UW-CTRI
UW Center for Tobacco Research and Intervention

What are Tobacco Disparities?

cigarette

Tobacco use affects all users negatively. Unfortunately, there are some groups of people in the United States who smoke at particularly high rates and suffer the greatest negative health effects from smoking.

According to the CDC, 14% of adults overall smoked in 2019.

In contrast, smoking rates were especially high among:

Behavioral Health Patients

People with severe mental illness smoke at high rates (33.0%)

People with Less Income

Adults with an annual household income less than $35,000 (21.4%)

Race

For example, non-Hispanic American Indian/Alaska Natives (20.9%)

Veterans

Veterans smoke at higher rates (21.6%) than the adult civilian population

Those with Less Education

Those for whom the highest education level is a GED (35.3%)

Medicaid Members

Medicaid recipients and uninsured individuals smoke at high rates (30%)

HUD Residents

One-third of people living in HUD housing were current smokers (33.6%)

LGBTQ

15.3% of LGB adults smoke cigarettes vs. 11.4% of hetero adults

Teens

21% of Wisconsin high schoolers vape, and 30% of those vapers also smoke

Tobacco Disparities Stats

The ZIP Code project went door to door in Milwaukee to address tobacco disparities
The ZIP Code project went door to door in Milwaukee to address tobacco disparities.