NEW DELHI: More than 100 million people worldwide are now vaping, with as many as 15 million children in the age group of 13-15 years using e-cigarettes, said a new WHO global report.
At least 86 million users, mostly in high-income countries, are vaping, said the WHO global report on trends in prevalence of tobacco use 2000–2024 and projections 2025–2030.
It pointed out that while the number of tobacco users in the world has dropped from 1.38 billion in 2000 to 1.2 billion in 2024, yet, tobacco still hooks one in five adults worldwide, fuelling millions of preventable deaths every year,
For the first time, the World Health Organisation (WHO) estimated global e-cigarette use and found the numbers alarming.
In countries with data, children are on average nine times more likely than adults to vape, the report added.
Though the world is smoking less, the tobacco epidemic is far from over. Since 2010, the number of people using tobacco has dropped by 120 million - a 27% drop in relative terms.
“Millions of people are stopping, or not taking up, tobacco use thanks to tobacco control efforts by countries around the world,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General.
“In response to this strong progress, the tobacco industry is fighting back with new nicotine products, aggressively targeting young people. Governments must act faster and stronger in implementing proven tobacco control policies.”
The tobacco industry is introducing an incessant chain of new products and technologies for its aim to market tobacco addiction with not just cigarettes but also e-cigarettes, nicotine pouches, heated tobacco products among others, which all harm people’s health, and more worryingly the health of new generations, youth and adolescents.
“E-cigarettes are fuelling a new wave of nicotine addiction,” said Etienne Krug, WHO Director of Health Determinants, Promotion and Prevention Department.
“They are marketed as harm reduction but, in reality, are hooking kids on nicotine earlier and risk undermining decades of progress.”
While there has been a steady decline in tobacco use for both men and women across all age-groups during 2000–2024, women have been leading the charge to quit tobacco.
They hit the global reduction target for 2025 five years early, reaching the 30% milestone back in 2020.
Prevalence of tobacco use among women dropped from 11% in 2010 to just 6.6% in 2024, with the number of female tobacco users falling from 277 million in 2010 to 206 million in 2024.
By contrast, men are not expected to reach the goal until 2031.
Today, more than four out of five tobacco users worldwide are men, with just under 1 billion men still using tobacco. While prevalence among men has fallen from 41.4% in 2010 to 32.5% in 2024, the pace of change is too slow, the report said.
Breaking the data region-wise, the report said the South-East Asia region was once the world’s hotspot. Here, the prevalence among men nearly halved – from 70% in 2000 to 37% in 2024, it added.
The Region, which includes India, alone accounts for over half of the global decline.
Urging governments everywhere to step up tobacco control, the WHO said, this means fully implementing and enforcing the MPOWER package and the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, closing loopholes that allow the tobacco and nicotine industries to target children, and regulating new nicotine products like e-cigarettes.
It also means raising tobacco taxes, banning advertising, and expanding cessation services so that millions more people can quit.
“Nearly 20% of adults still use tobacco and nicotine products. We cannot let up now,” said Jeremy Farrar, WHO Assistant Director-General for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention and Care. “The world has made gains, but stronger, faster action is the only way to beat the tobacco epidemic.”
The data underpin global reporting on SDG Target 3.a and the WHO NCD Global Action Plan, which aimed for a 30% relative reduction in tobacco use by 2025. Current progress: 27% reduction, falling short by 50 million users, it further said.