Tobacco Consumption
- 15.2% of all adults (age 18+) in Brazil use some form of tobacco (male 19.2%; female 11.2%).1
- Among youth (students in the 9th year of school), 7.6% use tobacco (boys 7.9%; girls 7.3%).2
- There are an estimated 21.9 million tobacco users in Brazil.1
Secondhand Smoke Exposure
- 13.5% of adults (18+) are exposed to secondhand smoke at the workplace and 10.5% are exposed to secondhand smoke at home1
- 68.6% of youth (students in the 9th year of school) are exposed to secondhand smoke in public places and 54.7% of youth are exposed to secondhand smoke at home.2
Health Consequences
- Tobacco kills an estimated 188,000 people each year in Brazil, 13.9% of all deaths in Brazil.3
- 27,000 of these deaths are due to secondhand smoke exposure.
- Tobacco causes about 43,000 deaths from ischemic heart disease, 30,000 deaths from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, 21,000 deaths from tracheal, bronchus, and lung cancers, and 20,000 deaths from stroke.3
Tobacco Industry
British American Tobacco subsidiary Souza Cruz dominates the Brazilian cigarette market with 71.7% of the cigarette market volume as of 2018, followed by Philip Morris International with 22.1% of the market volume and Japan Tobacco Inc with 0.9%. In 2018, about 48.3 billion cigarettes were sold in Brazil.4
FCTC Status
Brazil ratified the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) on November 3, 2005. The treaty went into effect on February 1, 2006.
Tobacco Control Policy Status
For a summary of measures on smoke-free places, advertising and promotion, packaging and labeling, and taxation and price, download the Brazil Tobacco Control Policy Status fact sheet. For more information visit the Tobacco Control Laws website.
1 Instituto Brasilero de Geografia e Estatística (IBGE). Pesquisa Nacional de Saúde 2013. Rio de Janeiro: IBGE; 2014. Available from: ftp.ibge.gov.br/PNS/2013/pns2013.pdf
2 Instituto Nacional de Geografia e Estatística (IBGE). Pesquisa Nacional de Saúde do Escolar 2012.
3 Global Burden of Disease (GBD) 2017. Seattle, WA: Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME), University of Washington; 2020.
4 Euromonitor International, 2019.
Last updated July 1, 2020