Number of U.S. smokers is down, but great health risks, related costs remain

WASHINGTON Health officials said Thursday that while nearly 450,000 people die annually from smoking-related illnesses, the number of adults in the United States who smoke has reached record lows.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that 19.8 percent of adults in the U.S. smoked last year—the first time ever that the figure has gone below 20 percent.

Statistics show that half of the people who smoke in the long term will die early, particularly if they begin smoking as teenagers.