NJ Smokers Spend Millions On Cigarettes In A Lifetime: Study

NEW JERSEY — Being a daily smoker could cost New Jersey residents more than $2 million over a lifetime, a new study shows.

A new study by WalletHub measured the costs — financially, not physically — of maintaining that nicotine addiction.

WalletHub calculated the costs of smoking a pack a day (factoring in current pricing as well as historical pricing), health care costs, income losses, and other costs associated with smoking and with secondhand smoke. The study does not factor in e-cigarette use.

Georgia has the lowest cost per smoker over a lifetime; WalletHub estimates daily smokers in the Peach State spend $1,752,212 when out-of-pocket costs, health care, and income loss are factored in. And, residents in Washington, D.C. have the highest lifetime estimate, at $3,313,530.

The lifetime calculations assume 48 years of smoking: from age 21, when buying cigarettes is legal everywhere, to 69, the average age when a smoker dies.

New Jersey residents will spend $2,754,318 over a lifetime of smoking a pack a day, placing the Garden State at number 42 on the list.

Yearly, New Jersey residents spend about $57,382 if they are daily smokers.

Calculations to get these numbers include:

• Out of pocket costs (average cost of a pack of cigarettes in each state, multiplied by the total number of days)
• Financial opportunity cost (the return a smoker would earn by investing money instead of spending it on cigarettes)
• Health care cost per smoker
• Income loss per smoker (a calculated wage gap of 18 percent between smokers and non smokers)
• Other costs (including costs of exposure to secondhand smoke)

There are an estimated 34.2 million tobacco users in the United States.