The country that smokes the most cigarettes per capita is Greece — the average Greek citizen smokes about 3,000 cigarettes a year, or between eight and 10 cigarettes a day. Other countries where smoking is big include the Ukraine, Slovenia and Russia, where citizens smoke an average of 2,000-2,500 cigarettes a year.
More facts about smoking:
- About 40 percent of deaths in the European Union between 1950 and 2000 were tobacco-related. Though this statistic is going down in the EU, it seems to be rising in former USSR countries, many of which have a legal smoking age of 15.
- China consumes about one-third of the world's cigarettes, though the average consumption per citizen is a third of that in Greece.
- The United States ranks 41st out of nations in terms of smoking, with only about one-fifth of Americans smoking regularly. Americans, however, still smoke more than French and British.