lifestyle

Nauru has the world's highest smoking rate — 52% of adults smoke. China has more smokers than any country: 300 million people. Smoking kills 8 million people per year — more than any other preventable cause. Yet tobacco use is rising in low-income countries as it falls in wealthy ones.

No single survey ranks every country by pets. What national surveys do show: 95 million US households own a pet, 49% of European households do, and Japan has more dogs and cats than children.

Italy has the highest tattoo prevalence of any country — 48% of Italians have at least one tattoo. The United States has the world's largest tattoo industry at $1.8 billion annually. New Zealand's Māori ta moko tradition is one of the world's oldest continuous tattooing cultures.

German workers put in about 1,334 hours a year, the fewest in the OECD, while Denmark, Norway and Sweden follow close behind. Here is how working time, paid leave and parental leave compare across rich countries, and what the numbers can and cannot tell you.

Iceland, Norway and Switzerland top the UN's 2025 Human Development Index, and Nordic countries dominate the 2025 World Happiness Report. Here is how the main quality-of-life measures are built, where they agree, and where they disagree.

40% of cancers are preventable through lifestyle changes. Tobacco causes 30% of all cancer deaths. Obesity is the second leading preventable cause. Here is what the evidence actually shows about reducing cancer risk.