Cigarette Use, by Age Group, Population Density, and Region (Tables 8.1 to 8.3)

Overall among people aged 12 or older, rates of past year and current smoking were somewhat lower in large metropolitan areas compared with smaller metropolitan areas and nonmetropolitan areas. About half of young adults aged 18 to 25 in nonmetropolitan areas were current smokers (49%). Rates of past year and current cigarette use among people aged 12 or older were somewhat higher in the North Central region and the South.

As noted in Chapter 1, however, the estimates in this report do not attempt to control for potentially confounding variables that might help to account for the observed associations. In particular, differences in rates of cigarette use by population density or region may be explained in part by demographic differences between areas of differing population density or between regions. Therefore, readers should use caution in drawing conclusions about apparent relationships between cigarette smoking and population density, or between cigarette smoking and region.

This page was last updated on December 30, 2008.

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