Tobacco Usage & Public Health Insights Analysis Across Indian States

By abhishek.verma75000 · May 14, 2026

This analysis examines tobacco usage patterns, cessation behavior, awareness, and policy compliance across states using statistical and visualization…

The states with the highest gap between wanting to quit smoking and actually attempting to quit are Punjab (16.1 percentage points), Meghalaya (16.0 pp), Telangana (14.8 pp), Tripura (14.5 pp), and Nagaland (12.9 pp). Punjab tops the list where 36.8% of smokers wanted to quit but only 20.7% actually tried. Two bar charts and supporting data tables have been generated to visualize these findings.

The analysis identified the states with the lowest age-based tobacco sale refusal rates, indicating weak retail enforcement of tobacco sale-to-minors laws. Two visualizations were generated: a horizontal bar chart showing the top 10 states with the lowest average refusal rates across cigarettes, bidis, and smokeless tobacco, and a grouped bar chart breaking down refusal rates by product type for each of those states.

The analysis reveals a weak positive correlation (r = 0.231) between tobacco advertisement exposure and current tobacco user rates across 35 Indian states. This means that while states with higher ad exposure tend to have slightly higher user rates, the relationship is not strong enough to suggest ads are a primary driver of tobacco use. Two scatter and bar charts were generated to visualize this relationship clearly.

The states and UTs with the highest current tobacco user percentages — requiring the most urgent intervention — are concentrated in Northeast India. Arunachal Pradesh and Mizoram top the list at 57.9% each, nearly 5 times the national average of 11.8%. Two bar charts and supporting data tables were generated to visualize these findings.

Yes — states with higher tobacco-free school guideline compliance do tend to show lower student tobacco usage. The analysis found a weak negative correlation (r = -0.190) between school compliance and current student tobacco use, meaning that as compliance increases, usage generally decreases. High-compliance states averaged 9.04% current tobacco users compared to 14.39% in low-compliance states — a meaningful 5.34 percentage point difference.

Tobacco usage rates vary clearly across Rural, Urban, and Total (combined) area segments. Rural areas consistently show the highest rates across nearly all tobacco metrics, followed by the Total average, with Urban areas showing the lowest usage. Two visualizations and supporting data tables have been generated to illustrate these differences.

The analysis successfully computed a 'tobacco source diversity score' for each state by calculating how much paan shops dominate over stores as a tobacco source across three product types: cigarettes, bidis, and smokeless tobacco. A horizontal stacked bar chart was generated showing the top 15 states where paan shops are the dominant tobacco source, broken down by product type (Cigarette, Bidi, and Smokeless Tobacco contributions shown separately).

The correlation heatmap has been generated showing relationships between tobacco exposure, awareness, and usage metrics across Indian states (Total area). The analysis reveals that 'Ever tobacco users' is the strongest predictor of current tobacco use (r=0.94), while physical exposure at home/public places also shows a strong positive correlation (r=0.75). Anti-tobacco messaging has a moderate positive correlation with current use (r=0.65), and tobacco advertisement exposure shows a weaker link (r=0.23).

The analysis compared the top 10 states with the earliest smokeless tobacco initiation age against the 10 states with the latest initiation age, then examined their current smokeless tobacco (SLT) usage rates. Two grouped horizontal bar charts were generated showing both median initiation age and current SLT usage side by side for each group.

The analysis examined four anti-tobacco awareness metrics across Indian states/UTs (Total area rows only, excluding the national India aggregate). Summary statistics tables were generated showing how awareness varies across states. Mizoram has the highest composite awareness score (67.6%) while Odisha has the lowest (35.1%). The tables break down each metric's mean, median, min, max, and standard deviation across all states.