INDIANAPOLIS – Hoosiers weigh too much and smoke too much, and the Indiana Chamber says it’s holding back the economy.

Seven years ago, the Chamber laid out more than 60 statistical measures of progress in areas which affect the economy, from wages to energy to education. Some of the biggest struggles in this year’s annual review of those measurements are in staying healthy. The state lost ground against both obesity and smoking — at 22-percent, Indiana’s smoking rate is the seventh-worst in the nation.

President Kevin Brinegar says the Chamber will continue its push to raise cigarette taxes and the smoking age, even though neither idea has found enough support to make it out of committee at the statehouse the last two years. The Chamber has kicked off a 10-city tour to discuss the latest numbers in its “Vision 2025” project, and Brinegar says Chamber lobbyists will spend the summer making the case to legislators in their districts.

Brinegar says smoking-related illnesses cost Hoosier businesses six-billion dollars a year in lost productivity and higher health costs — although the Vision 2025 report finds Indiana is doing better than other states at controlling health insurance premiums, a finding Brinegar concedes is paradoxical.

Indiana continues to score high on traditional measures of “business climate,” including taxes and regulation. And the state recorded gains on several of the Chamber’s measures of education progress, though the state is still far short of both its own goal and the Chamber’s for students with college degrees. The state wants to see a tops-in-the-nation 60-percent of Hoosier adults with at least an associate’s degree, while the Chamber has set a goal of cracking the top 10 nationwide. The current figure of 38-percent ranks 37th.

While Indiana continues to add jobs, average income declined slightly. And the state reports some of the lowest rates in the nation for jobs created at new firms. Brinegar says that’s a potential problem over the long term. He says most established businesses reach the end of the road eventually, and it’s better to be creating those jobs at companies that are still growing.