To mark World No-Tobacco Day, Egypt’s Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS) issued a press release, on Sunday, which found that 17.7% of Egyptians are smokers.
According to the agency, the figure, which refers to the 15 and above age group, represents about 18 million people according to 2020 population estimates.
The percentage of smokers among males is 35.6%, compared to 0.3% among females, indicating that the phenomenon of smoking in Egypt is an essentially male phenomenon.
The percentage of Egyptian families with at least one smoker is 41.3%, which means that there are about 24 million individuals who are non-smokers, but who are exposed to second-hand smoke.
Female smokers are not many, although many are exposed to second-hand smoke due to the presence of at least one household member who smokes.
The highest percentage of smokers in the 45-54 age group is 23.2%, followed by the 35-44 age group at about 22.5%. Meanwhile, the 25-34 years age group stands at about 20.8%, which is high and has serious significance.
It is particularly important taking into account that these age groups are the youth, which are Egypt’s main workforce.
The highest percentage of smokers among the different educational cases was for those with a literacy certificate, at 30.1%, followed by those who read and write where the percentage of smokers was 27.5%.
The lowest percentage of smokers was found among those with a university degree or higher, at 12.7%. Moreover, EGP 6,293.5 was the average annual expenditure on smoking for an Egyptian household with one or more smokers.
World No-Tobacco Day, which falls on 31 May every year, is organised by the World Health Organization (WHO). It aims to highlight the health risks associated with tobacco use, and call for the development of effective policies to reduce its consumption.
The WHO always calls for protecting young people from marketing campaigns promoting smoking, which work to attract a new generation of smokers. These campaigns aim to introduce new products and attractive, distinctive flavours that mainly target young people.
