Pakistan

• 19.1% percent of adults (age 15+) currently use tobacco in any form (men 31.8%; women 5.8%).
  • 12.4% of adults smoke tobacco
  • 7.7% use smokeless tobacco
  • 3% use waterpipes (hookah or shisha)
• Among youth (ages 13-15):
  • 10.7% use any tobacco product (boys 13.3%; girls 6.6%)
  • 7.2% smoke tobacco, and 5.3% use smokeless tobacco
  • Among youth who have ever smoked, nearly 40% first tried a cigarette before age 10

There is no safe level of secondhand smoke.3

• 72.5% of adults (16.8 million people) who work indoors are exposed to tobacco smoke at the workplace.
• 86% of adults who visited restaurants in 2014 (49.2 million people) were exposed to secondhand smoke, and 76.2% of adults who used public transport were exposed to secondhand smoke.
• 37.8% of youth (ages 13-15) are exposed to secondhand smoke in public places, while 21% of youth are exposed to secondhand smoke in their homes.

Tobacco use is deadly. Smoking kills up to half of all lifetime users.4

• Tobacco kills over 163,600 people each year in Pakistan. Almost 31,000 of these deaths are due to exposure to secondhand smoke.
• Tobacco causes about 16.0% of all male deaths and 4.9% of female deaths. Overall, 10.9% of all deaths are caused by tobacco.
• Tobacco causes 66.5% of all deaths from tracheal, bronchus, and lung cancer, 53.2% of deaths from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, 21.9% of deaths from ischemic heart disease, 15.2% of deaths from diabetes mellitus, and 16.8% of deaths from stroke.

Tobacco exacts a high cost on society.

• The economic cost of smoking in Pakistan is Rs 615.07 billion (US$3.85 billion), equal to 1.6% of Pakistan's GDP.
  • In 2019, the economic cost of smoking was about five times greater than the revenue from the tobacco industry.
• Money spent on tobacco reduces households' spending on food, health, education, housing, and household durables.
  • In Pakistan, tobacco-consuming households spend on average 2.7% of their monthly budget on tobacco.
  • Poor households spend 3.0% of their budget on tobacco. This is more than they spend on education (1.8%).

International companies hold almost all of the cigarette market in Pakistan. In 2017, British American Tobacco led with 65.6% of the retail volume market share, and Philip Morris International followed with 30%. In Pakistan, 52 billion cigarettes were sold in 2017.

Pakistan ratified the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control on November 3, 2004. The treaty went into effect on February 27, 2005.

For a summary of measures on smoke-free places, advertising and promotion, packaging and labeling, and taxation and price, download the Pakistan Tobacco Control Policy Status fact sheet. For more information visit the Tobacco Control Laws website.