Percent of Adults Who Smoke Cigarettes and their Attitudes About Their Health Risks

Results from Gallup's annual consumption poll show that the percent of adults that report smoking has stabilized around 22%, the level it has more or less been over the last five years. The highest percentage of adult smokers ever measured by Gallup was 45% in 1954 and has been declining steadily since.



According to a Gallup article discussing the results of this poll, the fairly consistent poll results regarding adults' attitudes about smoking over the last decade also suggest that adults have "made up their minds" about the health risks of smoking and secondhand smoke despite new scientific findings. About 2 in 3 smokers now believe that smoking is "very harmful" to adults who smoke, tying the record high that was previously reached in 2004. This is still substantially lower than the percent of adults overall and adult nonsmokers that believe that smoking is "very harmful," which is 81% and 86% respectively.



A smaller percentage of Americans across all groups believe that exposure to secondhand smoke is "very harmful," with only 35% of smokers, 54% of adults overall and 59% of non-smokers believing it is "very harmful."



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