The Decline Of Cigarettes In 2 Captivating Map GIFs

Smoking has become a much more costly habit in the last several decades, in large part because of increasingly high levels of taxes levied on tobacco.

In 1960, no state taxed cigarettes more than a few cents. Over the following decades, though, as legislators woke up to the public health crisis being caused by tobacco, states hiked these taxes.

This map, created by Metric Maps and originally posted to Reddit, allows us to visualize just how much taxes on a pack of cigarettes have surged in each state. The map relies on data from the Federation of Tax Administrators.

Today New York leads the pack, imposing a $4.35 excise tax on every pack of cigarettes sold. States in the South tend to have the lowest cigarette taxes in the country -- and the highest smoking rates.

Check out how states' approach to cigarette taxes has morphed over time:

And here's a visualization of how cigarette consumption has plummeted since 1970, measured by the number of packs sold per person per year: