Poll Finds Cigarette Use Continues to be Low Among U.S. Adults

A new Gallup poll finds 12% of U.S. adults say they currently smoke cigarettes, a similar rate to last year, and significantly lower than a decade ago.

CBS News reports that as recently as 2015, Gallup found 20% of adults said they smoked. In 1954, 45% of American adults reported smoking, a record high.

The new poll found 76% of adults said cigarettes are “very harmful” to people who use them, significantly more than for other tobacco-related products such as pipes and cigars, as well as other substances like marijuana and alcohol.

Typically, young adults had much higher smoking rates than other age groups, but fewer young adults today than in prior decades are smoking cigarettes. Whereas 35% of young adults said they smoke cigarettes in 2001-2003, the figure has dropped to 10% in 2019-2023 data.

The poll also asked about vaping, and found 8% of U.S. adults say they smoked e-cigarettes in the past week. This is consistent with what Gallup has measured on three other occasions since 2019. Young adults are the most likely to vape, with those under age 30 more than twice as likely as any other age group to smoke e-cigarettes.