---
title: "Who smokes in America?"
description: "CVS' decision to stop selling tobacco products comes as smoking continues to decline and smokers are consuming fewer cigarettes."
date: "2014-02-07"
authors:
  - name: "Drew DeSilver"
    job_title: "Senior Writer/Editor"
    link: "https://www.pewresearch.org/staff/drew-desilver/"
url: "https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2014/02/07/who-smokes-in-america/"
categories:
  - "Health Policy"
  - "Medicine & Health"
---

# Who smokes in America?

[![FT_14.02.06_WhoSmokes_310px](https://assets.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/12/2014/02/FT_14.02.06_WhoSmokes_310px.png)](http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm6144a2.htm?s_cid=%20mm6144a2.htm_w#tab)

Drugstore chain CVS has received a lot of attention, [most of it positive](http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2014/02/05/why-cvs-thinks-it-can-win-big-by-ending-cigarette-sales/), for its decision to [stop selling cigarettes](http://info.cvscaremark.com/newsroom/press-releases/cvs-caremark-stop-selling-tobacco-all-cvspharmacy-locations) and other tobacco products by Oct. 1. The company expects to lose $2 billion in sales to tobacco shoppers, though it says it's identified unspecified "incremental opportunities that are expected to offset the profitability impact." It's worth noting, though, that CVS is leaving a shrinking business: Not only do fewer Americans smoke, but those who still do are smoking less.

In 2011, 19% of adult Americans, or 43.8 million, were current cigarette smokers, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's most recent [National Health Interview Survey](http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm6144a2.htm?s_cid=%20mm6144a2.htm_w#tab). Those figures are down from 22.3% (or 45.8 million) in 2002, though smoking prevalence has hovered around 20% for the past several years. By contrast, in 1965 -- a year after the first Surgeon General's report on smoking and health -- 41.9% of U.S. adults smoked. As recently as 1979, fully a third did so.

Smoking rates today are highest among the poor and less-educated, according to government data. For instance, 29% of people living below the official poverty level smoke, versus 17.9% of people at or above poverty. People whose highest educational level is a General Educational Development (GED) certificate -- typically high-school dropouts -- are nine times more likely to smoke than people with graduate degrees (45.3% versus 5%).

Smoking rates vary considerably by [geography](http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/hus/2012/057.pdf). The highest rates in the 2009-2011 period were in nonurban counties in the South (31.9%) and small towns in the South (31%) and Midwest (30%). The lowest rates are in big Western cities (15%) and their suburban fringes (16.9%).

American smokers aren't lighting up the way they used to. In 1980, according to data compiled by the [Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation](http://viz.healthmetricsandevaluation.org/tobacco/), U.S. smokers consumed an average 12,000 cigarettes -- more than a pack and a half a day. By 2012, per-smoker consumption had fallen to 8,200 cigarettes, or just over a pack a day.

CVS hopes that exiting the tobacco business will aid its efforts to[ recast itself](http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304851104579363520905849600?mg=reno64-wsj&url=http%3A%2F%2Fonline.wsj.com%2Farticle%2FSB10001424052702304851104579363520905849600.html) as not just a drugstore but a healthcare provider, especially since Americans don't generally associate smoking and health. In a Pew Research Center [survey](https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2013/11/12/public-agrees-on-obesitys-impact-not-governments-role/) last year, 53% called cigarette smoking an "extremely" or "very" serious public health problem; 45% said the country was making progress in addressing the issue of smoking, while 13% said it was losing ground.