Smoking has already killed far more people this century than in the entire 20th century

Throughout the entire 20th century, about 100 million people died earlier than they would have because of smoking. That’s a lot, but it pales in comparison to the expected numbers for this century.

Between 2000 and 2023 alone, smoking-related deaths are estimated at 163 million. You can see this comparison in the chart.

Some epidemiologists project that unless there is a substantial change in smoking uptake and rates across the world, there could be as many as one billion smoking-related deaths in the 21st century.

In the 20th century, most of these occurred in today’s high-income countries. In the 21st century, most will come from low- and middle-income countries.

Many of the people who are expected to die are smoking today, but even more are expected to be future smokers. Finding ways to help people stop smoking and prevent them from starting matters for keeping this huge figure in the millions, not billions.

Where this page came from

This page was imported from Our World in Data. “Smoking has already killed far more people this century than in the entire 20th 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.

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