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Share of taxes in tobacco retail price

What you should know about this indicator

Rationale

In 2008, WHO introduced the MPOWER package to assist in the country-level implementation of six effective measures to reduce demand for tobacco products. Each measure reflects at least one provision of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. The letter R in MPOWER denotes the "Raise taxes on tobacco" measure. This indicator measures the implementation status of the R measure.

Definition

Country-provided information on taxes and prices is assessed to yield indicators to describe the comparative level of taxes on tobacco products in countries. Taxes assessed include excise tax, value added tax (“VAT”), import duty (when the cigarettes were imported) and any other taxes levied. Only the price of the most popular brand of cigarettes is considered. In the case of countries where different levels of taxes applied to cigarettes are based on either length, quantity produced or type (e.g. filter vs. non-filter), only the rate that applied to the most popular brand is used in the calculation. Given the lack of information on country and brand-specific profit margins of retailers and wholesalers, their profits were assumed to be zero (unless provided by the national data collector). The implementation status of the Raise tobacco taxes measure was classified by grouping countries into five groups. The groupings for this indicator are: 1 = Data not reported 2 = ≤ 25% of retail price is tax 3 = 26–50% of retail price is tax 4 = 51–75% of retail price is tax 5 = >75% of retail price is tax.

Method of estimation

Country reported data, assessed according to the definition of this indicator.

Share of taxes in tobacco retail price
Country-provided information on taxes and prices is assessed to yield indicators to describe the comparative level of taxes on tobacco products in countries. Taxes assessed include excise tax, value added tax (“VAT”), import duty (when the cigarettes were imported) and any other taxes levied. Only the price of the most popular brand of cigarettes is considered. In the case of countries where different levels of taxes applied to cigarettes are based on either length, quantity produced or type (e.g. filter vs. non-filter), only the rate that applied to the most popular brand is used in the calculation. Given the lack of information on country and brand-specific profit margins of retailers and wholesalers, their profits were assumed to be zero (unless provided by the national data collector). The implementation status of the Raise tobacco taxes measure was classified by grouping countries into five groups. The groupings for this indicator are: 1 = Data not reported 2 = ≤ 25% of retail price is tax 3 = 26–50% of retail price is tax 4 = 51–75% of retail price is tax 5 = >75% of retail price is tax.
Source
World Health Organization - Global Health Observatory (2024) – processed by Our World in Data
Last updated
January 3, 2024
Next expected update
January 2025
Date range
2008–2022
Unit
%

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Sources and processing

This data is based on the following sources

The GHO data repository is WHO's gateway to health-related statistics for its 194 Member States. It provides access to over 1000 indicators on priority health topics including mortality and burden of diseases, the Millennium Development Goals (child nutrition, child health, maternal and reproductive health, immunization, HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, neglected diseases, water and sanitation), non communicable diseases and risk factors, epidemic-prone diseases, health systems, environmental health, violence and injuries, equity among others.

Retrieved on
January 3, 2024
Retrieved from
https://www.who.int/data/gho
Citation
This is the citation of the original data obtained from the source, prior to any processing or adaptation by Our World in Data. To cite data downloaded from this page, please use the suggested citation given in Reuse This Work below.
World Health Organization. 2024. Global Health Observatory data repository. http://www.who.int/gho/en/. Accessed on 2024-01-03

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Citations

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To cite this page overall, including any descriptions, FAQs or explanations of the data authored by Our World in Data, please use the following citation:

“Data Page: Share of taxes in tobacco retail price”. Our World in Data (2024). Data adapted from World Health Organization. Retrieved from https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/share-of-tobacco-retail-price-that-is-tax [online resource]
How to cite this data

In-line citationIf you have limited space (e.g. in data visualizations), you can use this abbreviated in-line citation:

World Health Organization - Global Health Observatory (2024) – processed by Our World in Data

Full citation

World Health Organization - Global Health Observatory (2024) – processed by Our World in Data. “Share of taxes in tobacco retail price” [dataset]. World Health Organization, “Global Health Observatory” [original data]. Retrieved July 26, 2024 from https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/share-of-tobacco-retail-price-that-is-tax