An estimated 1.2 billion citizens of the world are smokers. In developing countries, half the males smoke. WHO projects a global smoking population of 1.6 billion by the end of the next two decades. Collectively, today the world's smokers annually consume nearly 1,000 cigarettes for every man, woman and child on the planet. Almost 5 million people die as a result of smoking, half during their productive working years, with half occurring in developing countries. Two decades hence, tobacco products will kill an estimated 10 million people every year, 70% of them in the world's poor nations. During the 20th century, smoking killed 100 million people. Without significant public health progress, cigarettes will claim the lives of an estimated one billion during the 21st century. Progress can be achieved, however, through the adoption and enforcement of effective tobacco control policies. Such policies are embedded in the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, the world's first international health treaty. They include protecting nonsmokers from the hazards of secondhand smoke in all indoor workplaces and public places, banning tobacco advertising and sponsorship, raising tobacco taxes and eliminating the smuggling of untaxed cigarettes. The future health of the world's population rests on the success that will be achieved in global tobacco control.