KUWAIT CITY, April 15: Kuwait ranked 88th globally and eighth in the Arab world in the number of smokers compared to the population at 9.17 percent, reports Al-Seyassah daily based on a recent study conducted by the American platform Wisevoter ranked 158 countries.

The study revealed some countries have alarmingly high smoking rates, with Nauru -- a small island nation located in the Pacific Ocean -- topping the list as nearly half of its population (48.50 percent) are smokers. Myanmar ranked second at 44.1 percent, third is Serbia at 39.8 percent, Papua New Guinea is fourth at 39.3 percent, followed by East Timor (39.2 percent), Bulgaria (39 percent), Lebanon (38.2 percent), Indonesia (37.6 percent), Latvia (37 percent) and Croatia (36.9 percent). In the Arab region, Lebanon ranked first (38.2 percent) and it is seventh in the world, Jordan is second in the region and 14th in the world at 34.8 percent, followed by Tunisia that ranked 48th in the world at 24.6 percent, Egypt ranked 50th at 24.3 percent, Algeria ranked 75th at 21 percent, Yemen ranked 80th at 20 percent, and Iraq ranked 86th at 18.5 percent.

Wisevoter pointed out that “despite the progress made in tobacco control efforts, smoking rates are still at significant levels. This raises public health concerns, especially given the diverse patterns observed in different countries.”