Smoking and Asian Americans/Pacific Islanders Fact Sheet

Asian Americans have the lowest smoking prevalence rates among adults of all racial/ethnic groups. In 2006, 10.3 percent of Asian Americans smoked compared to 32.2 percent of American Indians/Alaskan Natives, 21.8 percent of non-Hispanic whites, 22.6 percent of non-Hispanic blacks and 15.1 percent of Hispanics.¹

In 2006, 4.6 percent of Asian American women smoked. This rate is half that of Hispanic women (10.0%), just over a quarter that of non-Hispanic white (19.6%) and Black (19.0%) women, and about one-sixth that of American Indian/Alaska Native women (29.0%).²

Rates among Asian American men were also lower than men of other racial/ethnic groups but the differences were less pronounced than among females. In 2006, 16.6 percent of Asian American men smoked.³

There are significant variations in smoking rates among Asian and Pacific Islander groups. Southeast Asians (e.g., people from Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos) and Chinese men tend to have much higher rates of smoking than population groups from other Asian locations (e.g., Philippines, Korea, Japan).⁴

Studies have shown that Southeast Asians who had a higher English language-proficiency and who had lived in the U.S. longer were less likely to be smokers.⁵

In contrast, the average number of cigarettes smoked per day by Chinese men increases with the time they live in the U.S.⁶ In fact, research suggests that Chinese men may even have higher smoking rates than African American adults.⁷

In 2005, smoking during pregnancy was less common among Asian American and Pacific Islander women (2.2%) compared to most other racial/ethnic groups, such as American Indian women (17.8%), non-Hispanic white women (13.9 %) and non-Hispanic black women (8.5%).⁸

In 2006, 7.3 percent of Asian American high school and 2.6 percent of Asian American middle school students smoked cigarettes. This was a significant decrease for Asian American high school students from 2004, when 11.3 percent smoked cigarettes.⁹

Tobacco companies are developing specific promotion strategies to target the Asian population. Asian smokers are a key market since smoking prevalence in most Asian countries is considerably higher than in the U.S.¹⁰ Over 300 million men in China – more than the entire U.S. population – are smokers.¹¹