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Cigarette Smoking Among Adults—United States, 1998

MMWR Highlights

Friday, October 6, 2000 / Vol. 49 / No. 39


  • More than 47 million (24.1 percent) of adults aged 18 years and older currently smoke in the United States - 26.4 percent of men and 22.0 percent of women.

  • Adults with 16 or more years of education had the lowest smoking prevalence (11.3 percent) - reaching the Healthy People 2010 goal of reducing smoking rates to no more than 12 percent. Adults with 9 to 11 years of education had higher smoking prevalence (36.8 percent) than adults with fewer or more years of education.

  • Current smoking prevalence among young adults aged 18-24 years was 25.8 percent in 1993, 28.7 percent in 1997, and 27.9 percent in 1998, although the changes in smoking prevalence were not statistically significant. The data suggest that smoking prevalence among 18 to 24 year olds now equals that of 25 to 44 year olds (27.5 %). In earlier years smoking prevalence among young adults was lower than that of 25 to 44 year olds. There was no significant change in smoking among adults aged 25-44 years for the same period.

  • Smoking prevalence remained the highest among American Indians/Alaska Natives at 40 percent in 1998. Prevalence among African-Americans (24.7 percent) and whites (25.0 percent) remained higher than among Hispanics (19.1 percent) and Asians/Pacific Islanders (13.7 percent.) Smoking prevalence among racial/ethnic populations has remained fairly stable in recent years. 

  • Smoking prevalence was higher among adults living below the poverty level (32.3 percent) than those living at or above the poverty level (23.5 percent).

  • Nearly 45 million adults (25.7 million men and 19.1 million women) were former smokers, which remains unchanged from 1995 and 1997. Of current everyday adult smokers in 1998, more than 15 million quit smoking for at least one day during the year because they were trying to stop smoking.

  • Smoking rates among adults could be cut in half within the decade, meeting the Healthy People 2010 objectives related to reducing tobacco use, if the nation would fully implement tobacco prevention and control approaches proven to be effective. This can only be achieved through implementing of a science-based methods that include educational, clinical, regulatory, economic, and comprehensive approaches as outlined in Reducing Tobacco Use: A Report of the Surgeon General–2000 and CDC’s Best Practices for Comprehensive Tobacco Control Programs.

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This page last reviewed March 25, 2003

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