US adult smoking rate drops to 15%

The cigarette smoking rate among U.S. adults dropped to about 15 percent in the first three months of the year, according to new data published Tuesday by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

That is the lowest prevalence of adult smoking since record keeping began in 1965, when 42 percent of U.S. adults smoked.

"For January-March 2015, the percentage of adults aged 18 and over who were current cigarette smokers was 15.2 percent, which was lower than the 2014 estimate of 16.8 percent," said the CDC report, which was based on a large national survey.

The report also found the percentage of current cigarette smokers was higher for men (17.4 percent) than for women (13.0 percent).

Progress in reducing smoking in the U.S. stalled between 2004 and 2009 but the country has seen a steady decline since then.

According to the CDC, cigarette smoking is the leading preventable cause of disease and death in the United States, killing more than 480,000 Americans each year. Smoking also takes a devastating toll on the country's economy, costing more than 289 billion U.S. dollars a year.