We investigated to what extent two major parameters of the economic situation, namely the household income and the type of the major source of income, are related to smoking behaviour. Study variables are current cigarette smoking and ex-smoking. Databasis is the Public Use File of the "Microcensus 1995", which is a representative survey for Germany, conducted under the auspices of the German Federal Statistical Bureau. Included in the analysis were 185,822 persons aged 18 years and older. 30.9% of males and 18.2% of females are current smokers. 39% of males and 31.2% of females, who had been smokers at any time, stopped smoking. For persons aged 18 to 64 years, we observed strong income-related differences in the smoking prevalence. The higher the income the lower was the rate of smokers. Higher rates for ex-smokers were observed for persons older than 30 years, who had a high household income. For study subjects with a primary income based on unemployment or social welfare payments, we found for both sexes a remarkably higher smoking prevalence. Due to the fact that the underlying causes for the higher prevalence of smoking in the poorer segments of the population are not very well understood, it is rather difficult to establish a comprehensive prevention strategy for this high-risk population group.