Prevalence of Daily Smoking and Initiation in Latin America

Abstract

There is abundant evidence documenting the negative consequences of smoking. Over the last decades, public smoking bans, taxation, and public health tobacco control campaigns induced a decline in smoking prevalence in Brazil, Argentina, and Mexico, three major economies in Latin America. Argentina implemented effective policies to reduce tobacco consumption, and smoking prevalence has decreased over the past 15 years. In Brazil, there has been progress in reducing smoking prevalence since 2006. And in Mexico, as a result of tobacco control efforts, smoking prevalence at the national level has declined from 28 percent in the 1990s to 17 percent in 2017. Despite the development of tobacco control policies over the years,1 overall prevalence of smoking is still high in these three countries. According to the World Bank’s World Development Indicators, prevalence decreased in the three countries during the period from 2000 to 2018, but that decrease appears to have ended according to most 2020 data. In Brazil and Mexico, prevalence decreased from nearly 24 percent to just above 13 percent in 2018, and in Argentina it declined from 34 percent to below 25 percent. This means that more can still be done to help people turn away from smoking and avoid negative health consequences.