Sociologists have found out where the Russians began to smoke more

In 2020, the number of smoking Russians decreased by 1.33 million compared to 2019. This follows from the calculations of the international audit and consulting network FinExpertiza (available to RBC), made on the basis of Rosstat data. Last year, 23.1% of Russians over the age of 15 continued to smoke, or about 27.9 million people.

Consumers of tobacco products decreased in 58 regions, by a total of 2.1 million people. However, in the remaining 27 regions, about 600,000 Russians joined the ranks of smokers.

According to Rosstat data, the number of smokers in Russia has been systematically decreasing since 2009. “It might seem that the period of isolation and quarantine restrictions should have contributed to the spread of bad habits,” said Elena Trubnikova, President of FinExpertiza Global, in a conversation with RBC. “But government anti-smoking measures, including raising the cost of cigarettes and restrictions on smoking and distribution of tobacco products, coupled with the global trend to quit smoking, will continue to contribute to reducing the number of smokers.” She also suggested that due to the CORONAVIRUS pandemic, Russians began to worry more about their HEALTH and therefore gave up bad habits.

During the pandemic, residents of Chechnya were especially active in quitting smoking - there the share of tobacco users decreased by 68.6%, as well as residents of Chukotka (-45.8%), Ingushetia (-30.8%), Arkhangelsk (-30.1%) and Novgorod regions (-28.2%), Trans-Baikal region (-23.1%), Kabardino-Balkaria (-22.6%), Smolensk (-21.2%), Kostroma (-20.5%) and Penza regions (-20.3%).