2006 CDC report says smokers in U.S. still about 21%

William Atkins
Sunday, 11 November 2007 21:45

Science - Health

According to 2006 figures from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the percentage of adult smokers in the United States remains at 20.8%, pretty much the same as in 2004 and 2005.             

The report called “Tobacco Use Among Adults—United States, 2006,” which was published November, 2007, in the CDC “Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report” (MMWR), states that that the percentage of U.S. adults who smoked in 2004 and 2005 was 20.9% while the percentage who smoked in 2006 was down only 0.1%, to 20.8%.

This result over that last three years is an abrupt change from the steady decreases in percentages of smokers in the previous eight years, from 1997 to 2004.

Just over 24,000 U.S. adults, 18 years and older, were surveyed as to their smoking habits. Men smoked more than women: 23.9% versus 18.0%, respectively.

Asian-Americans had the lowest percentage of smokers as a group, with only 10.4% followed by Hispanic-Americans at 15.2%, non-Hispanic White-Americans at 21.9%, and non-Hispanic Black-Americans at 23.0%. The group with the highest percentage of smokers were American Indians/Alaskan Natives at a whooping 32.4%.

The report also stated that these two relationships: (1) more education showed a less likelihood of being a smoker and (2) adults living below the federal poverty level smoked 30.6% of the time while those adults living above the federal poverty level smoked 20.4% of the time.

Of the 20.8% of the people in the United States that smoke (about 45.3 million Americans), about 80.1% (36.3 million) people smoke every day (regularly) and 19.9% (9.0 million) people smoke on some days (irregularly).

The authors of the CDC report stated two primary reasons why they thought the rate of decrease in smoking was curtailed in 2006.