October 7, 2025
DHAKA – Even though tobacco consumption in the country has declined over the last one and a half decades, it still remains higher than the global and South-East Asia regional averages, according to a World Health Organisation report published yesterday.
An estimated 3.71 crore people of 15 years old or above in the country consumed various tobacco products last year, while 1.97 crore people smoked, says the global report.
The projected tobacco consumption prevalence, also in the same age group, is at 31.4 percent in 2025 compared to 44.2 percent in 2010, according to the report titled “WHO global report on trends in prevalence of tobacco use 2000-2024 and projections 2025-2030”.
Bangladesh had a target to cut down the tobacco consumption rate to 29 percent by this year, meaning it is still 2.4 percent behind the goal.
Although WHO report says Bangladesh is on track to achieve a 30 percent relative reduction by this year, anti-tobacco campaigners said it would be challenging to bring it down further because the number of tobacco users in real terms is still very high.
Bangladesh has a vision to be a tobacco-free nation by 2040.
Prof Sohel Reza Choudhury, head of epidemiology and research at the National Heart Foundation Hospital and Research Institute, said the base estimate of tobacco users in 2010 was very high — 44.2 percent.
This rate has come down in last one and a half decades due to various government and non-government initiatives, he said.
The current rate exceeds global and regional averages, and without multi-pronged government action, like stronger anti-tobacco laws, it will be hard to reduce the rate further.
Tobacco use is a common risk factor for four major non-communicable diseases — cardiovascular disease, respiratory disease, cancer, and diabetes, health experts say.
According to a research conducted by the Bangladesh Cancer Society and published in 2019, the economic losses due to tobacco consumption — covering treatment costs and productivity losses — amounted to Tk 30,560 crore in 2017-18 fiscal year.
GLOBAL, REGIONAL SCENARIO
The trend analysis in this report is based on data from nationally representative, population-based tobacco-related surveys conducted between 1990 and 2024.
According to the report, the global average is projected to be 19.2 percent in 2025, down from 26.2 percent in 2010.
The report shows the global number of tobacco users dropped from 1.38 billion in 2000 to 1.2 billion in 2024.
The average for the South and East Asia region is projected at 22.7 percent this year.
Among the 10 countries in the region, Bangladesh ranked third from the bottom, just ahead of Myanmar (42.5 percent) and Timor-Leste (48.9 percent), the report says.
The rates of tobacco consumption in India, Nepal, and Sri Lanka are projected to be 21.9 percent, 28 percent, and 20.4 percent respectively this year.
Contacted, Ataur Rahman, advocacy manager of Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, said decline in the use of bidi and some smokeless tobacco products like Sada Pata contributed to reduction in the overall prevalence rate.
He, however, referring to the data from the National Board of Revenue (NBR), said cigarette sales have increased lately, posing a new challenge to go down the prevalence rate further.
Even though the prevalence rate has reduced, the number of real tobacco users has increased, making it a mammoth task to achieve the target of tobacco-free nation by 2040.
According to the WHO, a country is considered “tobacco-free” or having achieved “tobacco-free status” when the prevalence of tobacco use among adults drops below 5 percent.
Ataur said the government must increase tobacco tax and price effectively, make the anti-tobacco law more stringent and implement it properly and raise awareness about the affects of tobacco use to achieve the target.