Overall Tobacco Trends

Decreases in heavy smoking rates (more than 24 cigarettes a day) from 1974 to 2018 have not been equal across the demographic groups depicted in the table.

Trends in Electronic Cigarette Use

From 2014 to 2018, the number of adults: 

• Who had ever used electronic cigarettes decreased 7 percent from 12.6 percent to 11.7 percent.
• Who were current users of electronic cigarettes decreased 12 percent from 3.7 percent to 3.2 percent.
• These changes were not consistent across the demographic groups depicted in the table.

From 2011, to 2019, current use of electronic cigarettes:

• Increased 1650 percent among middle school students, from 0.6 percent to 10.5 percent.
• Increased 1733 percent among high school students, from 1.5 percent to 27.5 percent. This was a 33 percent increase from the 2018 rate of 20.7 percent.
• In 2019, close to 2.9 million children started using e-cigarettes, or more than 7,900 per day. This was an increase from more than 2.2 million in 2018 and close to 2.1 million in 2017.
• In 2019, 69 percent of youth who used an e-cigarette reported using a flavored e-cigarette. Rates were higher among high school (72%) than middle school (60%) students.
• In 2019, most e-cigarette-using youth reported using a type with refillable pods or cartridges, such as JUUL (54%), followed by a refillable tank system (24%) most often. This matches most e-cigarette-using youth reporting their usual brand being JUUL (58%), followed by some other brand (19%) or no usual brand (15%) which could align with users of refillable tank systems.

Trends in Adult Use of Other Tobacco Products

Any Tobacco Product

From 2002 to 2018, current use of any tobacco product (cigarettes, cigars, pipe tobacco, and smokeless tobacco):

• Decreased 43 percent among those ages 18-25, from 45.3 percent to 25.8 percent.
• Decreased 24 percent among those aged 26 or older, from 29.9 percent to 23.4 percent.
• Decreased 40 percent among men ages 18-25, from 52.1 percent to 36.2 percent.
• Decreased 24 percent among men aged 26 or older, from 37.3 percent to 30.2 percent.
• Decreased 47 percent among women ages 18-25, from 38.4 percent to 21.8 percent.
• Decreased 25 percent among women aged 26 or older, from 23.2 percent to 17.5 percent.

Smokeless Tobacco

From 2002 to 2018, current use of smokeless tobacco:

• Decreased 9 percent among those ages 18-25, from 4.8 percent to 4.4 percent.
• Decreased 12 percent among those aged 26 or older, from 3.2 percent to 2.8 percent.
• Decreased 21 percent among men ages 18-25, from 9.4 percent to 7.4 percent.
• Decreased 14 percent among men aged 26 or older, from 6.3 percent to 5.4 percent.
• Increased 342 percent among women ages 18-25, from 0.3 percent to 1.3 percent.
• Decreased 22 percent among women aged 26 or older, from 0.5 percent to 0.4 percent.

Cigars

From 2002 to 2018, current use of cigars:

• Decreased 23 percent among those ages 18-25, from 11.0 percent to 8.5 percent.
• Decreased 10 percent among those aged 26 or older, from 4.6 percent to 4.1 percent.
• Decreased 30 percent among men ages 18-25, from 16.8 percent to 11.8 percent.
• Decreased 20 percent among men aged 26 or older, from 8.5 percent to 6.8 percent.
• Remained stable among women ages 18-25 at 5.2 percent.
• Increased 68 percent among women aged 26 or older, from 1.0 percent to 1.7 percent.

Pipe Tobacco

From 2002 to 2018, current use of pipe tobacco:

• Increased 69 percent among those ages 18-25, from 1.1 percent to 1.9 percent.
• Decreased 12 percent among those aged 26 or older, from 0.8 percent to 0.7 percent.

Trends in Youth Use of Other Tobacco Products

Any Tobacco Product

From 2002 to 2019, current use of any tobacco product:

• Decreased 6 percent among middle school students, from 13.3 percent to 12.5 percent.
• Increased 11 percent among high school students, from 28.2 percent to 31.2 percent.

Cigarettes

From 2002 to 2019, current use of cigarettes:

• Decreased 77 percent among middle school students, from 9.8 percent to 2.3 percent.
• Decreased 74 percent among high school students, from 22.5 percent to 5.8 percent.

Cigars

From 2002 to 2019, current use of cigars:

• Decreased 62 percent among middle school students, from 6.0 percent to 2.3 percent.
• Decreased 34 percent among high school students, from 11.6 percent to 6.5 percent.

Hookah

From 2011 to 2019, current use of hookahs:

• Remained the same at less than 2 percent among middle school students.
• Remained the same at about four percent among high school students.

Smokeless Tobacco

From 2002 to 2019, current use of smokeless tobacco:

• Decreased 50 percent among middle school students, from 3.6 percent to 1.8 percent.
• Decreased 19 percent among high school students, from 5.9 percent to 4.8 percent.

Snus

From 2011 to 2019, current use of snus:

• Remained the same at less than 1 percent among middle school students.
• Decreased 39 percent among high school students, from 2.8 percent to 1.7 percent.

Dissolvable Tobacco

From 2011 to 2019, current use of dissolvable tobacco:

• Remained the same at less than 1 percent among middle school students.
• Remained the same at less than 2 percent among high school students.

Pipes

From 2002 to 2019, current use of pipes:

• Decreased from 3.5 percent to too low to measure among middle school students.
• Decreased 66 percent among high school students, from 3.2 percent to 1.1 percent.

Bidis

From 2002 to 2019, current use of bidis:

• Decreased 83 percent among middle school students from 2.4 percent to 0.4 percent.
• Decreased 88 percent among high school students, from 3.2 percent to 0.4 percent.

Cloves/Kreteks

From 2002 to 2013, current use of cloves/kreteks:

• Decreased 80 percent among middle school students from 2.0 percent to 0.4 percent.
• Decreased 70 percent among high school students, from 2.7 percent to 0.8 percent.

Heated Tobacco Products

In 2019, current use of heated tobacco products:

• Was at 1.4 percent among middle school students.
• Was at 1.7 percent among high school students.