Indonesia has the third largest number of smoker in the world according to the latest data issued by an international agency?in Jakarta?on Monday.

Issuing its latest data, International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease, said that Indonesia now has the third largest smokers after China and India.

The agency also disclosed that the acute smoking habit among Indonesians has led to the deaths of 500,000 people annually due to smoking-related diseases.

According to the data, there are one billion smokers in the world in which 80 percent of them living in developing countries.

Particularly in Indonesia, the agency learned that there was at least one smoker in 50 percent of the whole families living across the country. According to the latest census, Indonesia has a population of 237 million people.

According to the agency, 40 percent of total smokers in Indonesia were males.

According to the data issued by Indonesian health ministry, as of 2007 the number of smokers in the country accounted for one third from the population, with one third of them were students. The ministry's data also said that those students started to smoke since they were below ten years old.