Excerpt: Wikipedia - Prevalence of Tobacco Consumption
As of 2002, about twenty percent of young teens (13?15) smoke worldwide. From which 80,000 to 100,000 children begin smoking every day?roughly half of which live in Asia. Half of those who begin smoking in adolescent years are projected to go on to smoke for 15 to 20 years.[7]
The World Health Organization (WHO) states that "Much of the disease burden and premature mortality attributable to tobacco use disproportionately affect the poor". Of the 1.22 billion smokers, 1 billion of them live in developing or transitional economies. Rates of smoking have leveled off or declined in the developed world.[8] In the developing world, however, tobacco consumption is rising by 3.4% per year as of 2002.[7]
