Number of smokers has risen to 1.1 billion worldwide

Nearly 8 million people died from smoking-related causes in 2019, Rory Sulivan reports

The number of smokers in the world rose to 1.1 billion in 2019. (PA)

The number of smokers around the world increased to 1.1 billion in 2019, with China accounting for a third of this total, a new analysis of global data has suggested.

In the same year, 7.7 million people died from smoking-related causes, according to the Global Burdens of Disease collaboration which carried out the research.

After crunching the findings of 3,625 surveys from 204 countries, its team discovered that 89 per cent of new smokers become addicted to tobacco before the age of 25.

Given the high smoking prevalence among young people, the researchers, whose work is published in The Lancet and The Lancet Public Health journals, have called on nations to enforce policies to tackle tobacco use.

Lead author Emmanuela Gakidou, of the University of Seattle, Washington, said: “If a person does not become a regular smoker by age 25, they are very unlikely to become a smoker.

“This presents a critical window of opportunity for interventions that can prevent young people from starting smoking and improve their health for the rest of their lives.”

Data shows that in 2019 there were roughly 155 million smokers aged between 15 and 24, and that 65.5 per cent of all tobacco users began their habit before they were 20 years-old.

Despite the high numbers, however, the percentage of young people worldwide who smoke has decreased by more than 30 per cent between 1990 and 2019.

To lower the number of smokers in the UK, academics at University College London (UCL) think the government should stop all under-21s from being able to buy cigarettes.

This would lead to 100,000 fewer people smoking, equivalent to 30 per cent of the current total, according to their modelling.

The charity Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) backed their call, with its chief executive Deborah Arnott saying: “Raising the age of sale to 21 could protect more than 100,000 people from a lethal addiction which many will struggle their whole lives to quit.”

For the time being, the pandemic seems to have exacerbated the UK’s smoking problem. In April, a poll conducted by the analysts Mintel estimated that 10 per cent of former smokers started again in the last year.

The survey also found that almost 40 per cent of UK smokers aged 18 to 34 have been smoking more often since the start of the Covid-19 outbreak.

Additional reporting by PA