The Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS) said that 17.3% of Egyptians aged 15 years old and above are smokers, equivalent to 11.1 million people, according to population estimates for 2018. The percentage of smokers among males reaches 34.2% compared to 0.2% among females.
On Sunday, the agency issued a press release on the occasion of the World No Tobacco Day, organized by the World Health Organization (WHO) on 31 May of each year, to highlight the health risks associated with tobacco use and to call for effective policies to reduce its consumption.
WHO called this year to protect young people from smoking promotion campaigns which mainly target young people. Thus, the World No Tobacco Day 2020 will provide young people with full knowledge about the goals of these malicious marketing campaigns and their involvement in the tobacco control process.
According to CAPMAS, about 30 million individuals are exposed to passive smoking, due to the presence of one or more smokers in families, of whom 17.9 million are in the countryside, 12.2 million are in urban areas. Although the number of female smokers is low, a large percentage of them are vulnerable to second-hand smoking.
The highest percentage of smokers exists in the age group between 45 and 54, reaching 22.5%, followed by the age group between 35 and 44, amounting to about 22%, then the group age between 25 and 34, recording about 20%.
CAPMAS showed the prevalence of smoking across all education levels, with the highest percentage of smokers was among those with literacy certificates, reaching 28%, and the lowest percentage was among those with university degrees or higher at 13.2%.
It added that the average annual spending on smoking for an Egyptian family with one or more smokers is about EGP 5,798.
