--- title: Smoking Rates Have Fallen Again in the U.S. description: The rates stand at 17%. canonical: https://time.com/4018681/american-smoking-rate/ author: Tanya Basu article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-09-01T16:09:40.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:57:59.017Z article:section: Health og:title: Only 17% of Americans Smoke og:description: Some groups—Native Americans and LGBT people—have higher rates, though og:url: https://time.com/4018681/american-smoking-rate/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6c5cc47d2565c01e/698861dd196cf4aff6037d7b/smoking.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4368 og:image:height: 2457 og:image:alt: Smoking og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Only 17% of Americans Smoke twitter:description: Some groups—Native Americans and LGBT people—have higher rates, though twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6c5cc47d2565c01e/698861dd196cf4aff6037d7b/smoking.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # America's Smoking Rate Continues to Drop > 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. ## Video: The Ultras: Scott Jurek [Watch (HLS stream): The Ultras: Scott Jurek](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/WrhkemPE.m3u8) (2:33)  _Published 2015-04-17. Meet the man who won't stop running._  by [Tanya Basu](https://time.com/author/tanya-basu/)  ## Tanya Basu Sep 1, 2015 4:09 PM UTC  Smoking Woman Silhouette Smoking Woman Silhouette Stephan Geyer—Getty Images  by [Tanya Basu](https://time.com/author/tanya-basu/)  ## Tanya Basu Sep 1, 2015 4:09 PM UTC The smoking rate for American adults has continued to fall, according to a new [report](http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/campaign/tips/resources/data/cigarette-smoking-in-united-states.html). The national smoking rate stands at 17% this year, a drop from the 18% reported in 2013, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found. Smoking rates were actually even lower earlier this year, when they were hovering around 15%, but some say the lower number is attributable to New Year’s resolutions. Other demographic trends were released in the report. Multiracial people had the highest smoking rates, at 26.8%, with those of Native American ancestry close behind at 26.1%; experts believe that ceremonial use of tobacco affects Native American smoking rates. Men were more likely to smoke than women, as were those who identified as LGBT. More than 29% of smokers were below the poverty line. The CDC notes that smoking is “the single largest preventable cause of death and disease” in the U.S., with 480,000 deaths per year being traced to cigarettes. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4018681/american-smoking-rate/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4018681/american-smoking-rate/"},"headline":"America's Smoking Rate Continues to Drop","datePublished":"2015-09-01T16:09:40.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:57:59.017Z","description":"But there are some at-risk groups, including LGBT people and Native Americans","url":"https://time.com/4018681/american-smoking-rate/","keywords":["Research","Public Health","Smoking","Cigarettes","CDC"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6c5cc47d2565c01e/698861dd196cf4aff6037d7b/smoking.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Tanya Basu","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/tanya-basu/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6c5cc47d2565c01e/698861dd196cf4aff6037d7b/smoking.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Smoking","caption":"Smoking","creditText":"Stephan Geyer—Getty Images","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":"/tag/research/","name":"Research"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4018681/american-smoking-rate/","name":"America's Smoking Rate Continues to Drop"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"The Ultras: Scott Jurek","description":"Meet the man who won't stop running.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/WrhkemPE/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2015-04-17T21:47:56.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/WrhkemPE.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4018681/american-smoking-rate/","duration":"PT2M33S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4018681/american-smoking-rate/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```