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Cigarette Smoking Among Adults—United States, 1995


The Wednesday, December 24, 1997 issue of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) contains the article, "Cigarette Smoking Among Adults—United States, 1995." Data collected from the 1995 National Health Interview Survey shows that 24.7 percent (47 million) of all U.S. adults were current smokers—27 percent of men (24.5 million) and 22.6 percent of women (22.4 million). Nearly 70 percent (32 million) of smokers in 1995 said they wanted to quit smoking completely and 45.8 percent of current everyday smokers stopped smoking for at least one day during the previous year. The findings of this study and previous trends suggest that the U.S. will fall short of its national public health goal to reduce smoking to 15 percent by the year 2000.

The study also found:

  • Racial and ethnic group-specific smoking prevalences were highest for American Indians and Alaska Natives (36.2 percent) and lowest for Asian-Pacific Islanders (16.6 percent).
  • Smoking prevalence was highest among persons with 9-11 years of education (37.5 percent) and lowest among persons with 16 or more years of education (14.0 percent). Smoking prevalence was higher among persons living below the poverty level (32.5 percent) than among those living at or above the poverty level (23.8 percent).
  • An estimated 44.3 million adults were former smokers---25 million men and 19.3 million women.

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This page last reviewed April 11, 2003

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