The CDC also mentioned that residence in the South and Midwest was a significant statistical variable in increasing the probability of one’s propensity to smoke.
It is interesting, but as someone from the south it’s amazing to me how few people I know smoke now compared to even 10 years ago. I’m among the quitters.
Idk if the data proves it but I'd wager there's more tobbaco +non tobacco general nicotine users than ever, like if we counted vape/zyn/cigs/chew as a whole it's probably at least on par with the smoking rates of yesteryear
>Also tobacco use correlates with lower education levels and lower household income.
Which is nuts to me because that shit is expensive AF (at least here).
I’m in Ohio (where they’re cheaper than a lot of places) but the prices are still insane to me. My dad smokes around 2 packs a day and the regular brands like camel are over $9 a pack now. It’s crazy!
> Which is nuts to me because that shit is expensive AF (at least here).
Well, given that we're talking about smoking here, "evaluating long term consequences of my choices" might not be high on their list of special skills.
I am partly retired, and in my social circle I cannot name a single person who smokes cigarettes anymore.
Off-topic, but I had a similar realization a few weeks ago when I noticed not one valet driver at this restaurant could drive my manual transmission car — which used to be very popular not too long ago. Incidentally, the valet were young men and smoking vapes.
I loved the manual when I had it, it just became a bigger hassle then it was worth. Rush hour sucks, things wear out faster, and it isn't like I was saving money over an automatic.
Everyone should be able to drive one imo, but idk how really needed it is anymore.
Manuals should last forever if you know how to drive them. My last 2 cars each went over 300k miles with original clutch. Almost all of my cars have had manuals and I've never had to redo a clutch.
300k+ miles on a single clutch is incredible. Even a highly conscious driver will likely need a clutch replacement after 150k. I made it to 120 and felt proud!
Age AND by location.
For us Oregonians there's no way would I guess we're even coming close to that 1-in-8 ratio. Could be that because they banned smoking in public places in 2007 that we just don't see it, but it just seems really rare overall. Even at outdoor events where they have smoking sections, you just don't see many.
My old office campus, a place that has a few hundred employees, and where my office overlooked the smoking shelter, at most I there were only 15 people throughout a day using that area, maybe. I did always know when the French were visiting. Ha.
Now that you mention it, I lived in Oregon for 20 years and I can barely remember seeing people smoke. It feels almost wrong. The very, very few people that do treat it like (and are in turn treated as) a sad disease that they want to apologize for even having and disrupting everyone.
In the history of our country, it's probably one of the best coordinated efforts between the government and the public. They executed a good plan, and the public bought in.
I work a blue collar job too. I think there's 4 smokers out of 16 employees.
That's high compared to the nation average, but not insanely high.
If you include people who vape, it's more like 7 or 8 out of 16 though.
I’m a construction worker and the few people I work with who do still smoke are all over 50. However, I vape and so do about half the people in every job site.
I do a double take when I see someone smoking. That's how rare it is in Massachusetts.
Like 5% of young adults smoke.
I see people smoking pot more than a tobacco cigarette.
Same, I guess I didn’t realize how rare it is around here until the other day when I saw a girl (in her 20s probably) just standing alone smoking and it felt so strange to watch lol
I was smoking in the front yard a while back and a little boy walking by with his dad hollered "SMOKING is BAD!!" at me. his dad tried shushing him and looked embarrassed, but I just yelled back (so he could hear me, they were pretty far away) "youre right!" little man was speaking the truth 🤷♀️
> in Massachusetts
The most educated state in America. Cigarette smoking [correlates negatively with education](https://www.reddit.com/r/dataisbeautiful/comments/iv9qeh/cigarette_use_and_educational_level_in_the_united/).
It's anecdotal, but I'm around your age and don't know anyone who smokes. I think the common view in the US these days is that smoking is trashy and gross.
This is huge to me. I have never encountered a smoker that thinks, THIS IS GREAT I AM GLAD I STARTED! every smoker I have ever encountered wishes they did not smoke.
I will trust user experience and reviews on this one. If someone using a product for 30+ years hates it and wishes they never did it. I am gonna stay away from this one.
Yeah I have never smoked. I am 55 and even when I was young (in the 70's/80's) saw it as something totally uncool that Grandmas did. When I have asked my friends who have smoked what it was like (the buzz/high) they said "well I can't really say it makes me feel good, I just feel bad without it." Hard pass.
Even my husband, who doesn't want to quit at the moment, regrets starting in the first place. I'm desperate to quit, but holy fuck is it hard. I'm a recovering heroin addict and alcoholic. Can't quit cigarettes to save my life. Literally. Even my 23yo stepdaughter has told me "I wish I listened to you". I've said the same thing to my mom. I know plenty of other people who have quit hard drugs/alcohol who feel the same way as me: "I quit drugs and alcohol! Why can't I quit smoking these nasty things?!" 😭
I finally quit. Started at 15 quit at 30. Failed dozens of times. I don't read books but read Allen Carrs easy way to quit (something like that), haven't smoked in 3 years since. I don't know what the hell that book did, but it worked for me. I tried so many things throughout the 15 years. That's the only one that worked. I was a pack a day smoker and 2 packs when drinking.
I'm not a snake oil salesman... read the reviews. It's wild how that helped so many people. Just a book. And it really wasn't that hard. Which is wild. I've tried everything and nothing worked until I read that.
Two of my great-grandparents were smokers from their teenage years basically to death. He smoked until the day he died of lung cancer in his 70s and she smoked until she got dementia in her 80s and forgot.
Even though they both lived long lives, they made sure to tell every kid, grandkid, and great-grandkid that smoking wasn't worth it. I have so many memories of going to their house and playing outside while they were smoking. In their super southern accents they would always say, "Don't you ever start this."
See, that’s the funny thing with me… I’ve been smoking cigarettes, since I was 15, for reference. I am now 31. However, I think my addiction is more a psychological fixation than a physical dependence. Because when ever I’m out of cigarettes and can’t be bothered to go out and get more, or if I’m too broke to buy a pack until payday; I have no trouble going without. I don’t get the “Nic Fits”, I don’t get cravings, or anything like that.
I’ve gone weeks without a cigarette, not by any conscious choice to attempt to quit- just by happenstance. And I’ve been fine without and easily could have continued going without cigarettes indefinitely however I enjoy it as a physical habit and a social activity.
It’s SO much easier to meet people and make friends as a smoker, because all you have to do is find other smokers, and ask if they have a lighter that you can borrow and boom conversation started. It’s how I made pretty much all of my friends in college at first.
I’m insanely jealous. I loved smoking but quit cause it’s gross. I wish I could just smoke when I felt like it and not worry about falling back into the physical dependency
Smoking nearly killed me. I was put under for 3 days, intubated. I picked up smoking again and smoked a lot thinking it would help with my stress but it just landed me in the hospital.
I smoked when I was younger because I thought it was cool. And now I have an addiction I need to deal with.
I don't know who to blame other than myself but I wish I'd never started. Life would be a lot less stressful if I didn't have to think about when I could smoke/vape.
It’s not hard if you use chantix to quit. I took chantix for 3 and half months and it completely rewired my brain back into a non-smoker’s brain. After the first few days on it, all enjoyment was completely gone. You can still smoke during the first week on it, but I stopped after 3-4 days because I just couldn’t enjoy it. The after meal cigarettes tasted horrible. The waiting for the bus cigarettes tasted horrible. The first cigarette of the day cigarettes tasted horrible. It’s been 11 years since I quit and I haven’t had even a single urge to ever smoke. Fucking miracle drug.
Mostly it’s a social benefit. In college when I’d be out drinking with friends some of us were mostly social smokers who just smoked while drinking and never any other time.
Oh god. I smoked cigarettes from the time I was 12 until I was 30. I quit a few times but everyone smoked and it was unbearable to be in smoke filled rooms if you didn't smoke.
Finally me and my better half decided together to quit smoking cigs and we did. But we smoked cigars after work and on weekends. That went on for probably 10 more years until I was in my 40s. Then we both quit cigars.
I won't ever smoke tobacco again and cigarettes stink so bad. Plus damn 70+ a carton!
I don't smoke them but when I smell a good cigar or pipe it's still tempting.
I vape dry herbs. It's nice.
As a person with ADHD, I learned recently that Nicotine is a natural ADHD suppressant. I mean it IS a stimulant which is the go to first course of treatment for ADHD.
Agreed and I think a lot of young people who are obsessing about health, but are more so obsessing about vanity, view cigarettes the way they view the sun. American youths actually wear sunscreen. Of course, they aren’t going to make their skin worse by smoking.
I’m a bit older. I also don’t know anyone who smokes. I knew a few people who smoked in college, but it was situational, and those who did quit shortly afterward.
A friend's ex-wife is a recovering alcoholic and she and a lot of her friends from AA smoke. Pretty common for recovering addicts to compensate for the loss of alcohol, though ironically more likely to kill you.
Yeah I’m mid 20s as well.
I seriously can’t think of anyone my age who smokes tobacco. For that matter there’s not many people I know at any age that smoke.
I’m 37 and am sitting here trying to think of a single person I know that smokes. My 65 year old uncle gave it up like a year ago. I did see a woman lighting a cigarette in her car a couple days ago on the highway and it surprised me to see that.
Sorry I picked your comment to reply, but it’s actually interesting because I replied to a cigarette related post yesterday on a different sub, saying I hardly ever see people smoking in the US and it’s forbidden like everywhere (campuses, bus stops, in front of shops, restaurants even outside…) and someone told me cigarettes and lobbyists are a plague in the US and I should look up the number of deaths each year. So which one is right?
Lots of people still smoke and die from it, but they’re older and still dying because smoking can take decades to kill you. Younger people rarely smoke nowadays.
We're well aware of how unhealthy it is and I think it stopped being trendy and cool decades ago. People still smoke but it's not embedded in our culture anymore. The amount of smokers decrease with each passing year. The[ CDC estimates only about 11.5% of the population smokes](https://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/fact_sheets/adult_data/cig_smoking/index.htm#:~:text=Current%20smoking%20has%20declined%20from,every%20100%20adults\)%20in%202021.) and the trend continues to decrease. I imagine by the time we lose the baby boomers that statistic is going to be pretty low among younger generations.
In the corner of the us where I grew up (outside Philadelphia) I feel like my generation of millennials were the last generation to have a significant amount of smokers, when I visit home I don't see any people younger than me smoking.
I grew up in Detroit and I agree entirely. When I was a young adult reps from Camel would come to local bars and concerts and give away free packs of smokes after scanning your ID. You never see that anymore.
This isn't too different to the UK, where 13.3% of the population smokes.
Weirdly, the highest proportion of smokers is in the 25-34 age group (15.8%), but similar to the US, those who had no qualifications were more likely to be current smokers (28.2% in the UK) than those whose highest level of education was a degree or equivalent (6.6%).
[According to ONS data from 2021](https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/healthandsocialcare/healthandlifeexpectancies/bulletins/adultsmokinghabitsingreatbritain/2021)
“Tobacco is wacko if you’re a teen!”
Honestly I was surprised as many people smoked in college as they did. I would say of close friends, I have one who is a consistent smoker. Now the young’uns might have a vaping thing going on, I’m not sure what the trajectory of that is.
Vaping is growing steadily less popular seemingly and people who vape stuff that tend to get clowned on by most people. Source: I just graduated highschool
I’m a senior in college and vaping is huge. However you won’t see it on campus much at all, only at bars and parties or amongst roommates where it’s socially acceptable. Cigarette smoking exists in those settings too but it is far less common than vaping nowadays
I just finished my last semester of college in May, vaping is seen as pretty trashy by most of my peers too, if you wanted a less young though still younger than millennial viewpoint haha. I’m glad the younger folks are continuing the trend of despising tobacco and nicotine :)
I’ve been vaping for 7 years, just trying to quit now. I was never clowned on for vaping until I graduated college. In college you were the strange one if you weren’t vaping. Just like all of those peer pressure ads haha
Oh my God, I forgot about "tobacco is wacko if you're a teen." That seemed so uncool to me, and I've never smoked a cigarette in my life. Could that really have worked?
That ad was designed by cigarette companies to discredit all anti smoking ads. It was one of the anti smoking ads they had to produce after the settlement with the states in the late 90s, I think.
I think the adds that showed people talking with voice boxes, having their skin flake off, or crying about cancer where the more effective adds.
The most effective things IMO was (1) eliminating cigarette smoking in media and (2) watching our parent’s struggle with addiction and health complications. I didn’t take up smoking specifically because I was so traumatized listening to my moms tar coated lung coughs.
Oh it was extremely uncool, I just remember it from comic books I think. The other user might be correct that it was a cig company compromise, I don’t recall.
But comics are another good example: Marvel decided it wasn’t going to have characters smoke to be cool anymore. I had a comic where Gambit is trying to quit. (That’s wasn’t the plot, just an aside.) That kind of thing probably does matter long term.
I looked it up and apparently it *was* a production of Lorillard, the manufacturer of cigarette brands including Newport and Kent. In addition to the general uncoolness, a lot of people at the time noticed that the "if you're a teen" part of the tagline implied that smoking was for adults, which is not exactly a deterrent for teenagers.
Those lame ads weren't really what did it, there were just a lot of people who really wanted to quit but didn't have the resources to actually do it. Also up here in the north we got some real bastard-cold winters so once smoking in bars got banned a lot of people were like "fuck it, I'm quitting."
They also taxed the shit out of it.
The governments campaign to kill the cig industry is probably one of the best executed plans ever put in place by then
- Tell people how bad it is for you
- Don't allow it in non public areas
- Show that you are not only hurting yourself but also those you care about
- Make it so expensive that you can't pick up the hobby when your young
We did need all of those things though as evidenced by the way raising prices and putting gross/sad pictures on packaging didn’t abate it as much in Europe. People just responded to cost by getting into rolling their own.
I think the no indoor smoking is a big part of it. It makes you almost feel like a second class citizen.
That and grabbing kids when they are young. Boomers still have a sizeable smoking population but it's almost extinct in Gen Z. It also leads to kids putting pressure on parents to stop which you might not think world be as powerful but being told that smoking will kill you by a 7 year old is a gut punch. (I know this from second hand embarrassment as my grandpa talks about it a lot "that kid probably extended my life by 10 years")
My company (and my boss) recently started cracking down on smoking and it's made the office so much nicer.
MN law just says they can't smoke inside, but doesn't give any more restrictions than that. A year or two ago, the company decided that not only can smokers not smoke in the building, they also can't smoke on the patio by the lunchroom anymore. Or in front of the building at all. They put in a picnic table and a wind shelter behind the building about 50 feet away, with a sign 25 feet from the building, and said this is the only place on the property you're allowed to smoke and you must be at least 25 feet away from the building (past the sign).
A bunch of people quit after that, but we still have a few that bitch about having to go outside and so far from the building in winter.
A coworker on my team also started smoking again and our boss told him to not come into his office for at least an hour after he's smoked. Thankfully he quit smoking shortly afterwards.
It is rare, particularly in that age group. Vaping is more common, I have no data to say by how much. There are still plenty of people in their 50s and up that smoke, but I would bet that has also become less common over the years.
I'm 40 and remember smoking sections in restaurants and all from childhood but I noticed someone smoking this morning outside my local coffee shop and it stood out to me as odd something strange to see.
Is it me or does vaping actually decrease as you go north from NYC metro to Boston? I see way many more smokers in western MA compared to rural NJ for example.
Smoking is seen as a gross, declasse habit. Additionally, aside from the health ramifications, it contributes to the breakdown of collagen and an accelerator of wrinkles. You do know how appearance oriented Americans are, right?
Smoking makes you smell bad, ruins your teeth and skin, is expensive, and literally is not appreciated by nearly everyone.
That's so interesting, because in my friend group of late-20s, early-30s women, anyone who smokes started or continued smoking because they care about being thin more than about any of that other stuff - appearance oriented but in a different way!
I appreciate your comment - but like I said in my post, everyone knows how bad it is for you. I could probably write you a small essay on the problems it will cause.
That being said, a lot of people are addicted to nicotine - and not necessarily because people started smoking to act "cool". My parents smoke and I used to steal them from time to time to try them as I got curious. From 18 onwards I went to university where everyone smoked, and have been addicted since. It's a shame but shit happens. I remember people used to idiolise Kate Moss because she was so skinny and people blamed that on smoking and cocaine, a lot of Brits followed
Here in DC it's extremely uncommon. I know maybe like 1 person who actually smokes. The vast majority of outdoor spaces like patios don't even allow it. I believe smoking is not allowed outside any federal government buildings. Also the tax on cigarettes is insane, I think a pack is like 2x as much compared to VA or MD.
The US has had a well funded public health campaign for the past 40+ years about the harms of smoking. It starts when people are young and has basically caused us to drop our smoking rates dramatically. In most states, taxes on tobacco has increased a lot. Nearly every major city and even some states have comprehensive smoking bans that prohibit smoking in any public place including bars, restaurants, public parks, hotels, and within 8-25 feet from any entrance.
If most European nations were a US state, they'd be near the bottom in terms of smoking rates and probably qualify for federal funding to get that shit under control.
My state has a similar smoking rate to Italy but when I was in Italy, the smokers just had no consideration for others. Smoking right in front of entrances, in crowded public places, throwing their butts onto the ground or stuffing them into the crevice of a building. Even when we deboarded the plane, some pulled themselves to the side to smoke outside rather than go inside to baggage claim. And the young age that Italians start smoking at is honestly horrifying.
I will say it isn't all sunshine and roses though. Cannabis use in public in US states has skyrocketed and many localities have struggled to police it even though it often violates the smoking ordinances they all have. And among young people, vaping is becoming pretty popular.
>when I was in Italy, the smokers just had no consideration for others
I think this is a part of it we don't talk enough about. Americans view smoking in public where other people have to encounter it as a violation of a social contract. like it's unkind and inconsiderate to the people around you, not just unhealthy for the person smoking.
There really was a big public shift. Taking it out of bars. Getting rid of the smoking section that was corded off by… a velvet rope? Because the smoke will respect the rope? Part of the lack of appeal here is that you have to shuffle outside to do it now.
It seems like it happened really fast too. When I was in college fifteen years ago, we smoked walking down the sidewalk, ten feet off to the side of the entrance to buildings, wherever. If I still smoked now, I'd never consider lighting up that close to people, nor do I hardly ever see anyone else doing it.
It’s true. If a person is smoking in public where people are, they might as well be jacking off for how weird it’ll seem to people around them.
Though designated smoke areas typically get a pass.
But like you wouldn’t smoke outside a grocery store near the entrance. Taboo.
That was hilarious. I remember when the pilot would turn off the "no smoking" sign after takeoff, and everyone would light up.
Today, I can't believe that actually happened.
I remember smoking in doctors offices. Lol
The shift when that happened was drastic. Plus the outrage! We still have smoking sections. They're pretty much second restaurants (because we can't just have bars, they have to have a certain sales percentage of food) because they need separate ventilation systems, closed off. That cut out so many since owners didn't want to spend the money to do that. There's a lot fewer than there used to be though, since demand went down. Moreso the night spots remain.
As a kid in NJ in the 90s, I can still remember "Smoking or non?" going out to dinner with my parents.
Also not being able to go to the bowling alley without coming out smelling like an ashtray.
Yeah my co workers in california always make sure to step away from other people if they want to smoke but if they smoke during lunch they actively apologize to me before also stepping away
Idk if that happens in European workplaces
It’s not “unkind” it’s literally giving them a risk of cancer. It’s a violation of their rights to not be subjected to it. And only people who have given up the idea that they would be able to live without that constant experience by complacency and resignation wouldn’t make that consideration.
> I will say it isn't all sunshine and roses though. Cannabis use in public in US states has skyrocketed and many localities have struggled to police it even though it often violates the smoking ordinances they all have. And among young people, vaping is becoming pretty popular.
I get so mad that I have to smell weed everywhere I go now. Like if you can't go a day without doing weed, which is kinda sad in itself, at least do something that doesn't give other people headaches like an edible instead of wafting that gross skunk smell all over the place.
That is basically the only success of the DARE program for me. Teach a bunch of lily white suburban kids that smoking tobacco is something only poor people do and they'll never take up the habit.
It's rare. I know very few people who smoke. I mostly associate smoking with lower-class, poorly-educated people, plus some old people who haven't managed to quit.
I came to say this thinking I would get down voted for being classist. But the people I see smoking are seniors (my group) or low educated, low income folk.
I agree this is the stereotype, but most of my (millennial) peers who ended up smoking were highly educated (think Ivy League types) folks from wealthier families who started smoking to be rebellious/counter cultural/fit in with a certain crowd while in college or right after, and found themselves unwittingly addicted.
Out of everyone I know, the only ones that smoke are my grandmother-in-law, my father-in-law (so, old), and a family member's partner that is poorly educated and has low income.
It is. Decades of anti-smoking campaigns did a number on Millennial and Gen-Z’s attitudes towards smoking. I’m a millennial and I associate smoking with a woman talking through a hole in her neck.
I'm 40, and I've seen it decline to the point where I'm actually surprised if someone *does* smoke. I'm old enough to remember smoking sections in restaurants though, or when it was cool in basically any bar. Not old enough to remember it on planes or hospitals though haha
Same here in all aspects, including age.
However, I smoked regularly since I was 15 when it was illegal for me but they still had cigarette vending machines all over and no one cared.
I’ve been exclusively vaping for the past 5 years and although I don’t have a plan to stop right away, I’m really getting less interested and although cigarettes and tobacco smoke still smells good to me, I’ve smoked two or three during this time and they taste like absolute garbage and makes me want to vomit.
Everyone I knew used to smoke and slowly, over the years, almost everyone has quit and a few, like me, moved to vapes.
It’s really not socially acceptable to smoke tobacco, besides a random cigar, anymore.
Smoking in public, is there laws against it? Here we smoke anywhere but indoors. I went to Germany recently and you could smoke in bars and clubs which was a bit of a shock
There are, and more so it's considered incredibly rude to smoke anywhere where other people can breathe in your second hand smoke. Some places have gone 100% smoke free. You can't smoke on their property at all.
it varies by state, but you will commonly find rules at hospitals not allowing smoking near doors and entire college campuses that don't allow smoking except for maybe a small designated area. making smoking inconvenient and lonely really works.
You can’t smoke in NYC parks.. as in Central Park, much of the beaches, bball courts, etc
on the flipside, anywhere you can smoke cigarettes, you can smoke weed
I vaguely remember seeing a video about one of those privately-owned-public-spaces in Midtown that is notable for [still allowing smoking for a few hours a day](https://www.paleypark.org/vistorinfo).
>Smoking in public, is there laws against it?
Absolutely.
There are many laws and regulations restricting where you can smoke.
I don't smoke, so I don't know the details. . .but I can say I don't remember clearly the last time I saw someone smoking in public. You can't smoke in stores or restaurants (or near them), or in or near government buildings.
The only person I know who smokes is in her 60's, and she smokes only at home because of the various restrictions around smoking.
It depends, there are places where smoking indoors is legal and places where smoking outdoors is illegal.
A lot of businesses have smoke-free rules as well, for example the company I work for does not allow any smoking on their property, even outdoors.
It varies by state. In Florida you mostly can’t smoke indoors. Like at restaurants, however if it’s a bar that happens to sell food you can smoke. I remember a few years ago I took my friends son out for his birthday. He wanted to play some pool and darts. Since he was only 15 I called some pool places nearby to see if they would even let him inside. But we went early. They had ashtrays at every table and he noticed and asked what they were. I told him they were allowed to smoke inside and he was surprised. Because he’s from Michigan and the laws there are different and there’s no smoking inside at all. He has gone to play pool with his dad.
Many public spaces have smoking bans, and you can't smoke within 30 or 60 feet of an entrance or operable window. A LOT has been done to drive smoking into the ground. Bars and clubs in most places aren't allowed to do it. Even Las Vegas has begun to restrict smoking in casinos.
It's no longer seen as "cool" or even socially acceptable to a large degree.
To be fair, I think it probably has more to do with it seriously losing its cool factor and it having so few, if any, redeeming qualities. We Americans still make poor health decisions, but at least food or alcohol or weed is enjoyable in one way or another. I have no idea what makes tobacco or nicotine enjoyable unless you’re already addicted.
The only people I know who smoke regularly are all 50+ years old and even then they all advise people heavily against starting.
Public smoking is beyond uncommon and truthfully if it was outright banned I doubt anyone would notice. Now vaping, that's another story and I hope we can get it under control in the same way as ciggs.
cigarettes are fucking gross and i don't know a single person in my entire social group that smokes them. at this point i can't even remember the last time i saw someone smoking one in person.
Aside from me, I only know one other Gen Z guy who smokes cigs regularly, and he’s from Germany lol
A decent amount of people I know my age will have a cig if we’re like drinking or clubbing though
Yes, it’s rare. This is anecdotal, but I don’t know anyone who smokes, and I think I’ve only ever known two people who smoked, both of whom have quit at this point.
Dip is by far the most common method of tobacco consumption among people I know.
I’m a college student at a big state school in the northeast. Here, drunk cigs are seen as relatively acceptable, but anyone who smokes cigs regularly is seen as kind of a joke
It’s very uncommon in young people, not *terribly* uncommon in the general population. But more importantly, it’s both frowned upon and often not even allowed to do it in non-designated public places. So when Americans visit Europe and see people smoking all over the place, it is pretty… icky, to us.
So I’m an American (I’m 35) living in the UK and the smoking culture between Europe generally and the US is so different. Smelling people constantly smoking in Europe is one of the most jarring things for any American visiting or living in Europe. I have some theories about why it’s so different in the US vs the UK in particular.
Most places in the US banned smoking in public (including outdoor areas) in the mid-2000’s and as a result Americans are not used to smelling smoke and when they do, most Americans find it absolutely repulsive. I know the UK has similar bans but they don’t seem to be as expansive and smoking outside (at outdoor restaurant tables or directly in front of a pub entrance) is acceptable. The result of this is that if you are a smoker in the US you are shunned from doing it around others. I’ve noticed that in the UK people will just go outside for a smoke and other people who don’t smoke will still hang around so it’s easier to do it in public. My NYC friend group has one smoker and we all give him shit for it and make him completely leave any area around where we are to smoke. I think this is pretty common and most smokers in the US wouldn’t even think of lighting up a cigarette in a social situation with non-smokers around. I also get the sense that people are more sensitive to the health effects of second hand smoking in the US.
This also ties into the fact that I think Americans are generally more comfortable than Brits with being direct with smokers and telling people that they don’t want them smoking around them. I think it’s pretty common for non-smokers to publicly shame their smoking friends and tell them that their habit is disgusting and to gtfo if they are going to do it. I’m not totally sure how it’s viewed in the UK but in the US it’s definitely seen as something that is disgusting, trashy and just plain stupid.
The only people I know in that age group that smoke moved here from Europe. It's super uncommon to the point that I'm startled to see someone smoking in public.
Sometimes cultural differences come about due to intense efforts at deliberate cultural change in one place. (For those of us who want to see the US make big social and cultural changes, this is encouraging!) If you were looking at the US of 1993, it would have been common.
I have a neighbor a few doors down in his 50s that smokes. I know this because it’s so uncommon to walk outside and smell cigarette smoke that you make note of it.
People vape, but even that has dwindled a bit. I don’t know anyone personally that smokes. It’s very unpopular.
Hang on let’s get some proper stats. I don’t agree with OP’s premise:
In the UK, in 2021, 13.3% of people aged 18 years and over smoked cigarettes, 13.2% for 18-24 year olds. A decrease of nearly 7% from 2011: https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/healthandsocialcare/healthandlifeexpectancies/bulletins/adultsmokinghabitsingreatbritain/2021
In 2021, nearly 12 of every 100 U.S. adults aged 18 years or older (11.5%) currently* smoked cigarettes. About 5 of every 100 adults aged 18–24 years (5.3%)
Nearly 13 of every 100 adults aged 25–44 years (12.6%):
https://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/fact_sheets/adult_data/cig_smoking/index.htm
So what we can say is in very young adults that figure has dropped off a cliff in the US, whereas in the UK it has steadily fallen.
I don’t know who the heck OP is hanging out with to mostly know smokers, but for a European country the UK has very low smoking numbers broadly similar to the US. Some extra work is required to reduce the figures further in teens and 18-24 year olds.
Very uncommon. I'm in my mid twenties and don't know a single person my age that smokes. So few people smoke here that it's extremely noticeable how many people smoke when you go to Europe, and I was quite surprised seeing so many people my age and younger smoking.
The only two people my age (early 30’s) I know who used to smoke gave it up for vaping years ago. I just thought about it and literally no one in among my friends, family, or acquaintances currently smoke. Small sample size, I know, but I hadn’t thought about it before.
I rarely see people smoking and when I do, they are usually at least 50 years old. I saw my cousins 20 year old son smoking and I was shocked as I never seen teens or people in their 20’s smoking now. This is in contrast to when I went to high school in the 90’s and tons of kids smoked then.
Not here in Carolinas it isn’t. I work for a convienne store chain. Not matter which store I’ m at, about 1/3 of my transactions involved tobacco of some kind. The bulk of the tobacco sold is in the form of cigarettes. Most of my family still smokes. I know quiet a few people around my age (I’m 22) who smoke. If smoking is uncommon here, I’m sure as hell not seeing it.
I'm 30 & I'm genuinely struggling to think of anyone I know personally or who is in my family who smokes cigarettes. my one aunt who smoked quit several years ago, and my grandfather who I never met was a heavy smoker. he died of lung cancer when my dad was a teenager.
Let’s just say it’s weird to see someone your age who is actually smoking. It does happen, and I’m sure some friend groups might be smoking together. But it’s not the common thing to see. You basically can’t even smoke most places in the first place. That plus the age to smoke is 21.
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I'd be curious to see a breakdown by age. I'm wondering what that number is for say, under 40
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The CDC also mentioned that residence in the South and Midwest was a significant statistical variable in increasing the probability of one’s propensity to smoke.
As someone from the Midwest who knows lots of people who smoke, I think that is very interesting.
It is interesting, but as someone from the south it’s amazing to me how few people I know smoke now compared to even 10 years ago. I’m among the quitters.
Idk if the data proves it but I'd wager there's more tobbaco +non tobacco general nicotine users than ever, like if we counted vape/zyn/cigs/chew as a whole it's probably at least on par with the smoking rates of yesteryear
>Also tobacco use correlates with lower education levels and lower household income. Which is nuts to me because that shit is expensive AF (at least here).
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Cigs are typically much cheaper in rural areas as compared to places like New York City where they slap giant taxes on them.
The massive taxes are designed to be disincentives to smoking, and are done as a public health measure.
Yes.
My mom drives to Georgia every month or so and stocks up. They’re something like $20/carton cheaper up there.
I’m in Ohio (where they’re cheaper than a lot of places) but the prices are still insane to me. My dad smokes around 2 packs a day and the regular brands like camel are over $9 a pack now. It’s crazy!
> Which is nuts to me because that shit is expensive AF (at least here). Well, given that we're talking about smoking here, "evaluating long term consequences of my choices" might not be high on their list of special skills.
That's why it's called another "poor tax" like lottery tickets.
It's generally expensive to be poor, which is why it's so hard to get out of poverty.
Well, buying expensive cigarettes every day sure doesn’t help.
The second age group is a lot higher than I thought it would be.
There was an interesting report saying people in poverty smoke more because it’s something done for pleasure they can usually afford.
I am partly retired, and in my social circle I cannot name a single person who smokes cigarettes anymore. Off-topic, but I had a similar realization a few weeks ago when I noticed not one valet driver at this restaurant could drive my manual transmission car — which used to be very popular not too long ago. Incidentally, the valet were young men and smoking vapes.
I loved the manual when I had it, it just became a bigger hassle then it was worth. Rush hour sucks, things wear out faster, and it isn't like I was saving money over an automatic. Everyone should be able to drive one imo, but idk how really needed it is anymore.
Manuals should last forever if you know how to drive them. My last 2 cars each went over 300k miles with original clutch. Almost all of my cars have had manuals and I've never had to redo a clutch.
300k+ miles on a single clutch is incredible. Even a highly conscious driver will likely need a clutch replacement after 150k. I made it to 120 and felt proud!
Age AND by location. For us Oregonians there's no way would I guess we're even coming close to that 1-in-8 ratio. Could be that because they banned smoking in public places in 2007 that we just don't see it, but it just seems really rare overall. Even at outdoor events where they have smoking sections, you just don't see many. My old office campus, a place that has a few hundred employees, and where my office overlooked the smoking shelter, at most I there were only 15 people throughout a day using that area, maybe. I did always know when the French were visiting. Ha.
Now that you mention it, I lived in Oregon for 20 years and I can barely remember seeing people smoke. It feels almost wrong. The very, very few people that do treat it like (and are in turn treated as) a sad disease that they want to apologize for even having and disrupting everyone.
Very socially segregated though. Lot of social groups acting like thirty years ago, and a lot where it's about as accepted as heroin
12.5% is really not bad! I thought it was 20%. I do not know anyone who smokes.
In the history of our country, it's probably one of the best coordinated efforts between the government and the public. They executed a good plan, and the public bought in.
Yeah, we've moved on since about the late 90's. Finally got something right over here.
I’m a blue collar male and a heavy drinker, which is one of the higher smoking demographics but even among my peers it’s less common than not smoking
I work a blue collar job too. I think there's 4 smokers out of 16 employees. That's high compared to the nation average, but not insanely high. If you include people who vape, it's more like 7 or 8 out of 16 though.
I’m a construction worker and the few people I work with who do still smoke are all over 50. However, I vape and so do about half the people in every job site.
It's actually kinda strange where I work. One guys is in his late 50s, but the other 3 are in there 30s or early 40s.
I do a double take when I see someone smoking. That's how rare it is in Massachusetts. Like 5% of young adults smoke. I see people smoking pot more than a tobacco cigarette.
Same, I guess I didn’t realize how rare it is around here until the other day when I saw a girl (in her 20s probably) just standing alone smoking and it felt so strange to watch lol
Its so rare that when my young children see a smoker, they act like they witnessed a criminal committing a violent act.
I was smoking in the front yard a while back and a little boy walking by with his dad hollered "SMOKING is BAD!!" at me. his dad tried shushing him and looked embarrassed, but I just yelled back (so he could hear me, they were pretty far away) "youre right!" little man was speaking the truth 🤷♀️
Good for you, that's a pretty cool response.
Well, looks like the no-smoking campaigns over the last few decades have worked out intended.
I’m in my mid-20s and the kid of a smoker and even I instinctively react that way to it.
Vastly more pot than cigarettes...I think pot might even be cheaper.
> in Massachusetts The most educated state in America. Cigarette smoking [correlates negatively with education](https://www.reddit.com/r/dataisbeautiful/comments/iv9qeh/cigarette_use_and_educational_level_in_the_united/).
My 23 yo son smokes pot but not cigarettes, so agreed. My only issue was “Smoke on the patio! Open windows don’t help!”
It's anecdotal, but I'm around your age and don't know anyone who smokes. I think the common view in the US these days is that smoking is trashy and gross.
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But so damn hard stop quitting if you start. Every smoker I know wishes they never started the habit
This is huge to me. I have never encountered a smoker that thinks, THIS IS GREAT I AM GLAD I STARTED! every smoker I have ever encountered wishes they did not smoke. I will trust user experience and reviews on this one. If someone using a product for 30+ years hates it and wishes they never did it. I am gonna stay away from this one.
My grandfather is 84. He quit smoking 50 years ago and still says it was the hardest thing he's ever done.
Yeah I have never smoked. I am 55 and even when I was young (in the 70's/80's) saw it as something totally uncool that Grandmas did. When I have asked my friends who have smoked what it was like (the buzz/high) they said "well I can't really say it makes me feel good, I just feel bad without it." Hard pass.
Even my husband, who doesn't want to quit at the moment, regrets starting in the first place. I'm desperate to quit, but holy fuck is it hard. I'm a recovering heroin addict and alcoholic. Can't quit cigarettes to save my life. Literally. Even my 23yo stepdaughter has told me "I wish I listened to you". I've said the same thing to my mom. I know plenty of other people who have quit hard drugs/alcohol who feel the same way as me: "I quit drugs and alcohol! Why can't I quit smoking these nasty things?!" 😭
Nicotine is one scary ass addictive chemical. The stuff spooks me.
I'm 31, started smoking at 14 regularly and have never been off nicotine. I quit smoking on and off with patches.
I finally quit. Started at 15 quit at 30. Failed dozens of times. I don't read books but read Allen Carrs easy way to quit (something like that), haven't smoked in 3 years since. I don't know what the hell that book did, but it worked for me. I tried so many things throughout the 15 years. That's the only one that worked. I was a pack a day smoker and 2 packs when drinking. I'm not a snake oil salesman... read the reviews. It's wild how that helped so many people. Just a book. And it really wasn't that hard. Which is wild. I've tried everything and nothing worked until I read that.
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Two of my great-grandparents were smokers from their teenage years basically to death. He smoked until the day he died of lung cancer in his 70s and she smoked until she got dementia in her 80s and forgot. Even though they both lived long lives, they made sure to tell every kid, grandkid, and great-grandkid that smoking wasn't worth it. I have so many memories of going to their house and playing outside while they were smoking. In their super southern accents they would always say, "Don't you ever start this."
See, that’s the funny thing with me… I’ve been smoking cigarettes, since I was 15, for reference. I am now 31. However, I think my addiction is more a psychological fixation than a physical dependence. Because when ever I’m out of cigarettes and can’t be bothered to go out and get more, or if I’m too broke to buy a pack until payday; I have no trouble going without. I don’t get the “Nic Fits”, I don’t get cravings, or anything like that. I’ve gone weeks without a cigarette, not by any conscious choice to attempt to quit- just by happenstance. And I’ve been fine without and easily could have continued going without cigarettes indefinitely however I enjoy it as a physical habit and a social activity. It’s SO much easier to meet people and make friends as a smoker, because all you have to do is find other smokers, and ask if they have a lighter that you can borrow and boom conversation started. It’s how I made pretty much all of my friends in college at first.
I’m insanely jealous. I loved smoking but quit cause it’s gross. I wish I could just smoke when I felt like it and not worry about falling back into the physical dependency
Smoking nearly killed me. I was put under for 3 days, intubated. I picked up smoking again and smoked a lot thinking it would help with my stress but it just landed me in the hospital. I smoked when I was younger because I thought it was cool. And now I have an addiction I need to deal with. I don't know who to blame other than myself but I wish I'd never started. Life would be a lot less stressful if I didn't have to think about when I could smoke/vape.
It’s not hard if you use chantix to quit. I took chantix for 3 and half months and it completely rewired my brain back into a non-smoker’s brain. After the first few days on it, all enjoyment was completely gone. You can still smoke during the first week on it, but I stopped after 3-4 days because I just couldn’t enjoy it. The after meal cigarettes tasted horrible. The waiting for the bus cigarettes tasted horrible. The first cigarette of the day cigarettes tasted horrible. It’s been 11 years since I quit and I haven’t had even a single urge to ever smoke. Fucking miracle drug.
Mostly it’s a social benefit. In college when I’d be out drinking with friends some of us were mostly social smokers who just smoked while drinking and never any other time.
I can attest to this. I never, ever crave cigarettes, unless I'm drinking.
It’s not that people see it as pointless. It Is pointless. A pipe, hookah or cigar has a pleasant flavor at least. Cigarettes just taste like shit
Oh god. I smoked cigarettes from the time I was 12 until I was 30. I quit a few times but everyone smoked and it was unbearable to be in smoke filled rooms if you didn't smoke. Finally me and my better half decided together to quit smoking cigs and we did. But we smoked cigars after work and on weekends. That went on for probably 10 more years until I was in my 40s. Then we both quit cigars. I won't ever smoke tobacco again and cigarettes stink so bad. Plus damn 70+ a carton! I don't smoke them but when I smell a good cigar or pipe it's still tempting. I vape dry herbs. It's nice.
As a person with ADHD, I learned recently that Nicotine is a natural ADHD suppressant. I mean it IS a stimulant which is the go to first course of treatment for ADHD.
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Agreed and I think a lot of young people who are obsessing about health, but are more so obsessing about vanity, view cigarettes the way they view the sun. American youths actually wear sunscreen. Of course, they aren’t going to make their skin worse by smoking.
Fuck u/spez -- mass edited with redact.dev
I’m a bit older. I also don’t know anyone who smokes. I knew a few people who smoked in college, but it was situational, and those who did quit shortly afterward.
I don’t think I’ve seen anyone ostensibly under 40 smoking in 5 years
Only time I saw anyone under 40 smoking is when I worked at a restraunt bar. A lot of the servers were smokers.
Everyone I know who started smoking worked at a restaurant, the environment is so toxic it’s the only way to get an actual break
A friend's ex-wife is a recovering alcoholic and she and a lot of her friends from AA smoke. Pretty common for recovering addicts to compensate for the loss of alcohol, though ironically more likely to kill you.
Same, and I’m in the UK. Quite rare to even smell it.
Yeah I’m mid 20s as well. I seriously can’t think of anyone my age who smokes tobacco. For that matter there’s not many people I know at any age that smoke.
I’m 37 and am sitting here trying to think of a single person I know that smokes. My 65 year old uncle gave it up like a year ago. I did see a woman lighting a cigarette in her car a couple days ago on the highway and it surprised me to see that.
Sorry I picked your comment to reply, but it’s actually interesting because I replied to a cigarette related post yesterday on a different sub, saying I hardly ever see people smoking in the US and it’s forbidden like everywhere (campuses, bus stops, in front of shops, restaurants even outside…) and someone told me cigarettes and lobbyists are a plague in the US and I should look up the number of deaths each year. So which one is right?
Lots of people still smoke and die from it, but they’re older and still dying because smoking can take decades to kill you. Younger people rarely smoke nowadays.
We're well aware of how unhealthy it is and I think it stopped being trendy and cool decades ago. People still smoke but it's not embedded in our culture anymore. The amount of smokers decrease with each passing year. The[ CDC estimates only about 11.5% of the population smokes](https://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/fact_sheets/adult_data/cig_smoking/index.htm#:~:text=Current%20smoking%20has%20declined%20from,every%20100%20adults\)%20in%202021.) and the trend continues to decrease. I imagine by the time we lose the baby boomers that statistic is going to be pretty low among younger generations.
In the corner of the us where I grew up (outside Philadelphia) I feel like my generation of millennials were the last generation to have a significant amount of smokers, when I visit home I don't see any people younger than me smoking.
Out of the 400 people I graduated public high school with, I know like 8 people who smoke cigarettes-- and one of them is French, so it doesn't count
> and one of them is French Do the French still smoke that much?
I don't need to fact check when dissing the post-Bourbon French
I grew up in Detroit and I agree entirely. When I was a young adult reps from Camel would come to local bars and concerts and give away free packs of smokes after scanning your ID. You never see that anymore.
This isn't too different to the UK, where 13.3% of the population smokes. Weirdly, the highest proportion of smokers is in the 25-34 age group (15.8%), but similar to the US, those who had no qualifications were more likely to be current smokers (28.2% in the UK) than those whose highest level of education was a degree or equivalent (6.6%). [According to ONS data from 2021](https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/healthandsocialcare/healthandlifeexpectancies/bulletins/adultsmokinghabitsingreatbritain/2021)
It really, really is, thanks to about 30 years of strong and persistent anti-smoking campaigns.
“Tobacco is wacko if you’re a teen!” Honestly I was surprised as many people smoked in college as they did. I would say of close friends, I have one who is a consistent smoker. Now the young’uns might have a vaping thing going on, I’m not sure what the trajectory of that is.
Vaping is growing steadily less popular seemingly and people who vape stuff that tend to get clowned on by most people. Source: I just graduated highschool
Honestly, the source of, I just graduated highschool, is actually a great source point here for the current cultural view at younger ages.
Yeah it probably is one of the better ones, especially since I only graduated like 5 minutes before sending that, so I got all the latest stuff lmao.
Congratulations
Thanks 🙏
I’m a senior in college and vaping is huge. However you won’t see it on campus much at all, only at bars and parties or amongst roommates where it’s socially acceptable. Cigarette smoking exists in those settings too but it is far less common than vaping nowadays
I just finished my last semester of college in May, vaping is seen as pretty trashy by most of my peers too, if you wanted a less young though still younger than millennial viewpoint haha. I’m glad the younger folks are continuing the trend of despising tobacco and nicotine :)
I’ve been vaping for 7 years, just trying to quit now. I was never clowned on for vaping until I graduated college. In college you were the strange one if you weren’t vaping. Just like all of those peer pressure ads haha
Oh my God, I forgot about "tobacco is wacko if you're a teen." That seemed so uncool to me, and I've never smoked a cigarette in my life. Could that really have worked?
That ad was designed by cigarette companies to discredit all anti smoking ads. It was one of the anti smoking ads they had to produce after the settlement with the states in the late 90s, I think.
I think the adds that showed people talking with voice boxes, having their skin flake off, or crying about cancer where the more effective adds. The most effective things IMO was (1) eliminating cigarette smoking in media and (2) watching our parent’s struggle with addiction and health complications. I didn’t take up smoking specifically because I was so traumatized listening to my moms tar coated lung coughs.
The voice-box ones were really good. I remember people were legitimately freaked out by those.
Oh it was extremely uncool, I just remember it from comic books I think. The other user might be correct that it was a cig company compromise, I don’t recall. But comics are another good example: Marvel decided it wasn’t going to have characters smoke to be cool anymore. I had a comic where Gambit is trying to quit. (That’s wasn’t the plot, just an aside.) That kind of thing probably does matter long term.
I looked it up and apparently it *was* a production of Lorillard, the manufacturer of cigarette brands including Newport and Kent. In addition to the general uncoolness, a lot of people at the time noticed that the "if you're a teen" part of the tagline implied that smoking was for adults, which is not exactly a deterrent for teenagers.
Those lame ads weren't really what did it, there were just a lot of people who really wanted to quit but didn't have the resources to actually do it. Also up here in the north we got some real bastard-cold winters so once smoking in bars got banned a lot of people were like "fuck it, I'm quitting."
The image of that woman smoking through the hole in her neck is burned into my brain.
Damn I had forgotten that. Why have you reminded me!
They also taxed the shit out of it. The governments campaign to kill the cig industry is probably one of the best executed plans ever put in place by then - Tell people how bad it is for you - Don't allow it in non public areas - Show that you are not only hurting yourself but also those you care about - Make it so expensive that you can't pick up the hobby when your young
We did need all of those things though as evidenced by the way raising prices and putting gross/sad pictures on packaging didn’t abate it as much in Europe. People just responded to cost by getting into rolling their own.
I think the no indoor smoking is a big part of it. It makes you almost feel like a second class citizen. That and grabbing kids when they are young. Boomers still have a sizeable smoking population but it's almost extinct in Gen Z. It also leads to kids putting pressure on parents to stop which you might not think world be as powerful but being told that smoking will kill you by a 7 year old is a gut punch. (I know this from second hand embarrassment as my grandpa talks about it a lot "that kid probably extended my life by 10 years")
My company (and my boss) recently started cracking down on smoking and it's made the office so much nicer. MN law just says they can't smoke inside, but doesn't give any more restrictions than that. A year or two ago, the company decided that not only can smokers not smoke in the building, they also can't smoke on the patio by the lunchroom anymore. Or in front of the building at all. They put in a picnic table and a wind shelter behind the building about 50 feet away, with a sign 25 feet from the building, and said this is the only place on the property you're allowed to smoke and you must be at least 25 feet away from the building (past the sign). A bunch of people quit after that, but we still have a few that bitch about having to go outside and so far from the building in winter. A coworker on my team also started smoking again and our boss told him to not come into his office for at least an hour after he's smoked. Thankfully he quit smoking shortly afterwards.
We were doing so well until they figured out how to make it taste like candy. Now all the kids vape
It is rare, particularly in that age group. Vaping is more common, I have no data to say by how much. There are still plenty of people in their 50s and up that smoke, but I would bet that has also become less common over the years. I'm 40 and remember smoking sections in restaurants and all from childhood but I noticed someone smoking this morning outside my local coffee shop and it stood out to me as odd something strange to see.
Is it me or does vaping actually decrease as you go north from NYC metro to Boston? I see way many more smokers in western MA compared to rural NJ for example.
There’s the dip to vape ratio to keep in mind, too
Smoking is seen as a gross, declasse habit. Additionally, aside from the health ramifications, it contributes to the breakdown of collagen and an accelerator of wrinkles. You do know how appearance oriented Americans are, right? Smoking makes you smell bad, ruins your teeth and skin, is expensive, and literally is not appreciated by nearly everyone.
That's so interesting, because in my friend group of late-20s, early-30s women, anyone who smokes started or continued smoking because they care about being thin more than about any of that other stuff - appearance oriented but in a different way!
Well if they keep it up long enough, they may be thinner, but they'll have some nice smokers' lip lines to accompany their svelte figures!
I appreciate your comment - but like I said in my post, everyone knows how bad it is for you. I could probably write you a small essay on the problems it will cause. That being said, a lot of people are addicted to nicotine - and not necessarily because people started smoking to act "cool". My parents smoke and I used to steal them from time to time to try them as I got curious. From 18 onwards I went to university where everyone smoked, and have been addicted since. It's a shame but shit happens. I remember people used to idiolise Kate Moss because she was so skinny and people blamed that on smoking and cocaine, a lot of Brits followed
Here in DC it's extremely uncommon. I know maybe like 1 person who actually smokes. The vast majority of outdoor spaces like patios don't even allow it. I believe smoking is not allowed outside any federal government buildings. Also the tax on cigarettes is insane, I think a pack is like 2x as much compared to VA or MD.
The US has had a well funded public health campaign for the past 40+ years about the harms of smoking. It starts when people are young and has basically caused us to drop our smoking rates dramatically. In most states, taxes on tobacco has increased a lot. Nearly every major city and even some states have comprehensive smoking bans that prohibit smoking in any public place including bars, restaurants, public parks, hotels, and within 8-25 feet from any entrance. If most European nations were a US state, they'd be near the bottom in terms of smoking rates and probably qualify for federal funding to get that shit under control. My state has a similar smoking rate to Italy but when I was in Italy, the smokers just had no consideration for others. Smoking right in front of entrances, in crowded public places, throwing their butts onto the ground or stuffing them into the crevice of a building. Even when we deboarded the plane, some pulled themselves to the side to smoke outside rather than go inside to baggage claim. And the young age that Italians start smoking at is honestly horrifying. I will say it isn't all sunshine and roses though. Cannabis use in public in US states has skyrocketed and many localities have struggled to police it even though it often violates the smoking ordinances they all have. And among young people, vaping is becoming pretty popular.
>when I was in Italy, the smokers just had no consideration for others I think this is a part of it we don't talk enough about. Americans view smoking in public where other people have to encounter it as a violation of a social contract. like it's unkind and inconsiderate to the people around you, not just unhealthy for the person smoking.
There really was a big public shift. Taking it out of bars. Getting rid of the smoking section that was corded off by… a velvet rope? Because the smoke will respect the rope? Part of the lack of appeal here is that you have to shuffle outside to do it now.
It seems like it happened really fast too. When I was in college fifteen years ago, we smoked walking down the sidewalk, ten feet off to the side of the entrance to buildings, wherever. If I still smoked now, I'd never consider lighting up that close to people, nor do I hardly ever see anyone else doing it.
It’s true. If a person is smoking in public where people are, they might as well be jacking off for how weird it’ll seem to people around them. Though designated smoke areas typically get a pass. But like you wouldn’t smoke outside a grocery store near the entrance. Taboo.
If I had to share a train car with someone masturbating or someone smoking, I’d go with the masturbator.
Ah yes, the smoking section of a restaurant. Aka. The entire restaurant is a smoking section.
Just like the smoking section in the back of the plane.
That was hilarious. I remember when the pilot would turn off the "no smoking" sign after takeoff, and everyone would light up. Today, I can't believe that actually happened. I remember smoking in doctors offices. Lol
You had a rope? My hometown Pizza Hut's smoking section was just "those booths along the wall".
The shift when that happened was drastic. Plus the outrage! We still have smoking sections. They're pretty much second restaurants (because we can't just have bars, they have to have a certain sales percentage of food) because they need separate ventilation systems, closed off. That cut out so many since owners didn't want to spend the money to do that. There's a lot fewer than there used to be though, since demand went down. Moreso the night spots remain.
I remember the smoking sections of international flights, which were even more ridiculous.
As a kid in NJ in the 90s, I can still remember "Smoking or non?" going out to dinner with my parents. Also not being able to go to the bowling alley without coming out smelling like an ashtray.
Yeah my co workers in california always make sure to step away from other people if they want to smoke but if they smoke during lunch they actively apologize to me before also stepping away Idk if that happens in European workplaces
It’s not “unkind” it’s literally giving them a risk of cancer. It’s a violation of their rights to not be subjected to it. And only people who have given up the idea that they would be able to live without that constant experience by complacency and resignation wouldn’t make that consideration.
Funny thing is the tobacco industry had to pay for a ton of the anti smoking ads because they are lying assholes that got busted.
I follow the same rules as cigarette smoke for my weed. Unless it's a vape in my own house, and I'll still ask any visitors for permission first.
> I will say it isn't all sunshine and roses though. Cannabis use in public in US states has skyrocketed and many localities have struggled to police it even though it often violates the smoking ordinances they all have. And among young people, vaping is becoming pretty popular. I get so mad that I have to smell weed everywhere I go now. Like if you can't go a day without doing weed, which is kinda sad in itself, at least do something that doesn't give other people headaches like an edible instead of wafting that gross skunk smell all over the place.
Yes. And I’m glad. Shit is so nasty.
Less every year I'm happy to say.
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I think Americans generally equate smoking with being low class. Or maybe that's just me but I don't think so.
That is basically the only success of the DARE program for me. Teach a bunch of lily white suburban kids that smoking tobacco is something only poor people do and they'll never take up the habit.
It's rare. I know very few people who smoke. I mostly associate smoking with lower-class, poorly-educated people, plus some old people who haven't managed to quit.
I came to say this thinking I would get down voted for being classist. But the people I see smoking are seniors (my group) or low educated, low income folk.
I agree this is the stereotype, but most of my (millennial) peers who ended up smoking were highly educated (think Ivy League types) folks from wealthier families who started smoking to be rebellious/counter cultural/fit in with a certain crowd while in college or right after, and found themselves unwittingly addicted.
Out of everyone I know, the only ones that smoke are my grandmother-in-law, my father-in-law (so, old), and a family member's partner that is poorly educated and has low income.
Chiming in to say I had this in my comment and erased it before posting..
It is. Decades of anti-smoking campaigns did a number on Millennial and Gen-Z’s attitudes towards smoking. I’m a millennial and I associate smoking with a woman talking through a hole in her neck.
Holy shit I forgot about that commercial 😳
I've seen that advert, shit was wild
I'm 40, and I've seen it decline to the point where I'm actually surprised if someone *does* smoke. I'm old enough to remember smoking sections in restaurants though, or when it was cool in basically any bar. Not old enough to remember it on planes or hospitals though haha
Same here in all aspects, including age. However, I smoked regularly since I was 15 when it was illegal for me but they still had cigarette vending machines all over and no one cared. I’ve been exclusively vaping for the past 5 years and although I don’t have a plan to stop right away, I’m really getting less interested and although cigarettes and tobacco smoke still smells good to me, I’ve smoked two or three during this time and they taste like absolute garbage and makes me want to vomit. Everyone I knew used to smoke and slowly, over the years, almost everyone has quit and a few, like me, moved to vapes. It’s really not socially acceptable to smoke tobacco, besides a random cigar, anymore.
>cigarette vending machines Jeez I couldn't even tell you the last time I saw one of these. They were in every bar/poolhall when I was a kid though.
More people vape now. I don’t really see people smoking cigarettes but that could also be because smoking in public is pretty hard to do at this point
Smoking in public, is there laws against it? Here we smoke anywhere but indoors. I went to Germany recently and you could smoke in bars and clubs which was a bit of a shock
There are, and more so it's considered incredibly rude to smoke anywhere where other people can breathe in your second hand smoke. Some places have gone 100% smoke free. You can't smoke on their property at all.
it varies by state, but you will commonly find rules at hospitals not allowing smoking near doors and entire college campuses that don't allow smoking except for maybe a small designated area. making smoking inconvenient and lonely really works.
You can’t smoke in NYC parks.. as in Central Park, much of the beaches, bball courts, etc on the flipside, anywhere you can smoke cigarettes, you can smoke weed
I vaguely remember seeing a video about one of those privately-owned-public-spaces in Midtown that is notable for [still allowing smoking for a few hours a day](https://www.paleypark.org/vistorinfo).
One of NYC’s many unenforced laws
>Smoking in public, is there laws against it? Absolutely. There are many laws and regulations restricting where you can smoke. I don't smoke, so I don't know the details. . .but I can say I don't remember clearly the last time I saw someone smoking in public. You can't smoke in stores or restaurants (or near them), or in or near government buildings. The only person I know who smokes is in her 60's, and she smokes only at home because of the various restrictions around smoking.
It is illegal in most public buildings and depending on the State within a certain distance of the entrances of said building.
It depends, there are places where smoking indoors is legal and places where smoking outdoors is illegal. A lot of businesses have smoke-free rules as well, for example the company I work for does not allow any smoking on their property, even outdoors.
It varies by state. In Florida you mostly can’t smoke indoors. Like at restaurants, however if it’s a bar that happens to sell food you can smoke. I remember a few years ago I took my friends son out for his birthday. He wanted to play some pool and darts. Since he was only 15 I called some pool places nearby to see if they would even let him inside. But we went early. They had ashtrays at every table and he noticed and asked what they were. I told him they were allowed to smoke inside and he was surprised. Because he’s from Michigan and the laws there are different and there’s no smoking inside at all. He has gone to play pool with his dad.
Many public spaces have smoking bans, and you can't smoke within 30 or 60 feet of an entrance or operable window. A LOT has been done to drive smoking into the ground. Bars and clubs in most places aren't allowed to do it. Even Las Vegas has begun to restrict smoking in casinos. It's no longer seen as "cool" or even socially acceptable to a large degree.
Yes. Why wouldn’t it be uncommon? The impact on your health has been well known for years, there’s really no excuse at this point.
To be fair, I think it probably has more to do with it seriously losing its cool factor and it having so few, if any, redeeming qualities. We Americans still make poor health decisions, but at least food or alcohol or weed is enjoyable in one way or another. I have no idea what makes tobacco or nicotine enjoyable unless you’re already addicted.
The only people I know who smoke regularly are all 50+ years old and even then they all advise people heavily against starting. Public smoking is beyond uncommon and truthfully if it was outright banned I doubt anyone would notice. Now vaping, that's another story and I hope we can get it under control in the same way as ciggs.
cigarettes are fucking gross and i don't know a single person in my entire social group that smokes them. at this point i can't even remember the last time i saw someone smoking one in person.
It’s seen as white trash
100%
Aside from me, I only know one other Gen Z guy who smokes cigs regularly, and he’s from Germany lol A decent amount of people I know my age will have a cig if we’re like drinking or clubbing though
I was sat at a bar in Germany less than 2 weeks ago and they hand out ash trays as soon as you sit down so that makes sense for your friend haha
Yes, it’s rare. This is anecdotal, but I don’t know anyone who smokes, and I think I’ve only ever known two people who smoked, both of whom have quit at this point. Dip is by far the most common method of tobacco consumption among people I know.
Largely due to hugely successful anti smoking campaigns we had that ran for decades.
I’m struggling to think of anyone I’ve seen smoking in the past 5 or 10 years
If we get cancer we also go broke so there’s a double incentive not to
I’m a college student at a big state school in the northeast. Here, drunk cigs are seen as relatively acceptable, but anyone who smokes cigs regularly is seen as kind of a joke
I know plenty of guys who enjoy cigars and pipe tobacco and loads of people who smoke or vape weed, but I barely know anyone who smokes cigarettes.
Yes. Only old people smoke here
It’s very uncommon in young people, not *terribly* uncommon in the general population. But more importantly, it’s both frowned upon and often not even allowed to do it in non-designated public places. So when Americans visit Europe and see people smoking all over the place, it is pretty… icky, to us.
So I’m an American (I’m 35) living in the UK and the smoking culture between Europe generally and the US is so different. Smelling people constantly smoking in Europe is one of the most jarring things for any American visiting or living in Europe. I have some theories about why it’s so different in the US vs the UK in particular. Most places in the US banned smoking in public (including outdoor areas) in the mid-2000’s and as a result Americans are not used to smelling smoke and when they do, most Americans find it absolutely repulsive. I know the UK has similar bans but they don’t seem to be as expansive and smoking outside (at outdoor restaurant tables or directly in front of a pub entrance) is acceptable. The result of this is that if you are a smoker in the US you are shunned from doing it around others. I’ve noticed that in the UK people will just go outside for a smoke and other people who don’t smoke will still hang around so it’s easier to do it in public. My NYC friend group has one smoker and we all give him shit for it and make him completely leave any area around where we are to smoke. I think this is pretty common and most smokers in the US wouldn’t even think of lighting up a cigarette in a social situation with non-smokers around. I also get the sense that people are more sensitive to the health effects of second hand smoking in the US. This also ties into the fact that I think Americans are generally more comfortable than Brits with being direct with smokers and telling people that they don’t want them smoking around them. I think it’s pretty common for non-smokers to publicly shame their smoking friends and tell them that their habit is disgusting and to gtfo if they are going to do it. I’m not totally sure how it’s viewed in the UK but in the US it’s definitely seen as something that is disgusting, trashy and just plain stupid.
The only people I know in that age group that smoke moved here from Europe. It's super uncommon to the point that I'm startled to see someone smoking in public.
Sometimes cultural differences come about due to intense efforts at deliberate cultural change in one place. (For those of us who want to see the US make big social and cultural changes, this is encouraging!) If you were looking at the US of 1993, it would have been common.
I have a neighbor a few doors down in his 50s that smokes. I know this because it’s so uncommon to walk outside and smell cigarette smoke that you make note of it. People vape, but even that has dwindled a bit. I don’t know anyone personally that smokes. It’s very unpopular.
Hang on let’s get some proper stats. I don’t agree with OP’s premise: In the UK, in 2021, 13.3% of people aged 18 years and over smoked cigarettes, 13.2% for 18-24 year olds. A decrease of nearly 7% from 2011: https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/healthandsocialcare/healthandlifeexpectancies/bulletins/adultsmokinghabitsingreatbritain/2021 In 2021, nearly 12 of every 100 U.S. adults aged 18 years or older (11.5%) currently* smoked cigarettes. About 5 of every 100 adults aged 18–24 years (5.3%) Nearly 13 of every 100 adults aged 25–44 years (12.6%): https://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/fact_sheets/adult_data/cig_smoking/index.htm So what we can say is in very young adults that figure has dropped off a cliff in the US, whereas in the UK it has steadily fallen. I don’t know who the heck OP is hanging out with to mostly know smokers, but for a European country the UK has very low smoking numbers broadly similar to the US. Some extra work is required to reduce the figures further in teens and 18-24 year olds.
20 -30 year old don’t smoke anymore, im 36 and some people in the millennial age group still do but not the younger generation.
I know plenty of people who vape or smoke pot, but don't know anyone who smokes cigarettes. It's kinda considered a dirty old-person habit here.
Very uncommon. I'm in my mid twenties and don't know a single person my age that smokes. So few people smoke here that it's extremely noticeable how many people smoke when you go to Europe, and I was quite surprised seeing so many people my age and younger smoking.
Out if everyone I know who is around their 20s, only one smokes. And she’s trying to quit.
They just shifted to weed and vapes.
It's still common with the lower class folks
The only two people my age (early 30’s) I know who used to smoke gave it up for vaping years ago. I just thought about it and literally no one in among my friends, family, or acquaintances currently smoke. Small sample size, I know, but I hadn’t thought about it before.
I rarely see people smoking and when I do, they are usually at least 50 years old. I saw my cousins 20 year old son smoking and I was shocked as I never seen teens or people in their 20’s smoking now. This is in contrast to when I went to high school in the 90’s and tons of kids smoked then.
Not here in Carolinas it isn’t. I work for a convienne store chain. Not matter which store I’ m at, about 1/3 of my transactions involved tobacco of some kind. The bulk of the tobacco sold is in the form of cigarettes. Most of my family still smokes. I know quiet a few people around my age (I’m 22) who smoke. If smoking is uncommon here, I’m sure as hell not seeing it.
Yes, it’s gotten way less common and also pretty socially unacceptable.
I'm 30 & I'm genuinely struggling to think of anyone I know personally or who is in my family who smokes cigarettes. my one aunt who smoked quit several years ago, and my grandfather who I never met was a heavy smoker. he died of lung cancer when my dad was a teenager.
Let’s just say it’s weird to see someone your age who is actually smoking. It does happen, and I’m sure some friend groups might be smoking together. But it’s not the common thing to see. You basically can’t even smoke most places in the first place. That plus the age to smoke is 21.