Introduction: Cigarette smoking is the leading preventable cause of death in the world. According to national health objects, many countries have reduced prevalence of smoking. Unfortunately smoking rated continues to rise in most developing countries. This study was conducted to determine smoking rate in  over 20 years adults in urban population of Rafsanjan, Iran.

Method & Material: This cross-sectional study was conducted on 491 randomly selected adults of over 20 years old. A current smoker was defined as someone who smokes at least one cigarette per day for the last year.

Chi-square and fisher exact tests for categorical data and t-test and analysis of variance were used for quantitative data and p<0.05 was considered as significant.

Results: In this study 247 males (50.3%) and 244 females (49.7%) were examined. Mean age and standard deviation were 38.35±13.14 years (males 38.73±13.63 and females 37.96±12.62). The overall prevalence of smoking was 24.24% (95% CI 20.56 - 28.32), in males 38.46% (95% CI 32.42 - 44.86) and in female 9.83% (95% CI 6.53 - 14.45). Sex difference in smoking rate was statistically significant (p<0.001). Smoking prevalence and mean of cigarette per day increased meaningfully in older groups. For example 20-29 year age group were smoked 9.5 cigarette per day and subjects over 60 years were smoked 15.20 cigarette per day (p<0.001).

Conclusion: According to the study data smoking rate, as a fatal risk factor for many noninfectious diseases, is significantly high and because there is not a serious national plan for controlling cigarette smoking, an increase in mortality and morbidity due to this agent would be predictable.

Key words: Smoking – Prevalence – Rafsanjan