Turks Spend $20 Billion on Cigarettes Annually

Source from:  Daily Sabah Life 01/19/2016

A round $20 billion is spent on cigarettes in Turkey every year, according to the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat), the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the Global Adult Tobacco Survey, with Turkey ranking 11th in the world in terms of cigarette consumption.

Based on the findings, 6 million die of cigarettes around the world per year, while 110,000 people in Turkey die of tobacco-related deaths. Considering that almost a quarter of the world population smokes, the money spent on cigarettes per person can be enough to meet the daily food needs of 10 people.

In Turkey, one can buy 10 loaves of bread for the cost of one cigarette packet. With the smoke-free air zone law adopted on June 9, 2009, the rate of smoking in Turkey and the amount spent on cigarettes have decreased. Prior to the law, the smoking rate in Turkey was 32 percent in 2008. Four years later, the rate reduced to 27 percent before further dropping to 24 percent based on 2015 statistics. Among men, the smoking rate reduced from 48 to 41 percent, while it decreased from 15 to 13 percent among women. Enditem