The World Health Organization metrics below encompass smokers from both genders. Overall, the Eastern European nation Russia and Indonesia, another heavily populated South-Eastern Asian country, led with the largest percentage of smokers in 2013. Also ahead of the Philippines were the European economic hub Germany and the Western Asian nation Turkey. Both have approximately 80% of the Philippines population.
Top 10 Cigarette Smoking Countries (Both Genders)
The following shows in descending order which 10 countries have the highest percentages of smokers, regardless of gender, from the world’s 25 most populated nations.
- Russia: 36.1% of national population
- Indonesia: 33.2%
- Germany: 28.3%
- Turkey: 24.7%
- Philippines: 23.8%
- China: 23.7%
- Italy: 23.2%
- France: 22.8%
- Japan: 22.8%
- Thailand: 20.5%
Top 10 Male Cigarette Smoking Countries
Compared to men from the top 25 countries with the highest populations, Filipino males placed fourth in the percentage of smokers. About two-fifths of Filipino men are smokers, compared to over half the Russian male population and almost two-thirds of Indonesian men.
- Indonesia: 63% of that country’s males
- Russia: 55%
- China: 44.6%
- Philippines: 40.6%
- Thailand: 39.9%
- Turkey: 38.1%
- Vietnam: 37.4%
- Egypt: 35.7%
- Japan: 35.4%
- Germany: 30.4%
Top 10 Female Cigarette Smoking Countries
From a health perspective, the Philippines scores much better in posting a single-digit percentage for Filipina smokers–by far the lowest among countries on the following list. Five European countries dominate the top 10 rankings, followed by women smokers residing in the United States.
- Germany: 26.4% of country’s females
- France: 20.8%
- Russia: 20.6%
- United Kingdom: 19.5%
- Italy: 19.3%
- United States: 15.9%
- Turkey: 12%
- Japan: 11%
- Brazil: 10.3%
- Philippines: 7.4%
Correlation with Life Expectancy by Country
Below, average life expectancies are presented for countries listed on the top 10 smoking percentage rankings above.
- Japan: 83.7 years (80.5 for men, 86.8 for women)
- Italy: 82.7 years (80.5, 84.8)
- France: 82.4 years (79.4, 85.4)
- United Kingdom: 81.2 years (79.4, 83)
- Germany: 81 years (78.7, 83.4)
- United States: 79.3 years (76.9, 81.6)
- China: 76.1 years (74.6, 77.6)
- Vietnam: 76 years (71.3, 80.7)
- Turkey: 75.8 years (72.6, 78.9)
- Brazil: 75 years (71.4, 78.7)
- Thailand: 74.9 years (71.9, 78)
- Egypt: 70.9 years (68.8, 73.2)
- Russia: 70.5 years (64.7, 76.3)
- Indonesia: 69.1 years (67.1, 71.2)
- Philippines: 68.5 years (65.3, 72)
It is interesting to note that Indonesia and Russia have not only the world’s highest percentage of smokers but also appear near the bottom of the list indicating the shortest lifespans. A myriad of other underlying factors are at play, as shown by Japan’s leading the overall life expectancy age despite ranking among the top 10 smoking countries by percentage.
Nevertheless, cigarette smoking appears to be a major health risk behind the relatively short lifespan in the Philippines.
Resources
Wikipedia, List of countries by population (United Nations). Accessed on December 18, 2016
World Health Organization, Global Health Observatory data repository in 2013 (last updated Sept 4, 2015). Accessed on December 18, 2016
World Health Organization, Life expectancy data by country (last updated June 6, 2016). Accessed on December 18, 2016