The recently published WHO Global Report on Trends in Tobacco Use 2000–2024 and Projections 2025–2030 confirms that the global prevalence of current tobacco use among adults has been declining, dropping from an estimated 33.1% in 2000 to 19.5% in 2024, a level sustained below 20% since 2023. Despite this progress, the global community is currently lagging behind the 30% relative reduction target set for 2025 under the WHO Global Action Plan for the Prevention and Control of Noncommunicable Diseases, with the projected 2025 prevalence of 19.2% translating to only a 27% reduction, falling short by 0.9 percentage points. While 61 countries are on track to meet this goal, continued success is not guaranteed, as twelve countries are now seeing tobacco use prevalence on the rise. Furthermore, this reduction in prevalence is not yet sufficient to overcome population growth in the African and Eastern Mediterranean regions, where the total number of tobacco users is still increasing.
A major public health concern highlighted is the aggressive promotion of electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS) by the industry, and the report presents the first WHO global estimate of e-cigarette use for adults and youth. This estimate finds a global total of over 100 million current e-cigarette users (86.1 million adults and 14.7 million adolescents). Critically, the global average e-cigarette use prevalence among adolescents aged 13–15 years (7.2%) is nine times higher than the prevalence among adults (1.9%) in the same country.
Continued progress in reducing tobacco use depends on protecting public health policies from the commercial and vested interests of the tobacco industry. The increasing promotion of electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS), particularly to youth, threatens to undermine these gains. WHO urges all Parties to fully implement Article 5.3 of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC) to prevent industry interference and sustain global efforts to reduce nicotine use.