Monday, September 1
Smoking kills: One in five male deaths in Berlin are caused by cigarettes
Berlin likes to smoke, and its citizens suffer the consequences. In almost no other German state is the proportion of smoking-related deaths as high as in Berlin, according to new data from the German Cancer Research Centre (DKFZ).
In 2023, almost one in five male deaths (18 percent) in Berlin were attributable to smoking, with the figure for women slightly lower at around one in eight (13 percent). The research also showed that Berlin ranked second among all German states, with only Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania recording a higher rate for men (19 percent) and Bremen a higher rate for women (13 percent).
In total, around 131,000 people in Germany died in 2023 from the health consequences of smoking, corresponding to about one in seven deaths. Among these, the leading cause was cancer, accounting for 43 percent, followed by cardiovascular complications (around one third) and respiratory diseases (about one quarter).
More than one in four adults smoke in Germany, placing the country in the mid-range compared with the rest of Europe. The lowest proportion of smokers is found in Sweden, where just 8 percent of adults smoke, while the highest rates are in Greece, Romania, Bulgaria and Croatia, all of which exceed 30 percent.
