Cigarette Smoking Among Adults—United States, 2000

In 2000, approximately 23.3% of adults were current smokers; this was a decline from 25% in 1993.
Preliminary data for 2001 indicate a continuing decline in current smoking among adults to 22.8%.
During 1993–2000, substantial reductions in current smoking prevalence were reported for all age groups, except those aged 18–24 years.
According to the 2000 National Health Interview Survey, 70% of adult smokers in the United States wanted to quit smoking.
In 2000, 41% of adult smokers in the United States stopped smoking for at least one day because they were trying to quit.
The percentage of ever smokers who had quit was highest for whites at 51% and lowest for non–Hispanic blacks at 37.3%.
The percentage of those who had ever smoked and who had quit ranged from 33.6% for those with a GED to 74.4% for those with a graduate degree.
Nearly half of the ever smokers above the poverty line had quit. Barely a third of ever smokers below the poverty line had similar success in quitting.
Only 4.7% of those who had quit smoking in past year were able to maintain abstinence from smoking for 3–12 months.

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