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Adult smokers are on the decline

Posted at 12:21 PM, May 26, 2016
and last updated 2016-05-26 13:32:58-04

The U.S. just saw its greatest drop in adult smokers in years. 

That's according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The number of adult smokers dropped from 16.8% in 2014 to 15.1% in 2016. That's the largest decline since 1993. 

In 2014, there were approximately 40 million adult smokers in 2014. Of those, 30.7 million said they smoked every day. To put this in perspective, the U.S. Census Bureau estimates that there are 323 million U.S. citizens.  

Around 480,000 deaths in America each year are linked to smoking cigarettes, while 41,000 can be attributed to secondhand smoke. If you want to put a price-tag on it, smoking-related illnesses cost the U.S. over $300 billion a year. 

By gender, 16.7% of men smoke compared to 13.6% of women.

Out of all the smokers, 43 percent had a GED education. That's much less than people who have a post-graduate degree and smoked, which is at five percent. 

You are more likely to smoke if you are living below the poverty level than if you are at or above. 

You can find more of these stats on the Centers For Disease Control and Prevention Website.