OECD, smoking

he OECD is the Organisation for Economic cooperation and Development, and has 34 member countries: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Chile, the Czech Republic,  Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, the United Kingdom and the United States. 

The international figures on daily smokers are from the OECD report ‘Health at a Glance 2011’. In this report, the share of daily smokers is defined as the percentage of the population aged 15 years and older who say they smoke every day. The international comparability of these data on smokers is limited, however, as no standard has been set for the measurement of smoking behaviour in the health surveys of the various member states. There are differences in the age group observed, the formulation of the questions, the answer categories and the survey method.
 
The figures on the percentage of smokers in the Netherlands are from Statistics Netherlands’ health survey. The figures in the report differ from those published in StatLine. There are two reasons for this. First the figures in StatLine refer to the population aged 12 years and older, while the OECD reports on the population aged 15 years and older. Secondly, the figures in StatLine cover not only daily smokers, but also people who smoke, but not every day.