--- title: U.S. Smoking Declines, Demographic Disparities Persist description: The amount of smokers dropped one percentage point in a year. canonical: https://time.com/4111852/us-smoking-rate-declines/ author: Julia Zorthian article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-11-13T19:03:24.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T12:36:04.887Z article:section: Health og:title: U.S. Smoking Rate Declines to Record Low og:description: But poor and vulnerable populations still smoke at relatively high rates og:url: https://time.com/4111852/us-smoking-rate-declines/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3647372cf45731d9/6987788de20a870ec2a845ea/e-cig-electronic-cigarette-smoke-1.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME.com stock photos E-Cig Electronic Cigarette Smoke og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: U.S. Smoking Rate Declines to Record Low twitter:description: But poor and vulnerable populations still smoke at relatively high rates twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3647372cf45731d9/6987788de20a870ec2a845ea/e-cig-electronic-cigarette-smoke-1.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # U.S. Smoking Rate Declines to Record Low  by [Julia Zorthian](https://time.com/author/julia-zorthian/)  ## Julia Zorthian Nov 13, 2015 7:03 PM UTC  Elizabeth Renstrom for TIME  by [Julia Zorthian](https://time.com/author/julia-zorthian/)  ## Julia Zorthian Nov 13, 2015 7:03 PM UTC Smoking is on the decline in the U.S., according to data from the Centers for Disease Control, but vulnerable demographics are are still smoking at relatively high rates. According to data [released](http://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2015/p1112-smoking-rates.html) by the CDC on Thursday, the smoking rate among adults is now at 16.8%—down from 20.9% in 2005 and 17.8% in 2013\. However, not all groups saw equivalent declines. Adults who are on Medicaid or uninsured smoke at rates more than twice that of adults who are on Medicare or have private insurance, for example, and 43% of adults with a G.E.D. were smokers, compared to 5% of adults with a graduate degree. Those living below the federal poverty line smoke at a rate of 26.3%. Additionally, the report found that 18.8 percent of males smoke, in comparison to 14.8 percent of females. “Disparities are the single most important issue in smoking,” Kenneth Warner, a professor at the University of Michigan School of Public Health, [told the New York _Times_](http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/13/health/us-smoking-rate-cdc-report.html). “The people who are politically influential believe the smoking problem has been solved. It’s not in their neighborhoods. Their friends don’t smoke. Those who still smoke are the poor, the disenfranchised, the mentally ill. That’s who we need to focus on.” Federal authorities [proposed a ban](http://time.com/4109938/public-housing-smoking-ban/) on smoking in public housing Thursday that would effect more than 700,000 homes if implemented. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4111852/us-smoking-rate-declines/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4111852/us-smoking-rate-declines/"},"headline":"U.S. Smoking Rate Declines to Record Low","datePublished":"2015-11-13T19:03:24.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T12:36:04.887Z","description":"But poor and vulnerable populations still smoke at relatively high rates","url":"https://time.com/4111852/us-smoking-rate-declines/","keywords":[],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3647372cf45731d9/6987788de20a870ec2a845ea/e-cig-electronic-cigarette-smoke-1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Julia Zorthian","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/julia-zorthian/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3647372cf45731d9/6987788de20a870ec2a845ea/e-cig-electronic-cigarette-smoke-1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"TIME.com stock photos E-Cig Electronic Cigarette Smoke","caption":"TIME.com stock photos E-Cig Electronic Cigarette Smoke","creditText":"Elizabeth Renstrom for TIME","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4111852/us-smoking-rate-declines/","name":"U.S. Smoking Rate Declines to Record Low"}}]}] ```