The Tobacco Control Research unit (TCR) of the Ethiopian Organization for Cancer Prevention and Research (CPR – Ethiopia) carries out research, and disseminates evidence, to prevent, treat and control tobacco use.
What the unit covers
Three strands are given as examples of the unit’s work:
- Epidemiology and surveillance of tobacco knowledge, attitudes and behaviour
- Compliance with and Enforcement of Anti-Smoking policies in Ethiopia — the CEASE project
- Aetiology, predictors, correlates and determinants of tobacco use, nicotine dependence and cessation
The Ethiopian position, as measured
In 2024, 4.6% of Ethiopian adults used tobacco in some form (opens in a new tab) — 8.8% of men and 0.5% of women (WHO Global Health Observatory, indicator TOBACCO_MPOWER_M1_PREVALENCE, the surveyed value). WHO publishes a second value for the same year and age range: a modelled estimate, indicator M_Est_tob_curr, of 4.5%. Smokeless tobacco was used by 1.7% of adults in 2024, and it is the one major tobacco category still legally on sale; waterpipe, e-cigarettes and other electronic nicotine devices, heated tobacco products and nicotine pouches are all reported by the government as banned.
Among Ethiopian 13–15-year-olds surveyed in 2023, current smoking was 10.3%, against 4.0% current smoking among adults in 2024. Among boys in that age group the figure was 10.9% and among girls 8.0%, against 0.4% of adult women (Global Youth Tobacco Survey 2023 and Global Adult Tobacco Survey 2024; WHO Global Health Observatory, indicators TOBACCO_MPOWER_M3_PREVALENCE and TOBACCO_MPOWER_M1_PREVALENCE). The two surveys differ in year, age range and instrument, so they describe two cohorts rather than one trend.
On the tobacco control measures WHO tracked in 2024, Ethiopia reported all eight categories of public venue as completely smoke-free, colour graphic health warnings covering more than 70% of the front and back of packs, and a ban on both direct and indirect advertising, promotion and sponsorship. Total tax was 45.9% of the retail price of the most-sold cigarette brand in 2024, against WHO’s 75% benchmark (indicator TOBACCO_MPOWER_R_TAX). The Protocol to Eliminate Illicit Trade in Tobacco Products has been in force since 2018; Ethiopia is recorded as a non-Party.
Tobacco causes more than 20 different types or subtypes of cancer (opens in a new tab). In Ethiopia in 2024, lung cancer was the ninth most commonly diagnosed cancer and the sixth largest cause of cancer death (opens in a new tab) — an estimated 2,314 cases against 2,078 deaths.
Epidemiology and surveillance
Ethiopia ran a full national adult tobacco survey in 2024 and presented the findings at a forum in Addis Ababa in April 2025. The prevalence figures above are read through the WHO Global Health Observatory. Datasets from national NCD surveys are catalogued in the WHO NCD Microdata Repository (opens in a new tab).
The behavioural domains a national tobacco survey covers are this strand’s immediate subject matter: exposure to second-hand smoke at home and at work, how many tobacco users attempt to quit, how many are advised to quit by a health worker, what Ethiopians believe about tobacco, and waterpipe use.
Two records of female tobacco use
WHO’s modelled series has Ethiopian female age-standardised smoking prevalence drifting slightly upward, from 0.7% in 2000 to 1.0% in 2024 (WHO Global Health Observatory, indicator M_Est_smk_curr_std). At the Ethiopian Public Health Institute’s dissemination forum for the 2024 survey, held in April 2025, the Director General of the Ethiopian Food and Drug Authority was reported as stating that female current tobacco use fell from 2.1% in 2016 to 0.5% in 2024; that figure reaches the public through the institute’s news item on the forum.
The two are unlikely to be measuring the same quantity — one is age-standardised smoking, the other crude use of any tobacco product — and both are on the record.
Working with the unit
Proposals for joint work are covered on the collaborate page. Enquiries to cancer.prev.ethio@gmail.com or +251 92 012 4183. The publications page carries what we have published. What is established about tobacco and cancer for a general reader is on the tobacco page.