As CT Smoking Rates Decline, County Disparities Remain

Although smoking rates in Connecticut decreased between 1996 and 2012, striking disparities persist among counties, according to new research from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington. The widest gap existed between Windham County, a rural area with the state’s highest overall smoking rate (15.6 percent), and Fairfield County, one of the wealthiest regions in the country, which had the state’s lowest smoking rate (9.5 percent). About twelve percent of the state’s population smoked cigarettes in 2012. “You’ll find lots of variations among counties even within small states like Connecticut that have successfully lowered smoking rates compared to other states in the nation,” said Ali Mokdad, professor of global health at IHME and one of the study’s authors. The IHME study looked at smoking prevalence – the percentage of the population that smokes – between 1996 and 2012.