Percentage of U.S. adults aged 18 years or older who were current cigarette smokers in 2018:10

13.7% of all adults (34.2 million people): 15.6% of men, 12.0% of women About 19 of every 100 people with mixed-race heritage (non-Hispanic) (19.1%) Nearly 23 of every 100 non-Hispanic American Indians/Alaska Natives (22.6%) Nearly 15 of every 100 non-Hispanic Blacks (14.6%) About 15 of every 100 non-Hispanic Whites (15.0%) Nearly 10 of every 100 Hispanics (9.8%) About 7 of every 100 non-Hispanic Asians (7.1%)



Note: Current cigarette smokers are defined as people who reported smoking at least 100 cigarettes during their lifetime and who, at the time they participated in a survey about this topic, reported smoking every day or some days.

Thousands of young people start smoking cigarettes every day.11

Each day, about 2000 people younger than 18 years smoke their first cigarette.

Each day, over 300 people younger than 18 years become daily cigarette smokers.

Many adult cigarette smokers want to quit smoking.

In 2015, nearly 7 in 10 (68.0%) adult cigarette smokers wanted to stop smoking.

In 2018, more than half (55.1%) adult cigarette smokers had made a quit attempt in the past year.

In 2018, more than 7 out of every 100 (7.5%) people who tried to quit succeeded.

From 2012–2018, the Tips From Former Smokers® campaign has motivated approximately one million tobacco smokers to quit for good.13

Note: “Made a quit attempt” refers to smokers who reported that they stopped smoking for more than 1 day in the past 12 months because they were trying to quit smoking. See CDC’s Smoking Cessation: Fast Facts fact sheet for more information.