Tobacco Consumption
- 20.9% of adults (15-59) in Egypt smoke tobacco.1
- Rates are much higher among me than among women: 46.4% men and 0.2% women smoke tobacco.1
- 3.3 percent of adults (age 15+) smoke shisha and 2.6 percent use smokeless tobacco.2
- Among youth (ages 13-15), 13.6 percent use tobacco products (boys 18.1 percent; girls 8.2 percent), 4.8 percent smoke cigarettes (boys 8.3 percent; girls 0.8 percent), and 4.1 percent use smokeless tobacco (boys 2.7 percent; girls 5.4 percent).3
Secondhand Smoke Exposure
- 60.7 percent of adults (age 15+) who work indoors (6.5 million) are exposed to secondhand smoke at the workplace; 72.7 percent are exposed in restaurants, and 79.6 percent are exposed in public transportation.2
- Among youth (ages 13-15), 55.2 percent are exposed to secondhand smoke in enclosed public places and 34.9 percent are exposed at home.3
Health Consequences
- Every year nearly 62,000 Egyptians die from smoking-related causes.4
- In Egypt 941 men and 248 women die weekly from smoking related causes.4
Tobacco Industry
The cigarette market is dominated by the Eastern Tobacco Company (ETC), which maintains a nearly 78% market share, and is slowly transitioning from a government monopoly to a private company. Philip Morris International (PMI) follows with 10%, and British American Tobacco (BAT) holds 6% of market share by volume.5
FCTC Status
Egypt ratified the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control on February 25, 2005. The treaty went into effect on May 26, 2007.
Tobacco Control Policy Status
For information regarding smoke-free places, advertising and promotion, and packaging and labeling, visit the Tobacco Control Laws website.
1 DHS 2015 National
2 Global Adult Tobacco Survey, 2009.
3 Global Youth Tobacco Survey, 2014; National.
4 Global Burden of Disease (GBD) 2015. Seattle, WA: Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME), University of Washington, 2017 5 Euromonitor International, 2017
Last updated Aug. 31, 2017