Who's Lighting Up?

Who’s Lighting Up?

As the announcement comes that British American Tobacco is acquiring Reynolds America, a quick look at who is smoking in the United States and North Carolina.

by Rose Hoban January 18, 2017October 13, 2022

Data compiled by Rose Hoban

The absorption of Reynolds America by British American Tobacco is big news in North Carolina, one of the largest tobacco producers in the world for many years.

While it’s still unclear how the acquisition will affect jobs and the economy in places such as Winston-Salem, it is clear that North Carolina still has lots of smokers, about 19 percent of all adults use cigarettes.

Map courtesy: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

According to the North Carolina Youth Tobacco Survey, last performed in 2015 among 6th to 12th graders, about three in every ten high-schoolers and one in ten middle-schoolers had used some kind of tobacco product, including e-cigarettes, in the 30 days before they were surveyed.

Data and chart courtesy: NC DHHS Tobacco Prevention and Control Branch

That puts North Carolina rates at the higher end of youth smoking rates in the US.

The survey also found more young people were considering using e-cigarettes, if they weren’t using them already. That’s happening even as the use of traditional cigarettes is down from 2011.

Nationally, rates of smoking have fallen over the years, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But there are big differences by ethnicity.

Chart credit: Statista

Read our articles published in partnership with The Charlotte Ledger

Data compiled by Rose Hoban

Rose Hoban