Thread by @MaxCRoser

1/ A short thread on something I was happy to discover I was wrong about:

I knew what is shown here: in rich countries smoking increased hugely and killed – and still kills – many millions. And then declined.

I thought that poorer countries are following this development.

2/ But this is actually not the case.

This chart shows how the share of adults who smoke changed since 2000.
In all countries above the grey line people smoke less now.

Poorer countries are not following the stupidity of the early industrializers.
Smoking is declining in most.

3/ Whether in richer countries or in poorer countries, the share of people who smoke is declining.

[Should have said that all in this thread is from the @OurWorldInData entry on smoking: ourworldindata.org/smoking]

@OurWorldInData 4/ And as a consequence of this, the rate of premature deaths attributed to smoking is declining in most countries in the world.
Fantastic!

@OurWorldInData 5/ And that’s a really big deal because the global health impact of smoking is so absolutely devastating.

In 2017 (latest data) more than 8 million people died early because of smoking:
7 million died because they smoked themselves.
1.2 million died from secondhand smoke.

@OurWorldInData 6/ In the 20th century, smoking killed around 100 million people, most of them in today’s rich countries: nature.com/articles/nrc27…

The situation is still terrible today. But very good to learn that the share of the world that is following this crippling path is falling.

@OurWorldInData end/

If you want to see and explore the data yourself here is the Our World in Data entry on smoking – by @_HannahRitchie and me: ourworldindata.org/smoking