Here's How Much Smoking Cigarettes Really Costs The Average American

According to a sobering statistic from the Center for Disease Control, adults who smoke tobacco have a mortality rate that's three times higher than their non-smoking counterparts. Besides the obvious hazard of lung cancer, cigarette smokers are also prone to respiratory issues and heart disease. In total, smoking kills more than 480,000 Americans each year, including harm from secondary smoke. Plus, smokers can expect to shorten their lifespan by a full 10 years. While the popularity of smoking has declined in recent decades, more than 50 million Americans continue to partake.

Health consequences aside, smoking is also one of the worst money habits. The first cost to consider is the expense of buying the cigarettes themselves, which can vary significantly depending on where you live since some states levy higher taxes on tobacco than other states. Per WalletHub, lifetime costs for residents of New York — calculated as one pack per day every day for 48 years — will pay $246,857, the most of any state. The median cost of cigarettes in all 50 states, plus the District of Columbia, is represented in Nevada. Residents of the Silver State will spend $165,214 on one pack of cigarettes per day over the course of a lifetime. Meanwhile, the least expensive state to be a smoker is South Carolina, with a lifetime cost of $131,225.

Smokers earn less income than their non-smoking counterparts. According to a 2021 study in the Journal of Health Economics, heavy smoking in young adulthood resulted in a wage penalty, by age 30, of 15.9% for women and 15.2% men. This can be chalked up to lower productivity — from frequent breaks — health issues, and even absenteeism. In the long run, the income inequality can add up to approximately $550,000 to $703,000 over a smoker's working career.

Smokers can also expect to pay more for insurance. Obviously, health insurance will be more expensive for whomever is paying for it, be that the smokers themselves or perhaps their employer. What might come as a surprise is that home insurance is also more expensive for smokers because that smoking households pose a greater fire risk. Quitting this bad habit could save homeowners between 5% and 15% annually on home insurance.

With all of this said, seeing a quarter-of-a-million dollars go up in a cloud of cigarette smoke can be a depressing thought. However, beyond spending it, it's worth considering what could have happened if a smoker instead saved or even invested their cigarettes money. For instance, if cigarette spending was dollar cost averaged into the benchmark S&P 500 stock index over the same 48-year period they spent it, the $246,857 spent by New York smokers would have grown to $4,184,705 instead. Meanwhile, the $131,225 spent by South Carolina residents would be worth $2,224,517 today.