Cigarette Smoking Drops to Lowest Level in 25 Year Trend

Efforts to reduce the number of cigarette smokers have been ongoing for many years, but it has proved very difficult to reduce the numbers of young people who start to smoke and to break the addiction of smokers. So a new Harris Poll that finds the lowest level of cigarette smoking yet is good news. However, we should not forget that eight percent of the adult population smokes cigars or pipes, or uses chewing tobacco, or that many millions are still smoking cigarettes.

Every year at about this time, The Harris Poll^® asks a cross-section of American adults about some of their most important health risks and their healthy and unhealthy behaviors, specifically their weight, seat belt use and smoking habits. The latest survey is based on a nationwide telephone survey of 1,010 adults who were interviewed between February 5 and 11, 2008.

When the Harris Poll first started asking these questions in 1983, 30 percent of adults smoked cigarettes. In this year’s survey only 17 percent do so. Because of small annual fluctuations it is also desirable to look at the multi-year averages that produce more stable and somewhat more reliable numbers. These show cigarette smoking has fallen from 29 percent in the early eighties to 21 percent for 2006 to 2008. While it is obviously good news that cigarette smoking has fallen, the rate of decline has not been fast. Because smoking is now banned in offices and public spaces in many states, it is much less visible than it used to be. But the approximately 37 million adult cigarette smokers are still a huge public health problem.

Furthermore eight percent of the adult population smokes cigars or pipes, or uses chewing tobacco, adding (because three percent of these also smoke cigarettes) six percent to the total number of people who use tobacco of one type or another (23%).

This year’s survey finds that fully 78 percent of adults over 25 are overweight (using the Metropolitan Life measures based on height, body frame and weight), virtually unchanged from last year’s 79 percent. Twenty five years ago, using the same measures, "only" 58 percent were overweight. This year’s survey finds that 33 percent of all adults aged 25 and over are obese (using the definition of 20 percent or more overweight). This compares with 15 percent 25 years ago.

Averaging the data over multiple years shows the percentages of obese adults over 25 rising from 15 percent in the early eighties to 36 percent in 2006-2008.

The proportion of adults who say they always wear seat belts when in the front seat of a car rose sharply in the 1980s and 1990s, reaching 79 percent by 2000. This has now risen to 87 percent, virtually identical to the numbers for 2005, 2006 and 2007.

Notes: (1) Adults aged 18+ who smoke cigarettes (does not include use of pipe, cigars or chewing tobacco)

(2) Adults aged 25+ who weigh more than their recommended weight based on height and body frame, using the Metropolitan Life tables.

(3) Adults aged 25+ who weigh 20 percent or more than their recommended weight based on height and body frame, using the Metropolitan Life tables.

(4) Claim to always wear seat belts in front seat of car.

Sample sizes vary from 3,029 adults for 2006-2007 to approximately 5,000 adults in the previous five year periods.

Base: All adults

*Adults aged 25 and over (for weight only).

**When in front seat of car

N/A=Not available.

Note 1: In almost all years the survey was conducted in January or February.

Note 2: "Overweight" is based on the Metropolitan Life Tables using self-reported weight, height and body frame (small, medium or large). Like all self-reporting this is subject to error, but the identical questions and methods were used in all these surveys.

Note 3: Poll not conducted in 1993.

Base: All adults

* The data for 2005-2007 was only for adults aged 25+.

The data for 2008 is for adults aged 18+, so the difference between 2008 and 2007 are not a trend.

"Do you smoke a pipe or cigars or use chewing tobacco?"

Base: All adults

The Harris Poll^® was conducted by telephone within the United States between February 5 and 11, 2008 among a nationwide cross section of 1,010 adults (aged 18 and over). Figures for age, sex, race/ethnicity, education, region, number of adults in the household, size of place (urbanicity), and number of phone lines voice/telephone lines in the household were weighted where necessary to bring them into line with their actual proportions in the population.

All sample surveys and polls, whether or not they use probability sampling are subject to ,multiple sources of error which are most often not possible to quantify or estimate, including sampling error, coverage error, error associated with nonresponse, error associated with question wording and response options, and post-survey weighting and adjustments. Therefore, Harris Interactive avoids the words "margin of error" as they are misleading. All that can be calculated are different possible sampling errors with different probabilities for pure, unweighted, random samples with 100 percent response rates. These are only theoretical because no published polls come close to this ideal.

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