From 1965 to 2019, the prevalence of cigarette smoking in the U.S. has decreased from about 42 percent to 14 percent. Cigarette smoking is a known risk factor for many types of cancers including lung cancer, bladder cancer and pancreatic cancer. Globally tobacco use is one of the greatest risk factors for preventable diseases. There are several resources in the United States to help individuals quit smoking including website, hotlines, medications and text message programs.

Smoking prevalence globally

Globally, smoking prevalence has also decreased is projected to continue to decline through 2025. North America makes up a small percentage of the world’s cigarette smokers. The highest prevalence of tobacco smoking can be found in Europe, followed by the Western Pacific. In the past few decades there have been stronger efforts made to reduce cigarette consumption in many parts of the world. Cigarettes are taxed separately in many countries and are often required to add health warnings to cigarette packaging for consumers.

Smoking cessation measures

Smoking prevention measures cover a broad range of targeted cigarette reduction. Common tobacco control policies include warning labels, advertising bans, and smoke-free environments. As of 2020, around 60 percent of the world population lived in a place where there were warning labels on tobacco products. Furthermore, in 2020, around 34 percent of U.S. employers offered smoking cessation programs to their employees.

As of 2021, around 28.3 million adults in the United States were current cigarette smokers. Although this figure is still high, it is significantly lower compared to previous years. For example, in 2011, there were almost 44 million smokers in the United States.

Smoking demographics in the U.S. Although smoking in the U.S. has decreased greatly over the past few decades it is still more common among certain demographics than others. For example, men are more likely to be current cigarette smokers than women, with 13 percent of men smoking in 2021, compared to 10 percent of women. Furthermore, non-Hispanic whites and non-Hispanic Blacks smoke at higher rates than Hispanics and non-Hispanic Asians, with almost 13 percent of non-Hispanic whites smoking in 2021, compared to just over five percent of non-Hispanic Asians. Certain regions and states also have a higher prevalence of smoking than others, with around 20 percent of adults in West Virginia considered current smokers, compared to just six percent in Utah.

The health impacts of smoking The decrease in smoking rates in the United States over the past decades is due to many factors including policies and regulations limiting cigarette advertising, promotion, and sales, price increases for cigarettes, and widespread awareness among the public of the dangers of smoking. According to the CDC, those who smoke are two to four times more likely to develop coronary heart disease and stroke and around 25 times more likely to develop lung cancer than nonsmokers. In fact, it is estimated that around 81 percent of lung cancer deaths in the United States can be attributed to cigarette smoking, as well as 72 percent of larynx cancer deaths. Cigarette smokers are also much more likely to develop chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), with around 16 percent of current smokers in the U.S. living with COPD in 2021, compared to just three percent of those who had never smoked.

United States US: Smoking Prevalence: Total: % of Adults: Aged 15+ data was reported at 21.800 % in 2016. This records a decrease from the previous number of 22.300 % for 2015. United States US: Smoking Prevalence: Total: % of Adults: Aged 15+ data is updated yearly, averaging 23.900 % from Dec 2000 (Median) to 2016, with 9 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 31.400 % in 2000 and a record low of 21.800 % in 2016. United States US: Smoking Prevalence: Total: % of Adults: Aged 15+ data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by World Bank. The data is categorized under Global Database’s USA – Table US.World Bank: Health Statistics. Prevalence of smoking is the percentage of men and women ages 15 and over who currently smoke any tobacco product on a daily or non-daily basis. It excludes smokeless tobacco use. The rates are age-standardized.; ; World Health Organization, Global Health Observatory Data Repository (http://apps.who.int/ghodata/).; Weighted average;

The total number of cigarettes consumed in the United States has decreased over the past few decades. In 2015, around 267 billion cigarettes were consumed, compared to around 632 billion in 1980. This decrease is most likely due to a combination of higher taxes on cigarettes, restrictions on public smoking, and increased awareness of the health risks of smoking.

Health risks of smoking

The negative health impacts of smoking are now widely known and proven. Among men, smokers are 25 times more likely to develop lung cancer than nonsmokers. Smoking also increases the risk of coronary heart disease, stroke, and other cancers. Around 47 percent of deaths from oral cavity and pharynx cancers can be attributed to cigarette smoking as well as 45 percent of deaths from urinary bladder cancer.

Quitting

A large percentage of smokers want to quit, with up to 78 percent of those who smoke less than one pack a day wanting to do so. Quitting smoking can be extremely difficult, but there are many ways to assist in breaking the habit. Smoking cessation programs are one of the most popular wellness programs employers provide to employees in the United States.

As of 2023, the U.S. states with the highest smoking rates included West Virginia, Tennessee, and Louisiana. In West Virginia, around 20 percent of all adults smoked as of this time. The number of smokers in the United States has decreased over the past decades. Who smokes? The smoking rates for both men and women have decreased for many years, but men continue to smoke at higher rates than women. As of 2021, around 13 percent of men were smokers compared to 10 percent of women. Concerning race and ethnicity, smoking is least prevalent among Asians with just five percent of this population smoking compared to 13 percent of non-Hispanic whites. Health impacts of smoking The negative health impacts of smoking are vast. Smoking increases the risk of heart disease, stroke, and many different types of cancers. For example, smoking is estimated to be attributable to 81 percent of all deaths from lung cancer among adults 30 years and older in the United States. Smoking is currently the leading cause of preventable death in the United States.

United States US: Smoking Prevalence: Males: % of Adults data was reported at 24.600 % in 2016. This records a decrease from the previous number of 25.100 % for 2015. United States US: Smoking Prevalence: Males: % of Adults data is updated yearly, averaging 26.800 % from Dec 2000 (Median) to 2016, with 9 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 34.500 % in 2000 and a record low of 24.600 % in 2016. United States US: Smoking Prevalence: Males: % of Adults data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by World Bank. The data is categorized under Global Database’s USA – Table US.World Bank: Health Statistics. Prevalence of smoking, male is the percentage of men ages 15 and over who currently smoke any tobacco product on a daily or non-daily basis. It excludes smokeless tobacco use. The rates are age-standardized.; ; World Health Organization, Global Health Observatory Data Repository (http://apps.who.int/ghodata/).; Weighted average;

Graph and download economic data for Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers: Tobacco and Smoking Products in U.S. City Average (CUSR0000SEGA) from Jan 1986 to Feb 2025 about tobacco, urban, production, consumer, CPI, inflation, price index, indexes, price, and USA.

This database contains tobacco consumption data from 1970-2015 collected through a systematic search coupled with consultation with country and subject-matter experts. Data quality appraisal was conducted by at least two research team members in duplicate, with greater weight given to official government sources. All data was standardized into units of cigarettes consumed and a detailed accounting of data quality and sourcing was prepared. Data was found for 82 of 214 countries for which searches for national cigarette consumption data were conducted, representing over 95% of global cigarette consumption and 85% of the world’s population. Cigarette consumption fell in most countries over the past three decades but trends in country specific consumption were highly variable. For example, China consumed 2.5 million metric tonnes (MMT) of cigarettes in 2013, more than Russia (0.36 MMT), the United States (0.28 MMT), Indonesia (0.28 MMT), Japan (0.20 MMT), and the next 35 highest consuming countries combined. The US and Japan achieved reductions of more than 0.1 MMT from a decade earlier, whereas Russian consumption plateaued, and Chinese and Indonesian consumption increased by 0.75 MMT and 0.1 MMT, respectively. These data generally concord with modelled country level data from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation and have the additional advantage of not smoothing year-over-year discontinuities that are necessary for robust quasi-experimental impact evaluations. Before this study, publicly available data on cigarette consumption have been limited—either inappropriate for quasi-experimental impact evaluations (modelled data), held privately by companies (proprietary data), or widely dispersed across many national statistical agencies and research organisations (disaggregated data). This new dataset confirms that cigarette consumption has decreased in most countries over the past three decades, but that secular country specific consumption trends are highly variable. The findings underscore the need for more robust processes in data reporting, ideally built into international legal instruments or other mandated processes. To monitor the impact of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control and other tobacco control interventions, data on national tobacco production, trade, and sales should be routinely collected and openly reported. The first use of this database for a quasi-experimental impact evaluation of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control is: Hoffman SJ, Poirier MJP, Katwyk SRV, Baral P, Sritharan L. Impact of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control on global cigarette consumption: quasi-experimental evaluations using interrupted time series analysis and in-sample forecast event modelling. BMJ. 2019 Jun 19;365:l2287. doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.l2287 Another use of this database was to systematically code and classify longitudinal cigarette consumption trajectories in European countries since 1970 in: Poirier MJ, Lin G, Watson LK, Hoffman SJ. Classifying European cigarette consumption trajectories from 1970 to 2015. Tobacco Control. 2022 Jan. DOI: 10.1136/tobaccocontrol-2021-056627. Statement of Contributions: Conceived the study: GEG, SJH Identified multi-country datasets: GEG, MP Extracted data from multi-country datasets: MP Quality assessment of data: MP, GEG Selection of data for final analysis: MP, GEG Data cleaning and management: MP, GL Internet searches: MP (English, French, Spanish, Portuguese), GEG (English, French), MYS (Chinese), SKA (Persian), SFK (Arabic); AG, EG, BL, MM, YM, NN, EN, HR, KV, CW, and JW (English), GL (English) Identification of key informants: GEG, GP Project Management: LS, JM, MP, SJH, GEG Contacts with Statistical Agencies: MP, GEG, MYS, SKA, SFK, GP, BL, MM, YM, NN, HR, KV, JW, GL Contacts with key informants: GEG, MP, GP, MYS, GP Funding: GEG, SJH SJH: Hoffman, SJ; JM: Mammone J; SRVK: Rogers Van Katwyk, S; LS: Sritharan, L; MT: Tran, M; SAK: Al-Khateeb, S; AG: Grjibovski, A.; EG: Gunn, E; SKA: Kamali-Anaraki, S; BL: Li, B; MM: Mahendren, M; YM: Mansoor, Y; NN: Natt, N; EN: Nwokoro, E; HR: Randhawa, H; MYS: Yunju Song, M; KV: Vercammen, K; CW: Wang, C; JW: Woo, J; MJPP: Poirier, MJP; GEG: Guindon, EG; GP: Paraje, G; GL Gigi Lin Key informants who provided data: Corne van Walbeek (South Africa, Jamaica) Frank Chaloupka (US) Ayda Yurekli (Turkey) Dardo Curti (Uruguay) Bungon Ritthiphakdee (Thailand) Jakub Lobaszewski (Poland) Guillermo Paraje (Chile, Argentina) Key informants who provided useful insights: Carlos Manuel Guerrero López (Mexico) Muhammad Jami Husain (Bangladesh) Nigar Nargis (Bangladesh) Rijo M John (India) Evan Blecher (Nigeria, Indonesia, Philippines, South Africa) Yagya Karki (Nepal) Anne CK Quah (Malaysia) Nery Suarez Lugo (Cuba) Agencies providing assistance: Iranian Tobacco Co. Institut National de la Statistique (Tunisia) HM Revenue & Customs (UK) Eidgenössisches Finanzdepartement EFD/Département...

U.S. smoking rate for 2020 was 23.00%, a 0.4% decline from 2019.

• U.S. smoking rate for 2019 was 23.40%, a 0% increase from 2018.
• U.S. smoking rate for 2018 was 23.40%, a 1.9% decline from 2015.
• U.S. smoking rate for 2015 was 25.30%, a 2.7% decline from 2010.

Prevalence of smoking is the percentage of men and women ages 15 and over who currently smoke any tobacco product on a daily or non-daily basis. It excludes smokeless tobacco use. The rates are age-standardized.

The smoking prevalence in the United States was forecast to continuously decrease between 2024 and 2029 by in total two percentage points. After the eighth consecutive decreasing year, the smoking prevalence is estimated to reach 19.93 percent and therefore a new minimum in 2029. Shown is the estimated share of the adult population (15 years or older) in a given region or country, that smoke on a daily basis. According to the WHO and World bank, smoking refers to the use of cigarettes, pipes or other types of tobacco.The shown data are an excerpt of Statista's Key Market Indicators (KMI). The KMI are a collection of primary and secondary indicators on the macro-economic, demographic and technological environment in up to 150 countries and regions worldwide. All indicators are sourced from international and national statistical offices, trade associations and the trade press and they are processed to generate comparable data sets (see supplementary notes under details for more information).Find more key insights for the smoking prevalence in countries like Canada and Mexico.

Forecast: Smoking Prevalence in the US 2024 - 2028 Discover more data with ReportLinker!

United States US: Prevalence of Current Tobacco Use: % of Adults data was reported at 23.000 % in 2020. This records a decrease from the previous number of 23.400 % for 2019. United States US: Prevalence of Current Tobacco Use: % of Adults data is updated yearly, averaging 25.300 % from Dec 2000 (Median) to 2020, with 7 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 33.800 % in 2000 and a record low of 23.000 % in 2020. United States US: Prevalence of Current Tobacco Use: % of Adults data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by World Bank. The data is categorized under Global Database’s United States – Table US.World Bank.WDI: Social: Health Statistics. The percentage of the population ages 15 years and over who currently use any tobacco product (smoked and/or smokeless tobacco) on a daily or non-daily basis. Tobacco products include cigarettes, pipes, cigars, cigarillos, waterpipes (hookah, shisha), bidis, kretek, heated tobacco products, and all forms of smokeless (oral and nasal) tobacco. Tobacco products exclude e-cigarettes (which do not contain tobacco), “e-cigars”, “e-hookahs”, JUUL and “e-pipes”. The rates are age-standardized to the WHO Standard Population.;World Health Organization, Global Health Observatory Data Repository (http://apps.who.int/ghodata/).;Weighted average;This is the Sustainable Development Goal indicator 3.a.1 [https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/metadata/]. Previous indicator name: Smoking prevalence, total (ages 15+) The previous indicator excluded smokeless tobacco use, while the current indicator includes. The indicator name and definition were updated in December, 2020.

Graph and download economic data for Expenditures: Tobacco Products and Smoking Supplies by Deciles of Income Before Taxes: Eighth 10 Percent (71st to 80th Percentile) (CXUTOBACCOLB1509M) from 2014 to 2023 about tobacco, supplies, percentile, tax, expenditures, income, and USA.

Prevalence of smoking is the percentage of men and women ages 15 and over who currently smoke any tobacco product on a daily or non-daily basis. It excludes smokeless tobacco use. The rates are age-standardized.

Graph and download economic data for Expenditures: Tobacco Products and Smoking Supplies: All Consumer Units (CXUTOBACCOLB0101M) from 1984 to 2023 about tobacco, consumer unit, supplies, expenditures, and USA.

Smoking rates for each Census Tract in Allegheny County were produced for the study “Developing small-area predictions for smoking and obesity prevalence in the United States.” The data is not explicitly based on population surveys or data collection conducted in Allegheny County, but rather estimated using statistical modeling techniques. In this technique, researchers applied the smoking rate of a demographically similar Census Tract to one in Allegheny County to compute a smoking rate.

This dataset provides prevalence estimates by county, year, and sex from 1996 to 2012.

In 2022, the prevalence of smoking among white U.S. adults was 12.7 percent. This statistic represents the prevalence of smoking in the United States as of 2022, by race and ethnicity.

Graph and download economic data for Expenditures: Tobacco Products and Smoking Supplies by Type of Area: Urban: Central City (CXUTOBACCOLB1803M) from 2003 to 2020 about tobacco, supplies, expenditures, urban, and USA.

Graph and download economic data for Expenditures: Tobacco Products and Smoking Supplies by Income Before Taxes: $100,000 and over (CXUTOBACCOLB0214M) from 2003 to 2015 about tobacco, supplies, tax, expenditures, income, and USA.