Washington: The way people smoke says a lot about their status, literacy and socio-economic background, according to a new study.

For example, people in poorer suburbs smoke cigarettes closer to the butt, according to a study conducted by researchers at the University of Otago, New Zealand, which examined smoking patterns in the suburbs.

Conversely, tailor-made cigarettes from wealthier suburbs had 75 percent more unburned tobacco than those from the poorest suburbs.

The study, the first based on cigarette butts collected from streets, was conducted by George Thomson and a team from the country's Department of Public Health.

"The aim of the study was to see whether people from different socio-economic areas smoked different amounts of tobacco in each cigarette," said Thomson.

"In fact we did find that smokers in poorer areas smoked closer to the butt than those in wealthier areas ... Basically, poorer smokers have less money to burn."