More people smoking now than in 1980

Worldwide population growth has meant that more people smoke today than was the case in 1980, according to a story by Kerry Sheridan for Agence France Presse, quoting figures from a new study published by the Journal of the American Medical Association.

China had nearly 100 million more smokers in 2012 than it had three decades ago, even though its smoking rate fell from 30 percent to 24 percent during that time, said the study findings published  in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

The study was published as part of a series of tobacco-related articles to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the first U.S. surgeon general’s report on the risks of smoking.

“Since we know that half of all smokers will eventually be killed by tobacco, greater numbers of smokers will mean a massive increase in premature deaths in our lifetime,” co-author Alan Lopez, of the University of Melbourne, was quoted as saying.

The study, led by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington, measured data from 187 countries.

It found that the global smoking rate among men was 41 percent in 1980 but has since declined to 31 percent.

Among women, the estimated prevalence of daily tobacco smoking was 10.6 percent in 1980 but 6.2 percent by 2012.

The most rapid decrease began in the mid-1990s, but, since 2010, smoking has been rising again among men.