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Cigarettes & Tobacco

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Cigarette smoking remains the leading preventable cause of death in the United States,¹ accounting for approximately 1 of every 5 deaths (438,000 people) each year.^2,3

National Estimates

• An estimated, 20.9 percent of all adults (44.5 million people) smoke cigarettes in the United States.⁴
   
• Cigarette smoking estimates by age are as follows: 18–24 years (23.6 percent), 25–44 years (23.8 percent), 45–64 years (22.4 percent), and 65 years or older (8.8 percent).⁴
   
• Cigarette smoking is more common among men (23.4 percent) than women (18.5 percent).⁴
   
• Prevalence of cigarette smoking is highest among American Indians/Alaska Natives (33.4 percent), followed by whites (22.2 percent), African Americans (20.2 percent), Hispanics (15 percent), and Asians [excluding Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders](11.3 percent).⁴
   
• Cigarette smoking estimates are highest for adults with a General Education Development (GED) diploma (39.6 percent) or 9–11 years of education (34 percent), and lowest for adults with an undergraduate college degree (11.7 percent) or a graduate college degree (8 percent).⁴
   
• Cigarette smoking is more common among adults who live below the poverty level (29.1 percent) than among those living at or above the poverty level (20.6 percent).⁴

State Estimates

• In 2004, the state estimates for cigarette smoking varied widely, ranging from 10.5 percent in Utah and 14.8 percent in California, to 27.6 percent in Kentucky and 26.9 percent in West Virginia.⁵
   
• The highest state estimates for cigarette smoking among men were in Kentucky (29.3 percent), Mississippi (29.1 percent), and Alabama (29 percent); the lowest estimates were in Utah (11.7 percent), California (18.5 percent), and Idaho (19.2 percent).⁵
   
• The highest estimates for cigarette smoking among women were in West Virginia (26.4 percent), Kentucky (25.9 percent), and Tennessee (25.3 percent); the lowest estimates were in Utah (9.4 percent) and California (11.1 percent).⁵

References

1. CDC. Annual smoking-attributable mortality, years of potential life lost, and economic costs—United States, 1995–1999. ( PDF - 220k) Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report 2002;51(14):300–303. Accessed: May 2004.
    
2. CDC. Annual Smoking–Attributable Mortality, Years of Potential Life Lost, and Productivity Losses — United States, 1997–2001. ( PDF - 256k) Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report 2005;54(25):625–628.
    
3. CDC. National Center for Health Statistics; Health, United States, 2004 With Chartbook on Trends in the Health of Americans. ( PDF - 116k) Hyattsville, MD: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, CDC, 2004. Available at http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/hus/hus04.pdf. ( PDF - 9.5MB)
    
4. CDC. Cigarette smoking among adults—United States, 2004. ( PDF - 287k) Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report 2005;54(44):1121–1124. 
    
5. CDC. State-specific prevalence of cigarette smoking and quitting among adults — United States, 2004. ( PDF - 287k) Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report 2005;54(44):1124–1127. 

Note: More recent information may be available at the CDC's Office on Smoking and Health Web site: http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco, CDC's National Center for Health Statistics Web site: http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nhis.htm, or from CDC's Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System Web site: http://www.cdc.gov/brfss.

This information is from the National Center For Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion (TIPS) site. More updated information may be available at http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/Factsheets.htm