Electronic Cigarette Association

Fact Sheet

Tobacco Smoking Consumption:

• For the first time since 1965, the percent of US adults that smoke tobacco rose between 2007 and the first half of 2008. There are 45.3 million (20.8%) tobacco smokers in the US.

• There are 1.1 billion tobacco smokers in the world, and if current trends continue, that number is expected to increase to 1.6 billion by 2025.

• The US ranks fifth among countries with the highest number of tobacco smokers. The top ten countries (China, India, Indonesia, Russian Federation, United States, Japan, Brazil, Bangladesh, Germany and Turkey) represent two-thirds of the world’s smoking population.

• Worldwide approximately 10 million cigarettes are purchased per minute; 15 billion cigarettes are sold each day; 5 trillion cigarettes are produced and used annually.

• More than 360 billion cigarettes were smoked in the US in 2007, creating an estimated total of 135,000,000 lbs of discarded butts; butts make up 38 percent of litter worldwide and are considered the leading litter problem in the US.

Health Impact of Tobacco Smoking:

• More than 400,000 people in the US die of tobacco-related diseases each year (approximately 1,095 deaths per day or 45 deaths per hour), accounting for one in every five deaths and representing the single largest cause of preventable deaths in the US.

• With more than 4,000 chemical compounds, 60 of which are known or suspected to cause cancer, tobacco smoking is thought to negatively affect every part of the human body.

• Tobacco kills more Americans than AIDS, drugs, homicides, fires and auto accidents combined.

• Every year fires started by cigarettes are responsible for more than $6 billion in US societal costs and direct property damage, about 2,500 injuries and over 1,000 deaths. One in four forest fires are caused by tobacco cigarettes.

• It takes a person on average six to eight attempts to successfully quit smoking. Each year 45 percent will quit for one day; however, the average success rate is less than three percent.

Tobacco Smoking & Cessation Economics:

• Annually, tobacco smoking costs the US more than $97 billion in lost productivity (consumers taking “smoking breaks”) and more than $96 billion in health care expenses.

• Consumers spent $3 billion worldwide in 2008 on cessation products. That’s up from $1.4 billion in 2002. Still, smoking cessation products are known to be about five percent effective and 80 percent of smoking cessation product sales are made to habitual nicotine users.

Tobacco Smoking Consumer Expense:

• The average a pack of tobacco cigarettes in the US is $6, a 200% increase in the last decade. Since 1998, 44 states have increased cigarette taxes 90 times, and the federal government has increased cigarette taxes multiple times.

• If a person smokes one pack of tobacco cigarettes per day for 50 years (average age of starting tobacco smoking is 13), they will spend $109,500 on tobacco cigarettes in today’s dollars, compared to $122,220 on groceries during the same period.

Tobacco statistics obtained from the American Cancer Society, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from reports last updated in November 2008, Longwood University, US Department of Labor and WHO Report on the Global Tobacco Epidemic 2008 in addition to other sources.