Friday, February 19, 2010

Chart of the day is.....

.....cigarette consumption in The Americas, according to The Tobacco Atlas website.

click to enlarge

I thought this dataset was pretty interesting when I stumbled upon it last night. The USA at 1196 per capita (60 x 20-packs per person per year, so if you didn't smoke a pack this week, somebody did it for you) surprised me, as did Peru's tiny 129 cigarettes-per-person-per-year consumption. Also, this might explain why Cuban doctors are so good; they have to keep up with their coughing and spluttering citizens. Argentines are big smokers, so that one came as no shock. But Paraguay is a dirt poor nation so what are they doing smoking so much? Must be because Paraguayan ciggies are dirt cheap...I dunno.