New Report Finds 1 in 5 U.S. Adults Use Tobacco

Twenty percent of adults in America used tobacco products in 2015, according to a new report.

November 15, 2017

ATLANTA – Close to 49 million adult Americans—20%—used a tobacco product in 2015, according to a new report from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Winston-Salem Journal reports.

The agencies noted that the report is based for the first time on the yearly National Health Interview survey, which has measured adult usage of cigarettes since 1965. Eighty-seven percent of U.S. adult tobacco users (42 million) smoked a combustible tobacco product, such as cigars, cigarettes, hookahs or water pipes. Another 7 million consumed electronic cigarettes, vaporizers or smokeless tobacco products, such as chewing tobacco, dip, dissolvable tobacco, snuff and snus.

In 2016, the national smoking rate for U.S. adult hovered at 17.1%. The CDC/FDA report found that 9.5 million U.S. adults had daily usage of one or more tobacco products. Just over 25% of males were more likely to use tobacco than women (15.4%). The most common age for tobacco usage is between 25 and 44 (23.3% of the population). While Kentucky, North Carolina and Virginia often criticized as the country’s major tobacco region, Midwestern adults were more likely to use tobacco products.

“These results make clear that more action is needed to reduce the disease and death caused by cigarette use—and the FDA has announced a comprehensive approach to do just that,” said Commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb. “This will be coupled with efforts to encourage innovation of potentially less harmful products, including electronic nicotine delivery systems.”

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