CDC Survey Shows U.S. Adult Cigarette Smoking Rate Continued to Fall in 2025 – But the Tobacco Industry Still Spends Billions to Keep People Addicted

CDC Survey Shows U.S. Adult Cigarette Smoking Rate Continued to Fall in 2025 - But the Tobacco Industry Still Spends Billions to Keep People Addicted

Statement of Yolonda C. Richardson, President and CEO, Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids
May 29, 2026

WASHINGTON, D.C. - In terrific news for the nation's health, preliminary results from the CDC's National Health Interview Survey show that the adult cigarette smoking rate in the United States fell to 9.1% in 2025 from 9.9% in 2024. This marks the second consecutive year the adult smoking rate has been under 10% - a dramatic decline from a high of 42.4% in 1965.

The continued decline in smoking is a monumental public health achievement that has saved millions of lives and billions in healthcare costs. It stems from the sustained implementation of evidence-based strategies at the national, state and local levels, including tobacco tax increases, comprehensive smoke-free laws, hard-hitting public education campaigns, and services to help people quit smoking. These strategies work and should be fully implemented across the nation.

Despite this progress, tobacco use remains the leading cause of preventable disease and death in the United States. Cigarette smoking alone kills nearly 500,000 Americans every year and costs the nation over $600 billion annually in healthcare expenditures and lost productivity. More than 24 million U.S. adults still smoke cigarettes, and significant disparities persist across age, race and ethnicity, socioeconomic status, geography, sexual orientation, behavioral health status and other factors. At the same time, the tobacco industry continues to spend $8 billion annually - nearly $1 million every hour - to market cigarettes in the U.S. while introducing new products designed to sustain addiction and protect profits.

For all these reasons, efforts to reduce smoking and other tobacco use must remain a national priority. These survey results underscore the need to strengthen efforts to help people quit smoking, including evidence-based public education campaigns and access to approved cessation treatments. Unfortunately, these efforts have been set back by the decimation of the federal tobacco control infrastructure, including the elimination of the CDC's Office on Smoking and Health and its highly effective Tips from Former Smokers public education campaign. That campaign alone has helped more than 1 million Americans quit smoking and saved over $7.3 billion in healthcare costs.

This critical work must be restored and sustained to continue reducing smoking-related disease, death and healthcare costs nationwide.