Around 1.1 billion people in the world are smokers, and around 200 million also use tobacco in other forms, such as chewing tobacco.

Almost five trillion cigarettes are smoked every year, almost 8.7 million people died from smoking in 2019, around 6.5 million men and almost 2.2 million women.

The damage to the global economy is estimated at two trillion dollars.

These are the key new data from the seventh Tobacco Atlas released by the University of Illinois at Chicago on Wednesday.

"For the first time, the number of smokers has fallen," said scientist Jeffrey Drope at the presentation of the report in Chicago.

"From 22.6 percent in 2007 to 19.6 percent in 2019." However, as the overall population increases, there are still more and more smokers in the world.

Especially on the African continent.

Peter Philipp Schmitt

Editor in the department "Germany and the World".

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The success is being nullified above all by the growing number of underage smokers aged 13 to 15 years.

Their numbers rose in 63 of the 135 countries for which the researchers have figures.

More than 50 million youth in the age group smoke cigarettes or use other tobacco products, mostly in less developed countries.

According to the tobacco atlas, more girls between the ages of 13 and 15 now smoke in Haiti and Mauritania than adult women.

For Drope, the tobacco industry is a dinosaur.

The only way she can grow is by catching children and getting addicted to one of the most harmful products ever invented.

Tax increase could save 27 million lives

Another negative example are young black Americans, who have been particularly heavily courted by the industry with menthol cigarettes for decades.

As a result, in the United States, more than 85 percent of youngsters by the age of 12 are starting to smoke, compared to just 29 percent of white youth of the same age.

Tobacco is a leading cause of death among blacks in America, with approximately 45,000 deaths each year.

According to a study, 650,000 deaths could be avoided by 2060 alone if menthol products and e-cigarettes were immediately banned.

The scientists from the Chicago Tobacconomics team led by directors Frank J. Chaloupka and Jeffrey Drope, together with the health organization Vital Strategies, are demanding, among other things, tax increases on tobacco.

A 50 percent increase could save 27 million lives over the next 50 years.

In addition, the states would collect an additional three trillion dollars in taxes.

It should also be mandatory to show pictures on cigarette packs that drastically illustrate the consequences of smoking.

The deterrent effect has been proven by studies, for example in Kenya, where 30 to 40 percent of smokers stated that the pictures were more likely to bring them to quit than simple warnings.