October 17, 2024 – Current tobacco product use among U.S. middle and high school students has dropped to the lowest recorded level in 25 years. This is according to newly released data from the 2024 National Youth Tobacco Survey (NYTS). Within the past year alone, at least half a million fewer students are using tobacco products, contributing to this vital progress.
In 2024, 2.25 million middle and high school students reported current use (use on one or more days during the past 30 days) of any tobacco product, compared to 2.80 million in 2023. This decline was largely attributable to the important drop in the number of students who reported current e-cigarette use (2.13 million youth in 2023 compared to 1.63 million youth in 2024). Within the past year, a significant decline also occurred in current hookah use (290,000 in 2023 compared to 190,000 in 2024). Cigarette smoking reached the lowest level ever recorded by the survey, with only 1.4% of students reporting current use in 2024.
“Reaching a 25-year low for youth tobacco product use is an unusual milestone for public health. However, with more than 2 million youth using tobacco products and certain groups not experiencing declines in use, our mission is far from complete,” said deirdre Lawrence Kittner, Ph.D.,M.P.H., director of CDC’s Office on Smoking and Health. “we must remain committed to public health efforts to ensure all youth can live healthy, tobacco-free lives.”
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) analyzed NYTS data to assess the use of nine tobacco products among U.S. middle school (grades 6–8) and high school (grades 9–12) students. Detailed information on use of e-cigarettes and nicotine pouches from the 2024 NYTS was recently published. Today’s release provides further data from the survey, including findings on othre types of tobacco product use and detailed breakdowns of tobacco product use by school level, sex and race and ethnicity.
Youth e-cigarette use declined to the lowest level in a decade; though, for the 11th year in a row, e-cigarettes remained the moast commonly used tobacco product (5.9%) among youth who reported current tobacco product use.In 2024, nicotine pouches became the second most commonly used tobacco product among youth (1.8%), followed by cigarettes (1.4%), cigars (1.
