Drop in vaping drives tobacco product use by U.S. youth to a record low

Only 8 percent of teens and tweens reported current use of any tobacco product in 2024

Young people gather at an anti-tobacco rally in Harlem in New York City in 2013, part of a national event recognizing young people’s efforts towards tobacco use prevention. A record low number of U.S. teens and tweens reported using tobacco products in 2024.

Richard Levine/Alamy

By Aimee Cunningham

October 25, 2024 at 1:22 pm

The fewest number of U.S. teens and tweens in 25 years are currently using tobacco products.

According to the 2024 National Youth Tobacco Survey, only 8 percent of middle and high school students — or 2.25 million — reported using any tobacco products in the past 30 days. As recently as 2019, 23 percent, or just over 6 million, had reported current tobacco use, driven almost entirely by e-cigarette use, at 20 percent.

E-cigarettes are still the most popular choice, used by 6 percent of middle and high school students in 2024, researchers report October 17 in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. Nicotine pouches — a product that releases nicotine when placed between the cheek and gum — came in second for the first time at nearly 2 percent, followed by cigarettes, cigars and smokeless tobacco. The National Youth Tobacco Survey began measuring use among students in 1999.

More high school students, at 10 percent, reported use of any tobacco product in the past 30 days than middle school students, at 5.4 percent. Just under 8 percent of high school students reported current use of e-cigarettes in 2024, falling from 10 percent in 2023. That decrease of 350,000 high school students was a big reason for the decline in current use of any product among all students surveyed.

Use disparities

Overall, only 8 percent of U.S. teens and tweens reported current use of tobacco products in 2024 (red dotted line). But looking at use by different racial and ethnic groups reveals that disparities remain.

Disparities in tobacco use still exist among tweens and teens from different racial and ethnic groups. Past research has found that the tobacco industry has long targeted certain groups via advertising and marketing, including promoting menthol cigarettes to Black communities and using tribal icons to target American Indian and Alaskan Native people.

Tobacco use most often begins in adolescence, a time when exposure to nicotine, the addictive substance in tobacco, can be especially harmful to teens’ developing brain (SN: 6/30/15). Nicotine affects the ability to learn, remember and pay attention. Tobacco control programs at the federal, state and local levels have contributed to the drop in use, the researchers write.