Smoking Rate Declines Among Adults in U.S.

A new report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shows fewer adults are smoking cigarettes in the United States. An estimated 19.3 percent of adults smoked in 2010, down from 20.9 percent in 2005, according to the CDC.

CDC Director Dr. Tom Frieden said the decline means there are three million fewer smokers in 2010 than there would have been five years ago, Reuters reports.

The CDC also found people who smoke are smoking less—21.8 percent of smokers had fewer than 10 cigarettes daily in 2010, compared with 16.4 percent five years earlier. The CDC found 8.3 percent of smokers said they smoked more than 30 cigarettes a day in 2010, compared with 12.7 percent in 2005.

If current patterns continue, 17 percent of American adults will smoke in 2020, falling short of the government’s goal of reducing smoking prevalence to equal or less than 12 percent, according to the report. The CDC recommends that states increase spending for tobacco control programs. “States that invest more fully in comprehensive tobacco control programs have seen larger declines in cigarette sales than the United States as a whole, and smoking prevalence among adults and youths has declined faster as spending for tobacco control programs has increased,” the report concludes.