With the economic and societal costs of smoking totaling more than $300 billion a year and rising it may be time for users to seriously considering kicking the habit. If not for your health than do it for your wallet since smoking can be a very costly habit. If you’re a regular smoker you already know the cost of a package of cigarettes continues to increase, and if you buy a carton it can set you back a pretty penny.
All of this an more can be found in a new report issued by WalletHub called The Real Cost of Smoking by State that aims to encourage the estimated 37.8 million tobacco users in the U.S. to stop. WalletHub calculated the potential monetary losses — including the lifetime and annual costs of a cigarette pack per day, health care expenditures, income losses and other costs — brought on by smoking and exposure to secondhand smoke.
For example if you live in sunny California the financial cost of smoking breaks down like this:
- Out-of-Pocket Cost per Smoker – $143,149 (Rank: 40th)
- Financial-Opportunity Cost per Smoker – $1,575,367 (Rank: 40th)
- Health-Care Cost per Smoker – $200,851 (Rank: 39th)
- Income Loss per Smoker – $274,050 (Rank: 42nd)
- Other Costs per Smoker – $15,055 (Rank: 44th)
- Total Cost Over Lifetime per Smoker: $2,208,472
- Total Cost per Year per Smoker: $43,303
Here are the results from coast to coast:
| States with the Lowest Smoking Costs | States with the Highest Smoking Costs | |||
| 1 | Georgia | 42 | Washington | |
| 2 | Missouri | 43 | Vermont | |
| 3 | North Carolina | 44 | Minnesota | |
| 4 | Mississippi | 45 | Hawaii | |
| 5 | South Carolina | 46 | Alaska | |
| 6 | Tennessee | 47 | Rhode Island | |
| 7 | Alabama | 48 | Massachusetts | |
| 8 | North Dakota | 49 | District of Columbia | |
| 9 | Arkansas | 50 | New York | |
| 10 | Wyoming | 51 | Connecticut | |
Some key stats
- The estimated financial cost of smoking over a lifetime is just above $1.9 million per smoker.
- The out-of-pocket cost per smoker is $123,308 over a lifetime. Smokers in New York will pay the highest cost, $194,899, which is 2.3 times higher than in Missouri, where smokers will pay the lowest cost at $86,001.
- Each smoker will incur an average of $237,605 in income loss over a lifetime. Smokers in Maryland will lose the highest amount, $321,977, which is 1.9 times higher than in Mississippi, where smokers will lose the lowest amount at $171,397.
- Each smoker will incur an average of $172,801 in smoking-related health-care costs over a lifetime. Smokers in Connecticut will pay the highest amount, $289,154, which is 2.5 times higher than in Kentucky, where smokers will pay the lowest amount at $117,094.Additionally according to medical reports smoking damages your heart and your blood circulation, increasing your risk of developing conditions such as:
- coronary heart disease.
- heart attack.
- stroke.
- peripheral vascular disease (damaged blood vessels)
- cerebrovascular disease (damaged arteries that supply blood to your brain
The Center for Disease Control reports:
- Quitting smoking cuts cardiovascular risks. Just 1 year after quitting smoking, your risk for a heart attack drops sharply.
- Within 2 to 5 years after quitting smoking, your risk for stroke may reduce to about that of a nonsmoker’s.
- If you quit smoking, your risks for cancers of the mouth, throat, esophagus, and bladder drop by half within 5 years.
- Ten years after you quit smoking, your risk for lung cancer drops by half.
Regardless of where you live, how often you smoke or what brand of cigarettes you buy smoking is not only a dangerous habit it can cost you a lot of money that may be spent in better places.
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