Tobacco Consumption
- Among adults (ages 15-49) in Namibia, 20.1 percent of men and 5.1 percent of women use tobacco.1
- Among youth (ages 13-15), 31.1 percent use tobacco products (boys 31.9 percent and girls 29.9 percent):
- 11.9 percent smoke cigarettes (boys 12.3 percent and girls 11.3 percent), and 16.0 percent use smokeless tobacco (boys 15.6 percent and girls 15.8 percent).2
Secondhand Smoke Exposure
- Among youth (ages 13-15), 49.9 percent are exposed to secondhand smoke in public places and 38.1 percent are exposed at home.2
Health Consequences
- In Namibia, every year there are over 1,000 smoking-related deaths.
- Even though fewer men and women die on average in Namibia than in other middle-income countries, still 13 men and 6 women die from smoking-related causes every week.3
Tobacco Industry
British American Tobacco Namibia has a market share of about 85 percent of the Namibian tobacco market, selling just over 330 million cigarettes every year in the country.
FCTC Status
Namibia ratified the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control on November 7, 2005. The treaty went into effect on February 5, 2006.
Tobacco Control Policy Status
For information regarding smoke-free places, advertising and promotion, and packaging and labeling, visit the Tobacco Control Laws website.
1 Namibia Demographic and Health Survey, 2013; National.
2 Global Youth Tobacco Survey, 2008; National.
3 Global Burden of Disease (GBD) 2015. Seattle, WA: Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME), University of Washington, 2017
Last updated Aug. 31, 2017