In 2012, an estimated 928 million men and 207 million
women were current smokers (38). Currently, countries with
the highest male smoking prevalence are generally in Eastern
and South-Eastern Asia and Eastern Europe (Figure 4).
European countries have the highest female smoking rates,
followed by Oceania and Northern and Southern America.
There have been substantial variations in trends of
smoking prevalence across countries (22). While many
countries, notably high-income countries, have seen a
considerable decrease in smoking prevalence in both males
and females, in many other countries there has been little
decrease or even an increase in smoking prevalence (21).
Similarly, the lung cancer patterns vary across countries,
from decreasing, stabilizing, and increasing in view of
temporal trends in lung cancer rates which lag 3-4 decades
following smoking trends (26).