Cigarette Smoking among US Adults at Lowest Level Ever

Cigarette smoking has reached the lowest level ever recorded among United States adults, according to new data published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the National Institutes of Health’s National Cancer Institute (NCI). Still, about 47 million, or 1 in 5, U.S. adults used a tobacco product in 2017, and they used a variety of smoked, smokeless, and electronic tobacco products. An estimated 14% of U.S. adults, or 34 million, were current every day cigarette smokers in 2017, down from 15.5 in 2016, which is a 67% decline since 1965. A particularly notable decline occurred among young adults between 2016 and 2017; about 10% of young adults, aged 18 to 24 years, smoked cigarettes in 2017, down from 13% in 2016. Cigarette smoking remains the leading preventable cause of death and disease in the United States, and is responsible for the overwhelming burden of death and disease from tobacco use. Cigarette smoking kills an estimated 480,000 Americans each year, and about 16 million Americans suffer from a smoking-related illness. For more information or for free help quitting, call 1-800-QUIT-NOW or go to https://smokefree.gov/.