Today we’re looking at the Healthy People goals to reduce smoking.
From 1998-2008, adult smoking dropped just 3.5 percentage points to 20.6%. From 2008-2020, smoking dropped a whopping 8.1 points to 12.5% - just shy of the 12% goal.
The high school smoking target was 16%. From 1999-2009, smoking dropped 14.5 points. But between 2009-2013, the decline slowed, dropping only 4.5 points.
Then in 2014, it had dropped a staggering 3.5 points in just one year! By 2021, it was down by another 7.3 points to 1.9%.
Did tired, old tobacco control methods suddenly start working better after 2013? Did they stumble upon a new tactic to keep people from smoking?
Or did people who would have otherwise started smoking instead turn to less harmful nicotine products?
We think we know the answer.