Youth Tobacco Use Dropped in 2020

Here's at least one positive thing about 2020: Youth tobacco use in the United States dropped. But millions of students still reported using tobacco products.

Decreases in cigar, smokeless tobacco and electronic cigarette use drove a decline in youth tobacco use from 2019 to 2020, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

“The decline in tobacco product use over the past year is a win for public health,” said CDC Director Dr. Robert R. Redfield in a press release. “Yet, our work is far from done. Nearly 4.5 million U.S. youths still use tobacco products, putting a new generation at risk for nicotine addiction and other health risks.”

Nearly 1 in 4 US high school students (around 3.65 million in total) reported using any type of tobacco product within the past 30 days in 2020, this study found. That's a roughly 25 percent drop from 2019, when around 1 in 3 high school students (nearly 4.7 million) reported using tobacco.

The drop from 2019 to 2020 was even sharper among middle school students. Around 1 in 8 US middle school students (roughly 1.5 million) said they used tobacco in 2019. In 2020, that number had dropped to around 1 in 15 (nearly 800,000).

Middle and high school students reported using e-cigarettes more commonly than any other tobacco product. And this is the seventh consecutive year that this has been the case, the CDC noted.

“We remain very concerned about the overall tobacco use rates for young people, including the nearly 3.6 million youth who currently use e-cigarettes," said FDA Commissioner Dr. Stephen M. Hahn in a press release. "FDA will continue to monitor the marketplace, expand our public education efforts, and use our regulatory authority to further ensure all tobacco products, and e-cigarettes in particular, are not marketed to, sold to, or used by kids.”

This research was published in the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

If you are concerned that your child may be using tobacco or need help quitting yourself, speak with your health care provider about your options.