Smoking Rate
Smoking Rate by country
Commentary
Notable countries
The lowest smoking rates are in Nigeria (3.3%), Ghana (3.5%), and Ethiopia and Panama (both 5.3%), all far below the 166-country mean of 20.31%. At the other end, Timor-Leste (48.6%), Lebanon (45.6%), and Myanmar (44.5%) have the highest rates, with several European and Oceanian countries also clustered near the bottom of the ranking. A notable surprise is that many of the best-performing countries are in Africa, while some of the worst rates appear in Europe and Oceania.
Regional trends
By continent average, North America (12.05%) and Africa (12.55%) have the lowest smoking rates, followed by South America (14.99%), all below the global mean. Asia sits higher at 22.95%, while Europe (27.27%) and especially Oceania (28.69%) have the highest regional averages. This suggests smoking is generally more prevalent in Europe and Oceania than in the Americas or Africa in this dataset.
Data source
The data come from the WHO GHO 2022 and measure smoking rate as the percentage of adults. Coverage includes 166 countries. Lower values are better, and the figures reflect only countries with available data.
Interpretation
A high value means a larger share of adults smoke, which generally points to greater public health risk; a low value means smoking is less common. The wide spread between the lowest and highest countries shows that smoking prevalence varies greatly across the world. Overall, the data suggest some regions have kept adult smoking relatively low, while others still face very high prevalence.