Fast Facts and Fact Sheets
- Smoking leads to disease and disability and harms nearly every organ of the body.
- Cigarette smoking remains the leading cause of preventable disease, disability, and death in the United States.
- The tobacco industry spends billions of dollars each year on marketing cigarettes.
- Smoking costs the United States hundreds of billions of dollars each year.
- States do not spend much of the money they get from tobacco taxes and lawsuits to prevent smoking and help smokers quit. CDC recommends that states spend 12% of those funds on tobacco control.
- In 2019, 14.0% of all adults (34.1 million people) currently smoked cigarettes: 15.3% of men, 12.7% of women.
- Each day, about 1,600 youth try their first cigarette.
- Many adult cigarette smokers want to quit smoking.
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Page last reviewed: December 10, 2020