Fewer Americans smoke than past decades
- Just 12% of American adults said they smoked cigarettes
- Vaping held steady, with 8% of adults using e-cigarettes
- Binge drinking and the use of marijuana and hallucinogens increased
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – NOVEMBER 15: In this photo illustration, packs of menthol cigarettes sits on a table, November 15, 2018 in New York City. (Photo Illustration by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
Testing on staging11
(NewsNation) — American adults are smoking fewer cigarettes than in previous decades, according to a new Gallup poll.
The poll has been tracking cigarette smoking among American adults since 1944. In 2023, 12% of adults said they smoked cigarettes, a slight uptick from 2022, when 11% admitted to cigarette smoking.
However, both 2022 and 2023 represent the lowest numbers in the 80 years Gallup has been studying the measure. In 1944, 41% of U.S. adults smoked, and that number grew until it reached a high of 45% of adults in 1954.
From there, the numbers remained relatively steady, with a slight decline, until the 1970s, when smoking began to decline significantly.
The decline is likely due to increased warnings about the harmful effects of smoking, as opposed to the ’40s and ’50s, when cigarettes were actually marketed as being healthy.
The amount Americans smoke has also dropped. An average of 21% of U.S. smokers said they smoked a pack a day and 6% said they smoked more than one, as compared to ’40s and ’50s, when four in 10 smokers had a pack-a-day habit and 20% said they smoked more than that.
Americans haven’t given up vices altogether, however. Vaping held steady in the survey, with 8% of U.S. adults saying they smoked e-cigarettes. The rates of marijuana use, use of hallucinogens and binge drinking showed increases, according to data from 2022.