Fast Facts

  • Smoking leads to disease and disability and harms nearly every organ of the body.

  • Smoking is the leading cause of preventable death.

  • The tobacco industry spends billions of dollars each year on marketing cigarettes.

  • Smoking costs the United States 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 2018, 13.7% of all adults (34.2 million people) currently smoked cigarettes: 15.6% of men, 12.0% of women.

  • Thousands of young people start smoking cigarettes every day.

  • Many adult cigarette smokers want to quit smoking.