There are varying opinons how many cigarettes the ‘average’ smoker smokes.
According to the American Lung Association, the average smoker smokes 15 cigarettes each day.
Two to four cigarettes in a row increase blood fats 200 to 400%. The average smoker (30 cigerettes per day) has 4 to 6 times the chance of having heart disease if he’s in the 45-54 year age group.
Generall the average smoker smokes a cigarette every half-hour or so during the day, so if you are awake 16 hours on average that would give 32 cigaretes.
These figures however are somewhat meaningless due to the fact you can’t really gauge the test to the amount of smoke, or tar and nicotine, which the “average” smoker will draw from any particular cigarette.
No two human smokers smoke in the same way. No individual smoker always smokes in the same fashion. The speed at which one smokes varies both among smokers, and usually also varies with the same individual under different circumstances even within the same day. Some take long puffs (or draws), some take short puffs. That variation affects the tar and nicotine quantity in the smoke generated.
Even with the same type of cigarette, individual smokers take a different number of puffs per cigarette depending upon the circumstances. When concentrating, or talking, the number of puffs is usually less. When listening, or required to listen to another person talking, the number of puffs per cigarette, as well as the duration of each puff, usually increases. Smoking rates while reading a book may differ from smoking rates while viewing a television program. The number of puffs and puff duration (as well as butt length) will vary according to emotional state. Some smokers customarily put their cigarettes down in an ashtray where they burn between puffs; other smokers constantly hold cigarettes in their mouths; others hold them between their fingers.
A study in London UK gave the figure that an average smoker in Britain burns Ã‚Â£91,832.43 on cigarettes in his lifetime, in number terms, it is 373,302 cigarettes, or 18,665 packs per smoker.
The study also found that even part-time smokers burn 14.55 cigarettes a week, which is 11,000 pounds during a person’s lifetime.
Another interesting factor that has come out is that 83 per cent of the smokers had attempted to give up the habit at least three times, and about one-third had left it altogether for only two days, the same number for two months, and 15 per cent managed for a year and some 10 per cent got into the habit after 20 or so years.
The below graph shows the average number of ciggarettes smoked by age:
The average smoker has actually changed too, they are no longer casual puffers, but someone deeply physically addicted or leaning on cigarette use for the satisfaction of psychological needs, according to Margo Sidener, executive director of the American Lung Association Santa Clara-San Benito Counties office. For this group, return rates to the habit after one year are high – from a low of 50 percent to a high of 80 percent nationwide – but persistence can be the key to success.