Cigarette sales tick downward in Beijing

The number of cigarettes sold in Beijing last year decreased by 8 percent year-on-year, the biggest decline in recent years, according to a report on population health released by the Beijing municipal government on Wednesday.

Among people age 15 or older in Beijing, the percentage who smoke decreased to 22.3 percent last year, a drop of 4.7 percent from 2014. The total number of smokers decreased by about 200,000, the report said.

The number of cigarettes sold in Beijing last year reached 93.8 billion, the report said, citing the Beijing Bureau of Statistics.