This article gives a overview of the impact of smoking on world and Spanish mortality and updates the smoking attributable mortality for Spain in 2001. It is estimated that 4 million people were died in the world by smoking-related diseases. That figure will raise to 10 millions in 2030. In Europe smoking habit caused more than 675 thousand deads in 2000 (four-fold more than alcohol and illegal drugs together). Smoking attributable mortality in Spain was calculated using an attributable-fraction formula. Mortality data for 2001 were obtain from National Statistics Institute (INE), relative risks from Cancer Prevention Study-II and smoking prevalence data from the 2001 National Health Survey. In 2001, 49.072 people died from tobacco-related diseases, 44.682 (91'1%) among men and 4.390 (8'9%) among women. That figures mean 24'5% of total mortality among men and 2'6% of mortality among women. Tobacco-attributable mortality is very high in Spain, mainly among males so long as 1 of each 4 males died from related tobacco diseases.