Over 5.6 million Romanians over 15 are smokers

Almost a third (30.7%) of Romanians over 15, namely a total of 5.63 million people, consumed (daily or occasionally) tobacco products in 2018, according to the results of the Global Adult Tobacco Survey (GATS) presented by the Health Ministry on Tuesday, September 24.

The share of tobacco consumers was higher for men (40.4%) than for women (21.7%). A third of Romanian smokers (33.5%) were young adults, in the 15-24 age segment.

“Five million adults declared themselves daily smokers (3.2 million men and 1.8 million women). Of the daily current smokers, 71.5% smoke within the first 30 minutes after waking up,” the study revealed, according to local Adevarul.

The large majority of Romanian smokers consume traditional cigarettes – 16.5 per day on average. Men smoke more than women, namely 18.1 cigarettes per day compared to 13.7.

Almost a quarter of current smokers (23.8%) had an attempt to quit smoking in the last 12 months. Some 30.2% of the current smokers said they plan to quit smoking or have thought about quitting sometime in the future, 14.5% plan to quit in the next year and only 3.5% plan to do it within a month. More than four in ten smokers (43.9%) are not interested in quitting.

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