Russell County’s adult smoking rate is more than 50 percent higher than the national average, according to the Kentucky Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance Survey.
Russell County has an adult smoking rate of 21.4, which is higher than the national average of 14 and on par with the state average of 21.4.
Russell County’s adult smoking rate is lower than each of the neighboring counties. Below is a look at counties in the Lake Cumberland District.
| Adair | 35.3 |
| Casey | 27.3 |
| Clinton | 22.9 |
| Cumberland | 0 (N/A) |
| Green | 29.5 |
| McCreary | 31.2 |
| Pulaski | 24 |
| Russell | 21.4 |
| Taylor | 18.9 |
| Wayne | 25.7 |
Kentucky continues to have one of the highest adult smoking rates in the country at 21.4 percent, behind only West Virginia.
That results in thousands of early deaths annually, a high incidence of lung cancer and hundreds of millions in health care costs.
