WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Cigarette smoking in the U.S. is at its lowest point in 80 years, according to a recent Gallup poll.
In Gallup's annual Consumption Habits poll, conducted during July 1-21, 11 percent of U.S. adults said they have smoked cigarettes in the past week, matching the historical low measured in 2022.
Gallup says that when it first asked about cigarette smoking in 1944, 41 percent of respondents said they smoked. The current smoking rate is about half as large as it was a decade ago and one-third as large as it was in the late 1980s.
Between the initial measurement of smoking in 1944 and 1974, at least four in 10 adults said they smoked cigarettes. Now, barely one in 10 does say so.
A major reason for the decline is that cigarette smoking habit has dropped significantly among young adults, who typically had been the most likely age group to smoke. Over the past three years, only an average of 6 percent of adults under age 30 say they have smoked cigarettes in the past week, compared with 35 percent of young adults in surveys conducted in the beginning of the millennium.
Young adults are now less likely than other age groups to smoke cigarettes, the poll shows. Only 13 percent of those who took part in the survey between the ages of 30 and 49, 18 percent of those aged 50 to 64 and 9 percent of those 65 and older said they smoke.
Young adults are now the age group most likely to smoke e-cigarettes, according to combined 2022-2024 data. Eighteen percent of adults aged 18 to 29 vape, with the percentage declining among older age groups, down to 1 percent of those 65 and older.
Most Americans view the use of cigarettes and e-cigarettes as very harmful, the survey shows.
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