Tobacco use comparing Everyday Smokers, Non-Smokers, and Chewing Tobacco users by age, sex, educational attainment, and income level. Banded in 3 year increments since 2000 for both Erie County and Pennsylvania.

Smoking is a leading cause of preventable death, causing more than 480,000 deaths per year in the U.S. and leading to higher long-term health costs. Smoking causes cancer, heart disease, stroke, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease both among smokers and people exposed to secondhand smoke. Smokeless tobacco is the leading cause of oral cancer and increases likelihood of other oral disease.

Age

Erie County shows a slightly higher everyday smoker rate than the whole of PA at 4% higher, particularly amongst the age grouping of 45 to 64 who in Erie County represented the highest average category, behind 18 to 44 years old at 16%.Overall, across all age categories, there were fewer non-smokers in Erie County than PA on average.

Educational Attainment

Accross all categories of educational attainment, Erie County was on average 7% lower for non-smokers as compared to PA. Erie County was likewise higher in all categories of educational attainment for everyday smokers, 3.7% higher on average. The only variable which Erie County ranks lower on average than PA concerning tobacco use and educational attainment is within chewing tobacco use amongst college graduates, with a reported 1% within Erie County as compared to a statewide 2%.

Income

Accross all variables and categories of income levels, Erie County reported lower averages of non-smokers and higher averages of everyday smokers and chewing tobacco users. While some variables matched state averages, no Erie County variables or categories performed better than PA state averages.

Over Time

Non-smokers fell between the 2012 to 2014 and 2015 to 2017 year bands, by -1% for the entire reported population, from 48% to 47%. The statewide level of non-smoking population rose +1% for the reported population, from 54% to 55%. 

Everyday smokers remained the same between the 2012 to 2014 and 2015 to 2017 year bands, at 17% of the reported population. The statewide level of everday smokers fell -2% for the reported population, from 15% to 13%. 

Chewing tpbacco users in Erie County fell between the 2012 to 2014 and 2015 to 2017 year bands, by -2%, from 7% to 5% of the reported population. The statewide level of chewing tobacco users remained for the reported population, at 4%.

A note to the limited scope of these variables' trends: according to the PA Department of Health, "In 2011, a new weighting methodology was adopted along with the inclusion of cell phones in the survey. Due to this change, statistics for years prior to 2011 should not be compared to statistics from 2011 to present."

EVS analyzes the data in each topic category using indicators, which report a targeted and digestible number, rate, or amount to represent Erie County as a whole. While this does not cover every aspect of the topic, it assists in establishing Erie's performance relative to the prior year(s). The indicator for the Health: Smoking & Tobacco topic is:

This indicator measures the percentage of Erie County adults in a who identified that they are a smoker (smoke every day or some days). The trend for Adult Smokers is down and better for the 2015 to 2017 period with a reported decrease of -3.0% within the County.

Data from the PA Department of Health as of 2018.