New Study Finds That African-American College Students Have the Lowest Rate of Cigarette Smoking

A new report from the American Lung Association finds that 19.1 percent of American college students smoke cigarettes. This is the lowest level since 1980. In 1999 more than 30 percent of all college students smoked cigarettes. Smokers were defined as anyone who had at least one cigarette in the 30 days prior to the survey.

College students are significantly less likely to smoke than young people of college age who are not enrolled in higher education. Thirty-five percent of youth ages 18 to 22 who are not in college are smokers.

White college students are more likely to be smokers than any other ethnic group. Asian Americans and Hispanic Americans are less likely to smoke than whites but are more likely to smoke than blacks. On college campuses, African Americans are the ethnic group least likely to smoke cigarettes.

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