Surprising Study Reveals Smoking Is on a Sharp Decline

Smoke ‘em if you got ‘em? Not quite.

The percentage of people who smoke is slowing down, according to a new study of 187 countries.

Around the world, 31% of men smoked in 2012, a steep drop from the 41% who did so in 1980. Among women, the rate fell from 10% in 1980 to 6.2% in 2012.

The world’s population grew during that 30-plus year period, so the number of people who lit up actually jumped from 721 million in 1980 to 967 million in 2012.

Smokers enjoyed more than six trillion cigarettes in 2012 – that comes out to about 857 cigarettes for each person on Earth.