According to the article's author, Borka Cafuk, about one quarter of the Croatian population has conquered this habit, which is not a comforting fact, nevertheless, this is the lowest rate in comparison to other southeastern European countries.
Albania tops the rankings with 80 percent of its citizens smoking. It is followed by Bosnia-Herzegovina where almost half of population smokes. Macedonia is third-ranked (40 percent,) Bulgaria, Montenegro and Serbia have the rate of 38 percent and Romania just as Croatia has the rate of 25 percent.
These countries are advised to launch more aggressive campaigns against this bad habit.
According to the journal, the highest concentration of smokers in Croatia is on the northern Adriatic coast and in the east of the country. Pozega-Slavonia County and the northern region of Zagorje can be proud of having the lowest rate of smokers (10 percent).
Annually, about 11,000 Croatians die from smoking-related diseases, and in the world the figure is put to 1.4 million.
The country's population is estimated at 4.5 million