Although the negative health effects of smoking are proven and well known, millions of people in the United States still smoke tobacco. However, the number of people who smoke tobacco has decreased significantly over the past few decades due to anti-smoking campaigns and policies that have raised awareness of the health impacts of smoking, increased the price of cigarettes, created smoke-free laws, and improved access to cessation tools and programs. In 1980, almost 52 million
, but by the year 2021 this number had decreased to around 28 million.
Who smokes in the United States?
Around 14
percent of adults in the United States smoke cigarettes. Smoking is generally more common among men than women, but rates for both sexes have decreased over the past couple decades. As of 2019, around 15.3 percent of
men were current cigarette smokers, compared to 12.7 percent of women. Concerning race and ethnicity,
smoking is most common among non-Hispanic American Indians/Alaska Natives, and least common among non-Hispanic Asians. The
states with the highest smoking rates are West Virginia, Kentucky, and Arkansas, while Utah and California have the lowest rates in the United States.
Smoking among adolescents
The decline in smoking over the past few decades is even more pronounced among younger people. In 1991, the
lifetime prevalence of cigarette smoking among students in grades 8, 10, and 12 was almost 54 percent, but in 2022 just 11 percent reported they had smoked cigarettes at some point in their life. Furthermore, only around two percent of high school students in the United States report smoking cigarettes in the past 30 days. However, electronic cigarettes are now by far the
most used tobacco product among high school students with 14 percent of students using them in the past month as of 2022. Interestingly, in contrast to adults, cigarette smoking is almost equally prevalent among boys and girls, but
electronic cigarette use is more common among girls.
The health risks of smoking
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), cigarette smoking is the leading cause of preventable death in the United States. Smoking harms almost every organ in the body and increases the risk of many different types of cancer. For example,
people who smoke are four times more likely to develop coronary heart disease and stroke, and 13 times more likely to die from chronic obstructive lung diseases. Furthermore, men who smoke are around 25 times more likely to develop lung cancer than men who do not smoke while women who smoke are almost 26 times more likely to develop lung cancer than their nonsmoking counterparts. In fact, around 81 percent of all lung, bronchus, and trachea cancer deaths among adults 30 years and older
can be attributed to cigarette smoking. Cancer is the second leading cause of death in the United States with
lung cancer accounting for the highest number of cancer-related deaths. It was estimated that in 2023 there would be a total of around 238,340
new lung cancer cases in the United States as well as 127,070 deaths.
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