Despite the fact that overall tobacco consumption has declined over time, tobacco use continues to be the leading preventable cause of death and disease in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The good news: the CDC expects that the implementation of proven tobacco prevention interventions will further reduce tobacco use.

The numbers

During 2000-2015, total combustible tobacco consumption decreased 33.5%, or 43.7% per capita. Although total cigarette consumption decreased 38.7%, cigarettes remained the most commonly used combustible tobacco product. Total non-cigarette combustible tobacco (cigars, roll-your-own, and pipe tobacco) consumption increased 117.1%, or 83.8% per capita during 2000-2015.

For smokeless tobacco (chewing tobacco and dry snuff), total consumption increased 23.1%, or 4.2% per capita.

267 billion cigarettes smoked last year

Notably, total cigarette consumption was 267.0 billion cigarettes in 2015 compared to 262.7 billion in 2014. Thus, the number of cigarettes consumed in 2015 was higher than in 2014, the first time annual consumption was higher than the previous year since 1973.