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Men make up 82% of the 1.337 billion tobacco users worldwide. Getty Images

While the trend has been declining for women for a few years now, it has been on the contrary upward for men, who represent the vast majority (82%) of tobacco users.

For the World Health Organization, the reason is clear, this trend towards a decrease in male smokers " is due to the firmer attitude of governments towards the tobacco industry ".

The Geneva-based organization has been studying the behavior of smokers for 20 years, and notes an overall drop in smoking worldwide: sixty million fewer smokers over the period, and it is mainly thanks to ex-smokers that we explains this decrease.

In fact, 100 million have quit cigarettes since the start of the century, while among boys, 40 million more smokers are deplored by the WHO.

The study shows that tobacco consumption is lowest in Africa, with around 13% of the population in 2015. Not much in comparison with Southeast Asia, or the same year, one in three smoked cigarettes.

This good news in the fight against tobacco is still to be put into perspective because the study does not take into account the electronic cigarette whose effects on health remain uncertain.