Tobacco use among adolescents around the world
March 1, 2024
Par: National Committee Against Smoking
Dernière mise à jour: August 6, 2024
Temps de lecture: 3 minutes
A report from the World Health Organization (2024) looks at tobacco consumption among adolescents aged 13 to 15 worldwide, regardless of the tobacco product.
The report is based on a study carried out between 2012 and 2022 among young people aged between 13 and 15 in 148 countries, covering 80% of the world population. The survey focuses on consumption levels by this age group of all types of tobacco products, whether manufactured cigarettes, rolling tobacco, heating tobacco, or smokeless tobacco ( snus, chewing tobacco, etc.). As a result, consumption figures exclude non-tobacco products, such as electronic cigarettes or nicotine sachets.[1].
Overall consumption
Available data estimate that 37 million adolescents aged between 13 and 15 use at least one form of tobacco. Thus, the average smoking prevalence in this age group is around 10% on a global scale.
Regional consumption
The report notes little variation in prevalence levels between different WHO regions. Thus, the Eastern Mediterranean region records the highest rate of consumers, with 11.4% smokers among 13-15 year olds. The lowest smoking prevalence is held by the Western Pacific region (7.8%), followed by the Africa region (9.2%). Overall, the Southeast Asia region has the largest number of young consumers, with 11 million adolescents aged 13-15 affected.
Consumption by gender
On the other hand, the results show strong disparities according to gender. Thus, on an international scale, the smoking prevalence among young girls stands at 7%, compared to 13% for young boys. The Eastern Mediterranean region is characterized by the worst health situation, with a smoking prevalence of 15% for boys aged 13 to 15. Furthermore, no WHO region records smoking prevalence below 10% for this population category. For young girls, the highest smoking prevalence is observed in the Europe Region, which has 10.1% of young tobacco consumers. Here again, the Western Pacific region records the lowest prevalence for young girls (3.1%), at least twice lower than all other regions. However, this low figure is largely determined by the demographic weight of China, which has an extremely low smoking prevalence among young adolescent girls (2%).
Consumption by income level
In total, more than 19 million adolescent tobacco users live in middle- and low-income countries, or 51% of the total internationally. The differences in prevalence according to income level are relatively limited, and vary from 9% (high income) to 9.9% (middle income). Among young adolescent girls, the highest smoking prevalence is observed among populations with the highest income levels (8.7%). Among young adolescents, on the contrary, it is the high income bracket which records the lowest smoking prevalence (9.4%), while the highest is observed in the intermediate bracket (13.1%).
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[1] World Health Organization (WHO), WHO global report on trends in prevalence of tobacco use 2000–2030, 01/16/2024, (accessed 02/26/2024) National Committee Against Smoking |