Cigarette smoking rates among Americans have fallen to an all-time low: According to a new Gallup poll, only 11 percent of U.S. adults say they smoked cigarettes in the past week.
It is even less popular among Generation Z – only 6% of those under 30 say they smoke.
Gallup’s latest poll, conducted July 1-21, shows a sharp decline in cigarette smoking among American adults compared to the first such poll in 1944 – when 41 percent of adults said they smoked.
This figure also stands in stark contrast to the 45 percent of Americans who smoked in the 1950s. In the 1980s, more than a third of Americans admitted to smoking, according to Gallup.
The decline in the number of young smokers is one of the main reasons for this change, according to Gallup. In the early 2000s, about 35 percent of Americans under 30 reported smoking cigarettes in the past week.
While younger Americans now smoke fewer cigarettes than any other age group, they are the group that most commonly smokes e-cigarettes, according to Gallup data.
According to the group, 18 percent of adults between the ages of 18 and 29 vape, although this proportion declines in older age groups and is only one percent among those over 65.
The survey also found a link between education and cigarette smoking: Based on data from 2022 to 2024, 5 percent of college graduates and 15 percent of non-graduates reported smoking cigarettes.
The low smoking rates may be due to decades of scientific data and warnings that using the products is dangerous. Nearly 80% of American adults surveyed said cigarettes were “very harmful,” compared to 57% who said the same about e-cigarettes.
Most respondents also said that chewing tobacco was “very harmful” to users, although few felt the same about cigars, pipes or nicotine pouches. Yet at least seven in 10 Americans believe these products are at least “somewhat harmful,” according to Gallup.
Smokers are also less likely than non-smokers to say they think the substance is harmful. 80 percent of non-smokers said they thought cigarettes were harmful, while 58 percent of cigarette smokers said they thought smoking was harmful.
In addition, according to Gallup, only 63% of vapers believe e-cigarettes are harmful, compared to 79% of non-vapers who say this.
