world due to increased education on the effects of tobacco and anti-tobacco campaigns. In 2000, the United Kingdom had a smoking rate of 38%. It has since dropped to 19.2%.
Nauru has the highest smoking rates in the world at 52.1%. Oddly, women smoke slightly more than men in Nauru (52.6% to 51.7%), which is somewhat of an outlier. The second-highest rate belongs to Kiribati, whose (52.0%) total consists of 68.6% of males and 35.5% of females, which is a more typical distribution.
Meanwhile Greece is listed at number 9 out of the top 10 countries with the highest smoking rates:
Here are the 10 countries with the highest smoking rates:
- Nauru (52.10%)
- Kiribati (52.00%)
- Tuvalu (48.70%)
- Myanmar (45.50%)
- Chile (44.70%)
- Lebanon (42.60%)
- Serbia (40.60%)
- Bangladesh (39.10%)
- Greece (39.10%)
- Bulgaria (38.90%)
