Lung cancer deaths among Asian men in the city have increased 70 percent in the last 15 years, and smoking rates among them have risen even as they have declined among other ethnic groups, the health department said.

A department study of the health of Asian New Yorkers released in March found that 23 percent of local Asians smoked, versus 18 percent of whites, 17 percent of Hispanics and 14 percent of blacks.

But breakdowns by ethnicity and sex tell a more complex story. Korean and Chinese people smoke at higher rates than average, while South Asians and Filipinos smoke less often. At 27 percent, Chinese men are the city’s heaviest smokers, while only 4 percent of Asian women smoke.

Two factors push up smoking rates among Chinese men in New York, said Regina F. Lee, who chairs the Asian-American Smoke-Free Community Partnership.

Cultural norms from China persist in the city because many Chinese residents are foreign-born, she said: “Sixty percent of men there smoke, while there is a stigma to women smoking.”