Smoking is the most wide spread addiction. Statistics show that in 90 years there have been 1,1 billion smokers in the world, among them 47% men and 12% women out of the whole population. Only in China there are 300 million smokers, 90% men and 10% women. In the developed countries 42% of all men and 24% of all women smoke, whereas in developing countries approximately 48% of men and 7% of women, because smoking has spread there only recently. Prevalence among men depends on geographic and also social situation. Most male smokers come from west pacific regions, where more than 60% of men smoke. In China, for example, which is the biggest country of this region, about 61% of men are smokers. The least spread is smoking among men in Africa, where less than 30% of men are smokers on average. In developed countries there are 37% of men-smokers, but in ex-socialist countries even 60% of men smoke. Smoking among women is less spread. In ex-socialist countries about 28% of women are smokers, in developed countries about 23% and in South America about 21% of all women. In other countries only 10% of women smoke. The age when a man smokes his first cigarette is getting lower every year. In lots of countries children start smoking already at 15. Smoking is also the most spread among young people. For example, in Africa more than 50% male smokers are under 35. In France and Spain more than 40% of youngsters (between 18 and 24) smoke. Smoking among the young seriously increases the danger of getting sick (chronicle bronchitis, lung cancer...). Moreover, young people cannot give up smoking very easily. Almost one half of people who smoke their whole life die because of cancer or other smoking consequences. One half of them die at middle age (35 - 69), the other at late age (over 70). On average, a smoker smokes 15 cigarettes a day. People in developed countries smoke the most cigarettes per day, about 25. In countries with developing economy a man smokes 14 cigarettes a day, but in ex-socialist countries of Eastern Europe even 18. In Africa an average number of cigarettes smoked per day is 10, in America and Europe, however, 18. Average number of cigarettes smoked in one day [per smoker] Region Cigarettes per day WORLD 15 Africa 10 North America 18 Asia 14 Europa 18 Australia 15 South America 16 Per year smokers smoke about 6 million tons of tobacco in different ways (cigarettes, cigars, pipe tobacco...). Consumption of tobacco increases every day, especially in poor countries, whereas in more developed countries it decreases, which is a result of people being more conscious of the harm caused by tobacco. In Europe the consumption of tobacco has remained almost the same in the last 20 years, in America it has decreased but in other countries it has been growing up very fast, especially in west pacific region. Consumption decrease in developed countries is very similar to the increase of tobacco consumption in developing countries. This is why an average consumption hasn't changed (One smokes 1650 cigarettes yearly.). However, China has its own specialities. From 1970 to 1990 the consumption there has grown for about 260%. Click on any continent! In 70-ties the greatest consumption of tobacco was in Canada, Switzerland, the USA, Australia, Great Britain and other developed countries. In that time a smoker smoked over 3000 cigarettes in a year. Later the consumption decreased. And in the 90-ties the biggest consumption was in Poland, Greece, and Hungary where it exceeded 3500 cigarettes on a person in years 1990-1992. In less developed countries the consumption has increased also because of duty-free shops in airports and boarding, where people can buy cigarettes at quite low price. Higher consumption resulted in higher production. For production of cigarettes man uses 60-80% of all produced tobacco, which is about 7 million tons per year. The rest is produced in pipe tobacco or chewing tobacco. Civil or great multinational companies, which control producing, manufacturing and sale of tobacco handle most of tobacco output. The greatest monopoly is in the hands of the government in China, where 17 billion cigarettes were sold in 1993, which means 31% of the whole sale in the World. Producing of tobacco (in 1000t) Dr¾ava In year 1970 In year 1988 China 801 1728 USA 819 765 India 353 439 Brasil 246 386 Russia 256 381 China is also the biggest producer of tobacco in the world. It produces even more tobacco than other 7 biggest countries together. Although tobacco grows in more than 100 countries, the first 25 producers cover already 90% of the world production. Countries, which import lots of unmanufactured tobacco, are usually also the biggest centres for its remaking. Most of them, like the USA, Germany, Russia and Japan also have the highest consumption of tobacco. Others, like Belgium and Singapore are the biggest tobacco-exporting countries. The USA used to export tobacco a lot for many years, but recently Brazil and Zimbabwe have become the leading countries in export of unmanufactured tobacco. Five countries (Brazil, Zimbabwe, the USA, Turkey and Italy) cover one half of the world export of unmanufactured tobacco. Lately also China and Malawi export even more. The leading country in manufacturing of tobacco is China. India uses almost 6,3% of unmanufactured tobacco in the World, but from this only 1,7% for cigarettes. In 1994 there were 55 billion cigarettes produced in the World, from this more than a half in China, the USA, Japan and Germany. Most of the countries that export lots of unmanufactured tobacco use it a lot, too. Such countries are Japan, France and Russia. Some other countries, like Hong Kong, Singapore and Holland, export almost as much tobacco as they import.