Women and Tobacco Use

Smoking and use of tobacco products pose a serious risk of early death and disease for women. 

In 2021, 10.1% of women reported smoking a cigarette, compared to 13.1% of men.¹ Today, with a much smaller gap between men's and women's smoking rates than in the past, women share a much larger burden of smoking-related disease and death.

Key Facts about Smoking among Women

• The percentage of females who reported cigarette use every day or some days is at 10.1%.¹  
• As of 2016, 15.5% of white woman, 13.5% of Black women, 7% of Hispanic women and 4.6% of Asian women currently smoke.² 
• Smoking rates are highest among woman who earned a GED diploma, around 36%, compared to college graduates who have lower percentages of use around 3.5%. ²
• A Report of the Surgeon General in 2020 shows us the following:
  • Evidence is sufficient to infer that cessation by pregnant woman benefit their health and that of the fetus and newborn.³   
  • Women who quit smoking before or during early pregnancy have a reduced risk for infant mortality compared with those who continue to smoke. ³  
• The risk for dying of lung cancer is 20 times higher among women who smoke two or more packs of cigarettes per day than among women who do not smoke.⁴ 
• Women exposed to cigarette smoke are twice as likely to develop lung cancer as men.
• Smoking is directly to linked to 80 percent of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) deaths in women each year and greater risk of stroke. ⁴ 
• Smoking ages women. Smokers have more facial wrinkles, gum disease, dental decay, and halitosis (bad breath). One study found more women smokers had gone grey by age 40. That risk doubled by age 50. ⁴