The State of Tobacco Prevention

More than 7 million people are killed from tobacco each year, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Of these, 1.6 million people do not use tobacco directly themselves, but are exposed to it second-hand.

While these figures are still high, progress has been made in terms of countries adopting health-promoting policies to try to curb their populations’ tobacco usage. In the WHO’s 2025 report on the global tobacco epidemic, the organization notes that now some 6.1 billion people live in countries where at least one of the six best practice measures promoted by the WHO (MPOWER) for tobacco control has been introduced - that's over 75 percent of the world's population.

A total of 110 countries have introduced measures that require graphic health warnings, while 25 countries have adopted a plain packaging policy to reduce the appeal of cigarettes. Meanwhile, the implementation of anti-tobacco mass media campaigns has stagnated and 40 countries have not yet adopted any of the MPOWER measures at best-practice level.