Smokers Smoking Less, Place Your Bets, Etc.

The number of cigarette smokers has been relatively stable during the past decade, as we learn from the latest of Gallup’s annual polls on the subject. That would seem to be good news for tobacco companies, considering the intensity of anti-tobacco campaigns (and the proliferation of smoking restrictions) during that period. Twenty-five percent of the poll’s respondents reported having smoked during the week before being questioned—nearly matching the 27 percent saying so in Gallup’s 1996 survey.