Main Facts about Tobacco Smoking

British American Tobacco is to buy the second largest Dunhill cigarette company in Colombia for $452m (£277.7m). Here are 10 key facts about the industry.

• There are more than 1bn smokers in the world. There are 10.3m smokers in Britain, around 21pc of the adult population.

• 5.5 trillion cigarettes are smoked worldwide each year. In the UK, £13.4bn was spent on tobacco in 2009, 90pc of it on cigarettes.

• The national average price of 20 Marlboro is £6.42 in the UK, $5.63 in the US, €4.95 in Germany and ¥440 in Japan. 90pc of the price of the cheapest UK packet of cigarettes is tax.

• 5,000 people are employed by tobacco companies in Britain, while 80,000 jobs depend on tobacco, eg. wholesalers and retailers.

• Tobacco use kills approximately 5.4m people a year – an average of one person every six seconds. 100m deaths were caused by tobacco in the 20th century. If those trends continued, the World Health Organisation says there would be up to 1bn deaths in the 21st century.

• In the UK, total cigarette volumes peaked in 1974. Ever since, volumes have been declining in a straight line. In the US, total cigarette volumes peaked seven years later (1981). However, volumes have also been declining in a straight line.

• Imperial’s and Gallaher’s combined operating profit grew from £600m in 1996 to £816m in 2006. Meanwhile, the percentage of the UK population that was smoking fell by almost a quarter, from 28pc to 22pc.

• The US cigarette manufacturers now make more money selling cigarettes to countries around the globe than they do selling to Americans.

• The UK Government has considered introducing plain packaging for cigarette packages.

• Smoking trends and regulations in emerging markets are often only five to 10 years behind those in developed markets, according to the Citigroup report.