Depends on country I think. At least here in Norway, after the ban on smoking indoors at public places like restaurants and bars 20 years ago, smoking went way down.
When I visited New York a few years ago I was shocked about how much smoking there was everywhere.
Of course, people didn't quit nicotine entirely, many moving to snus[1] instead.
Interestingly, I haven't been able to find a single study that shows long-term use of snus leads to health complications -- at least, not where snus was split out from smoking and other forms of tobacco consumption.
I was shocked at the amount of smoking I saw in Copenhagen 3 years ago. And I live in Durham, North Carolina, a historically tobacco city, whose nickname (Bull Durham or the Bull City) literally comes from old tobacco ads.
Yea, then again Danes have been quite liberal with alcohol and such in comparison with Norway, perhaps a common theme there.
But yes, varies greatly between countries. Since it's "only" been 20 years since the ban here, I'm curious to see if the numbers diverge more in the coming decades, or not.
