Cigarette smoking prevalence continues historic decline

In its annual study released on Nov. 14, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that the U.S. adult smoking prevalence rate for 2018 was 13.7 percent or 34.2 million people, slightly down from 2017.

The U.S. adult e-cigarette prevalence rate for 2018 was 3.2 percent, up from 2.8 percent in 2017. Brian King, deputy director for research translation in the CDC’s office on smoking and health, noted that young adults spurred the increase as 7.6 percent of adults between the ages of 18 and 24 vape.

“What we don’t want to be doing is playing a game of public health whack-a-mole where we let the use of some products go up while others go down, particularly among the young adult population,” said King.