I’m not sure how accurate these stats are, but I thought they were interesting so I wanted to share: http://www.quitguide.com/index.html

AUSTRALIA

• Smoking statistics for 2005 show that 17% of Australians smoke. In 1993 this figure was higher at 25%.


• Other drugs: Ecstasy has become popular and figures have risen in recent years. Other drugs have declined in use. Marijuana is tried by 11 % of Australians.

CHINA
the facts about smoking in China are scary and getting scarier by the minute:

• It produces more tobacco than any other country.


• It has an estimated 350 million smokers – that's 1 in 3 of the world's smokers.


• 36% of the population smoke, including 70% of all Chinese men. Most of them have no knowledge of the facts about smoking or any awareness of the consequences they face.


• More than one million people a year die in China from tobacco-related diseases, including lung cancer and heart disease.


• These 1 million smokers were mainly aged 35-69 and this figure is predicted to increase to 2 million in just 15 years.


• In fact the biggest killer in China in 2005 was lung cancer, beating road accidents

ENGLAND & WALES

• 45,000 people die each year from COPD (chronic bronchitis and emphysema), or diseases precipitated by COPD, such as pneumonia, heart disease and stroke. Smoking is the leading cause of COPD. A smoker is 10 times more likely to die of COPD than a non-smoker. Global deaths are estimated to be 4.8 million

UNITED STATES
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention publish interesting smoking facts. Here are some 2005 smoking statistics:

• Approximately 20.9% (44.5 million) adults currently smoke. Of these, 81.3% (36.1 million) smoke every day, and 18.7% (8.3 million) smoke some days. Among those who currently smoke every day, 40.5% (14.6 million) report that they had stopped smoking for at least 1 day during the preceding 12 months because they were trying to quit. Among the estimated 42.4% (90.2 million) of persons who had ever smoked, 50.6% (45.6 million) were former smokers.


• More interesting smoking facts about population sub-groups in the US:




• Education: The highest group of smokers are those with the basic General Educational Development diploma (GED) – 40%, and 35% people with a 9th–11th grade education smoked, and smoking prevalence kept decreasing with increasing years of education. The lowest percentage of smokers was among those with graduate degrees at 7.5%.


• Gender: Current smoking was higher among men (23.4%) than women (18.5%).


• Rac