I find this a bit surprising but according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, cigarette smoking is still the leading cause of preventable disease, disability, and death in the United States. 1 in every 5 deaths is because of it which is around 480,000 annually.

I rarely see anyone smoking where I live so it was a bit of a wow to me. According to the CDC, there are more than 28 million smokers in the country and half of them live with a smoking-related disease.

Hey, at least it’s declined by more than 20% in the last 20 years so I guess those public service announcements, continued health warnings, and even cigarette tax increases have helped, not to mention the majority of us are like “ewwwwwww, gross.”

As I mentioned I rarely see anyone smoking so I decided to research to see if it all depends on where we live especially since six of the seven states that grow the stinky stuff are all in the South. Pennsylvania also grows tobacco.

According to MSN here’s the percentage of residents who smoke in each state and as expected, all but two Southern states have the most smokers and I’m including Texas as the South.

25%

West Virginia

22%

Kentucky

Arkansas

21%

Mississippi

Indiana

20%

Ohio

Tennessee

Oklahoma

Alabama

19%

Wyoming

Michigan

South Carolina

South Dakota

Louisiana

Missouri

18%

Maine

Alaska

North Dakota

Montana

17%

Kansas

North Carolina

New Mexico

Iowa

Pennsylvania

16%

Georgia

Wisconsin

Delaware

Florida

15%

New Hampshire

Nebraska

14%

Vermont

Minnesota

Idaho

Nevada

Rhode Island

Virginia

Arizona

Oregon

13%

Texas

Illinois

Connecticut

Colorado

12%

New York

Hawaii

Washington

11%

Massachusetts

Maryland

New Jersey

9%

California

8%

Utah

By the way, this breaks down to nearly 12% of adults in America smoke according to the CDC with 13% of those men and 10% being women which truly means barely anyone smokes anymore after all.