Does Idaho Have More Or Less Smokers On Average?
Around 500,000 Americans die every year due to smoking, making it the number one cause of deaths that could've otherwise been preventable in the U.S. Is that stopping people from lighting up in 2022? It sure isn't!
The 2021 County Health Rankings & Roadmaps report (damn guys, long enough name?) has been released, and the findings are definitely...interesting.
On average, around 16.5% of adult Americans smoke cigarettes. We're not talking vapes here, or cannabis, we're talking about good old-fashioned nicotine cigarettes. That number jumps way higher for states like West Virginia, where a whopping 27% of its citizens are smokers. Or Kentucky, where 24% of locals are smoking up on the regular.
Luckily for Idaho, our number is surprisingly much lower than most of the United States. According to the most recent info, right around 15% of Idahoans are smoking cigarettes on a regular basis. Pretty good all things considered, right? It is, until you look at California and Utah.
Our neighbors are harboring 11.5% and 9.1% smokers, respectively.
Another positive that comes along with our low number of smokers is life expectancy. West Virginians live an average of 75 years, while Idahoans are living it up (on average) until the ripe old age of 79.5!
It's not all fun numbers, just to be fair. Around $230,000,000,000 (that's 230 billion dollars) is spent annually in the U.S. on treating medical issues stemming from smoking, while it's estimated we lose about $156,000,000,000 a year in productivity while your coworkers are outside on a "smoke break."
Are these numbers going to get you to quit smoking in 2022? Or are you just glad to not have to live in West Virginia?
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