A new smoking report estimates the habit costs Kentucky pack-a-day smokers more than $24,000 each year.
In its findings, personal finance website Wallethub says that figure comes partly from out-of-pocket expenses ($1,765) along with healthcare ($2,186).
The study also considers indirect factors like annual income loss ($3,467), described as lowered productivity caused by smoking dependence.
Overall, the report estimates smoking costs $1,238,247 per smoker in Kentucky. That’s 2nd lowest nationwide and just below nearby No. 7 Tennessee. In Illinois, that total comes to more than $1,828,314 per smoker.
The chart below depicts annual and lifetime smoking-related expenses for each state in our region.
Smoking Costs
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To make the final calculations, the study considered the following criteria:
- Out-of-pocket costs: the nationwide average price of a pack of cigarettes, totaled daily for 51 years.
- Financial opportunity cost (not pictured in graphic): the amount of return a person would have earned by investing money spent on smoking in the stock market over the same period.
- Healthcare costs: annual healthcare costs incurred from smoking per state, divided by the number of adult smokers in each state.
- Income loss: wages lost from lowered productivity caused by smoking. Based on a recent study (pdf download) from the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta that estimated smokers earn 20 percent less than nonsmokers, 8 percent of which is attributed to smoking and 12 percent to other factors.
- Miscellaneous costs: unearned homeowners insurance credits reserved for nonsmokers, etc.
