Tobacco use in India has halved this century

At the turn of the millennium, one-in-five adults in India smoked tobacco, and almost half of all adults were using any form of tobacco, including products that are chewed or sniffed.

But over the past two decades, rates of both have roughly halved. You can see this in the chart.

Some countries have seen a decline in smoking among men, but a rise among women. This is not the case in India: tobacco use has fallen substantially for both sexes.

This decline has huge implications. Each year, smoking causes almost one million Indians to die earlier than they otherwise would. Since smoking-related diseases can take decades to develop, this recent decline in smoking rates will result in fewer deaths in the future.

Smokeless tobacco tends to have lower health risks because people are not inhaling smoke. But it still increases the risk of oral, throat, and esophageal cancers, gum disease, and other conditions.

Where this page came from

This page was imported from Our World in Data. “Tobacco use in India has halved this century” by Hannah Ritchie, published by Our World in Data under CC BY 4.0. Changed here: set as a page, its interactive charts shown as pictures. Data from third parties keeps its own licence.

Nobody has written it yet — it is the source material at a new address, which is why search engines are asked to skip it and why no one earns from it. It is up for grabs: take it on, and it is yours to rewrite and to earn from.