--- title: Number of Smokers Hits New Low in U.S. description: For the first time since rates have been measured, fewer than 40 million Americans are smoking canonical: https://time.com/4592648/smoking-rates-low-us/ author: Sarah Begley article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-12-06T21:44:55.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T02:10:34.381Z article:section: Health og:title: The Number of Smokers in the U.S. Just Hit a New Low og:description: Fewer than 40 million Americans smoke og:url: https://time.com/4592648/smoking-rates-low-us/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The Number of Smokers in the U.S. Just Hit a New Low twitter:description: Fewer than 40 million Americans smoke twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # The Number of Smokers in the U.S. Just Hit a New Low > Sponsored content. 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Health Matters is TIME's daily health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free daily newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. by [Sarah Begley](https://time.com/author/sarah-begley/) ## Sarah Begley Dec 6, 2016 9:44 PM UTC by [Sarah Begley](https://time.com/author/sarah-begley/) ## Sarah Begley Dec 6, 2016 9:44 PM UTC The number of [Americans who smoke cigarettes](http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/05/health/cigarette-smoking-united-states.html) has hit a new low, dipping below 40 million for the first time since record-keeping began five decades ago. A CDC report found that the number of [smokers](http://time.com/4590517/smoking-death-lung-cancer/) dropped from 45.1 million in 2005 to 36.5 million in 2015, constituting 15% of Americans. Rates decreased more sharply among men (from 24% to 16%) than among women (from 17% to 14%), according to the New York _Times_. Twenty-five to 64-year-olds were more likely to [smoke](http://time.com/4461440/ramen-high-demand-us-prisons-cigarettes/) than those who were older or younger. Non-Hispanic blacks and whites were more likely to smoke than Hispanics. Those living below the poverty line were nearly twice as likely to smoke as others. \[[_NYT_](http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/05/health/cigarette-smoking-united-states.html)\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4592648/smoking-rates-low-us/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4592648/smoking-rates-low-us/"},"headline":"The Number of Smokers in the U.S. Just Hit a New Low","datePublished":"2016-12-06T21:44:55.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T02:10:34.381Z","description":"Fewer than 40 million Americans smoke","url":"https://time.com/4592648/smoking-rates-low-us/","keywords":["Smoking"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Sarah Begley","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/sarah-begley/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[],"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":"/tag/smoking/","name":"Smoking"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4592648/smoking-rates-low-us/","name":"The Number of Smokers in the U.S. Just Hit a New Low"}}]}] ```