Cigarette Smoking in the U.S.

Percentage of U.S. adults aged 18 years or older who currently smoked cigarettes in 2021:¹

• 11.5% of all adults (28.3 million people): 13.1% of men, 10.1% of women
  • Nearly 15 of every 100 non-Hispanic adults from other racial groups* (14.9%)
  • Nearly 13 of every 100 non-Hispanic White adults (12.9%)
  • Nearly 12 of every 100 non-Hispanic Black adults (11.7%)
  • Nearly 8 of every 100 Hispanic adults (7.7%)
  • About 5 of every 100 non-Hispanic Asian adults** (5.4%)
  • 2021 tobacco product estimates for American Indian/Alaska Native adults were not statistically reliable

*Non-Hispanic Other includes adults who were categorized as “non-Hispanic American Indian or Alaska Native and any other group” or “other single and multiple races”.
**Non-Hispanic Asians does not include Native Hawaiians or Other Pacific Islanders.

Note: Current cigarette smokers are defined as people who reported smoking at least 100 cigarettes during their lifetime and who, at the time they participated in a survey about this topic, reported smoking every day or some days.

Thousands of young people start smoking cigarettes every day.²

• Each day, about 2000 people younger than 18 years smoke their first cigarette.
• Each day, over 300 people younger than 18 years become daily cigarette smokers.

Many adult cigarette smokers want to quit smoking.

• In 2015, nearly 7 in 10 (68.0%) adult cigarette smokers wanted to stop smoking.
• In 2018, more than half (55.1%) adult cigarette smokers had made a quit attempt in the past year.
• In 2018, more than 7 out of every 100 (7.5%) people who tried to quit succeeded.
• From 2012–2018, the Tips From Former Smokers^® campaign has motivated approximately one million tobacco smokers to quit for good.⁴

Note: “Made a quit attempt” refers to smokers who reported that they stopped smoking for more than 1 day in the past 12 months because they were trying to quit smoking. See CDC’s Smoking Cessation: Fast Facts fact sheet for more information.