Current Cigarette Smoking Among Adults—United States, 2005-2013

November 28, 2014 / Vol. 63 / No. 47

MMWR Introduction

To assess progress made toward the Healthy People 2020 objective of reducing the proportion of U.S. adults who smoke cigarettes to ≤12% , this report uses data from the 2013 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) to provide the most recent national estimates of smoking prevalence among adults aged ≥18 years. The findings indicate that the proportion of U.S. adults who smoke cigarettes declined from 20.9% in 2005 to 17.8% in 2013. During the same period, declines were also observed in the proportions of daily smokers who smoked 20-29 (34.9% to 29.3%) or ≥30 cigarettes per day (12.7% to 7.1%).

However, cigarette smoking remains particularly high among certain subpopulations. In 2013, current smoking prevalence was higher among males (20.5%) than females (15.3%). Prevalence was highest among adults aged 25–44 years (20.1%) and lowest among those aged ≥65 years (8.8%). By race/ethnicity, prevalence was highest among adults reporting multiple races (26.8%) and among American Indian/Alaska Natives (26.1%), and lowest among non-Hispanic Asians (9.6%). Prevalence was highest among persons with a graduate education development (GED) certificate (41.4%) and lowest among those with a graduate degree (5.6%), and was higher among persons living below the poverty level (29.2%) than those at or above this level (16.2%). By region, prevalence was highest in the Midwest (20.5%) and lowest in the West (13.6%). Respondents who reported having a disability/limitation had a higher prevalence (23.0%) than those reporting no disability/limitation (17.0%). Smoking prevalence was higher among lesbian, gay, or bisexual adults (26.6%) than straight adults (17.6%). Among straight adults, males (20.3%) had a higher smoking prevalence than females (15.0%); however, among LGB adults, prevalence did not differ by sex.

These disparities underscore the importance of enhanced implementation and reach of proven strategies to prevent and reduce tobacco use among these groups, as well as expanded questions on surveillance tools to better capture data on subpopulations with the greatest burden of tobacco use.