STUDY: Smoking Costs Average Hawai‘i User $2.5 Million

A new study analyzing the cost of smoking in the U.S. reports that lighting up can cost the average Hawai‘i smoker roughly $2,492,217 over their lifetime.

Conducted by the personal finance website WalletHub, the Real Cost of Smoking by State ranked Hawai‘i 47th in the nation for one of the highest income losses associated with smoking—$305,686 over a lifetime. On average, smoking costs Hawai‘i users $48,867 a year, according to the report.

The study incorporated factors like out-of-pocket costs for buying cigarettes, healthcare expenses, income losses and other expenses associated with the habit.

The study also reported the following rankings for Hawai‘i (1=lowest, 25=average):

• Out-of-Pocket Cost per Smoker – $165,301 (Rank: 44th)
• Financial-Opportunity Cost per Smoker – $1,819,149 (Rank: 44th)
• Health-Care Cost per Smoker – $188,119 (Rank: 35th)
• Other Costs per Smoker – $13,962 (Rank: 36th)

Ranking for Average Cost of Smoking by State