U.S. State Cigarette Excise Tax Rates, 2009-2011

CDC's State Tobacco Activities Tracking and Evaluation (STATE) system tracks state-level cigarette excise taxes, a primary tool for public health policy. The data shows the mean state tax increased from $1.34 in 2009 to $1.46 in 2011, with eight states increasing and one decreasing taxes during 2010-2011. This data is collected quarterly from state laws and has been in the system since 1995.

Use Cases

• Modeling the relationship between tax increases and smoking prevalence based on state-level tax rates.
• Tracking legislative changes in tobacco taxation across U.S. states over time.
• Comparing state-level excise tax policies for public health impact assessments.

Strengths

• Data is sourced from an authoritative public health agency (CDC).
• Provides a specific mean tax increase from $1.34 to $1.46 between 2009 and 2011.
• Data collection has a defined methodology, being collected quarterly from state laws.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Last update date is unknown; freshness unverified.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.

Provenance

Source

CDC's State Tobacco Activities Tracking and Evaluation (STATE) system.

Collection Method

Collected quarterly from an online legal research database of state laws, analyzed, coded, and entered into the STATE system.

Time Range

Tax data in effect since 1995, with a focus on 2009-2011.

Freshness

Last updated date is unknown.

Geography

All U.S. states and the District of Columbia.