Youth and Tobacco Use
Keeping Glen Cove SAFE: Youth and Tobacco Use
The SAFE Glen Cove Coalition is concerned about youth tobacco use and its consequences.
Monitoring the Future (MTF) is one of the nation’s most relied upon scientific sources of valid information on trends in use of licit and illicit psychoactive drugs by U.S. adolescents, college students, young adults, and adults up to age 60. MTF is conducted each year by researchers at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), part of the National Institutes of Health.
The MTF survey is given annually to students in eighth, 10th, and 12th grades who self-report their substance use behaviors over various time periods, such as past 30 days, past 12 months, and lifetime. The survey also documents students’ perception of harm, disapproval of use, and perceived availability of drugs and has been doing so since 1975.
Any Nicotine Use
In 2025, past 30-day nicotine use among 12th graders rose markedly, significantly increasing from 17% in 2024 to 22% in 2025. This overall rise reflected small, cumulative increases across multiple tobacco products rather than a dominant change in any single drug.
The increase in 2025 among 12th graders marks an abrupt departure from an extended, overall decline since 2019, the year when the prevalence of nicotine vaping peaked in 12th grade. From 2019 to 2024, the prevalence of any nicotine use fell 17 percentage points, from 34% in 2019 to 17% in 2024. Future surveys will indicate whether the 2025 increase marks the start of a sustained increase or if it is temporary.
Prevalence of past 30-day nicotine use in 10th and 8th grades was little changed in 2025. In 10th grade, prevalence of any nicotine use has decreased from 24% in 2017 (when first measured) to 12% in 2025. In 8th grade, the corresponding numbers are 12% and 6%.
Any nicotine use is indicated by any use of any of the following: vaping nicotine, cigarettes, large cigars, nicotine pouches (added to the survey and index in 2023), flavored small cigars, regular small cigars, tobacco using a hookah, or smokeless tobacco.
Any Nicotine Use Other Than Vaping
In 2025, past 30-day nicotine use other than vaping rose markedly amongst 12th grade students, increasing from 7% in 2024 to 12% in 2025. This overall rise reflected small, cumulative increases across multiple tobacco products rather than a dominant change in any single drug included in the index (see dashboards for the index drugs listed below).
In 10th and 8th grades, this index decreased slightly, although the decreases were not statistically significant.
The increase in 2025 among 12th graders marks an abrupt departure from an overall, extended decline since this measure was first tracked by the survey in 2017. Prevalence had fallen threefold from 21% in 2017 to 7% in 2024. Future surveys will indicate whether the 2025 increase marks the start of a sustained increase or if it is only temporary.
In 10th and 8th grades, the long-term decline in use continued in 2025. In 10th grade, use of any nicotine product other than vaping has gradually and steadily declined from 8% in 2017 to 4% in 2025, and in 8th grade the respective numbers are 6% and 2%.
Any nicotine use other than vaping is indicated by any use of any of the following: cigarettes, nicotine pouches (added to the survey and the index in 2023), large cigars, flavored small cigars, regular small cigars, tobacco using a hookah, or smokeless tobacco.
Cigarettes
Prevalence of cigarette use did not significantly change from 2024 to 2025 in any of the grades for any of the reporting intervals, which include lifetime, past 30-day, daily, and half-pack or more a day use. For all measures, use levels are at or near a historic low.
The intense public debate in the late 1990s over cigarette policies likely played an important role in bringing about the very substantial downturn in adolescent smoking that followed. MTF helped to give rise to that debate, as it publicly reported in the first half of the 1990s that the level of smoking cigarettes among U.S. adolescents was rising sharply—results that were widely covered in the national media. Other subsequent developments likely have contributed, including (a) increases in cigarette prices, brought about in part by the tobacco industry settlement with the states and by state-level taxing decisions; (b) substantially increased prevention activities, including antismoking ad campaigns in a number of states; (c) the removal of certain types of advertising (including billboards) as well as the Joe Camel campaign nationwide; (d) the initiation of a national antismoking ad campaign by the American Legacy Foundation, which was created as a condition of the Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement of 1998; and (e) efforts by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and states to reduce youth access to cigarettes.
An important milestone occurred in 2009 with passage of the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, which gave the FDA the authority to regulate the manufacturing, marketing, and sale of tobacco products. New efforts by the FDA have undoubtedly contributed to the continuing decline in use of cigarettes and their reported availability by 8th, 10th, and 12th graders.
In earlier years, efforts to reduce adolescent smoking did not meet with as much success. Between 1984 and 1992, smoking prevalence was little changed among 12th grade students despite increasingly restrictive legislation with regard to smoking debated and enacted at state and local levels, as well as prevention efforts made in many school systems. These results suggest that the successful reduction of adolescent smoking, as we have seen in recent decades, requires a concerted, national, multi-pronged effort.
During the 1990s, trends in cigarette smoking generally moved in concert across 8th, 10th, and 12th grades—and not in the usual, staggered pattern indicative of a cohort effect. The prevalence of current smoking began to rise among 8th and 10th graders after 1991 and among 12th graders after 1992, and until 1996 moved steadily upward in all three grades. In 1996, current smoking peaked in grades 8 and 10 and then peaked a year later among 12th graders. It is interesting that cigarettes, which normally reflect cohort differences, began to exhibit a secular trend in the same historical period that illicit drugs, which normally exhibit secular trends, began to show cohort effects.
Of particular importance is the fact that in all three grades in 2025, the prevalence of smoking half-a-pack or more per day is down from peak levels by more than 90% and is currently less than half a percentage point in all three grades. Over time, this dramatic decline in regular smoking should produce substantial improvements in the health and longevity of the population.
Nicotine Pouches
Nicotine pouches are small, white pouches that contain nicotine that users place in their mouth. Nicotine pouches are different from other smokeless tobacco products such as snus, dip, or chew because they do not contain any ground tobacco leaf. Use of nicotine pouches is readily concealable by adolescents because they do not require the user to expectorate juice.
In 2025, lifetime use increased in all grades, although not significantly. From 2024 to 2025, it increased from 7% to 10% in 12th grade, from 4% to 5% in 10th grade, and from 0.8% to 1.4% in 8th grade. Use in the past 12 months and past 30 days slightly increased for 8th and 12th graders and slightly decreased for 10th graders, although none of these changes were significant from 2024 to 2025.
Similar oral nicotine products have made substantial inroads among adolescents in the past (e.g., smokeless tobacco reached a lifetime prevalence of 32% in the early 1990s), suggesting a high potential ceiling for the prevalence of nicotine pouch use.
Smokeless Tobacco
The percentage of 12th grade students who used smokeless tobacco during the past 30 days (also referred to as current use) has trended upward the past two years and in 2025 was 3.6%. In contrast, in 8th and 10th grade use has trended downward the past two years, and in 2025 prevalence was at record lows in these grades at 1% and 2%, respectively.
One possible explanation for trends in the past two years is that some students interpret the smokeless tobacco question to include nicotine pouch use, even though pouches are not listed as examples in the item wording. Supporting this interpretation, nicotine pouch use has risen among 12th graders over the past two years, while remaining steady in the lower grades.
Lifetime use was at or near record lows in 2025, at 7% in 12th grade, 5% in 10th grade, and 3% in 8th grade.
Daily use of smokeless tobacco was very low in 2025, at 1.2% or less in all grades.
Trends in smokeless tobacco stand out as very different from trends for adolescent use of other drugs. Unlike almost all other substances, use of smokeless tobacco did not increase during the 1990s relapse but actually declined for nearly 10 years, beginning around 1994. Further, smokeless tobacco is one of few substances for which prevalence increased after 2007, although this increase among 10th and 12th grade students was not lasting. Finally, the trends show little in the way of cohort effects, given that trends have moved in parallel and not in staggered fashion for all three grades. These results suggest that the factors leading to use of smokeless tobacco are much different from the drivers of use of other drugs.
Questions about the use of smokeless tobacco were first introduced in 1986, omitted in 1990 and 1991, and then reintroduced in 1992. Through 2010, the examples of smokeless tobacco provided in the question were snuff, plug, dipping tobacco, and chewing tobacco; because of new forms of smokeless tobacco entering the market, snus and dissolvable tobacco were added to the examples in 2011. The introduction and promotion of new smokeless products, including snus, may well have contributed to the increase in use seen in all grades that peaked around that time.
Snus
In 2025, prevalence of snus (rhymes with “goose”) during the past 12 months significantly increased in 12th grade from 1.9% to 3.7%. In 8th and 10th grades, prevalence was little changed and in 2025 was 0.9% and 1.4%.
Snus is a variation on smokeless tobacco, as are some other dissolvable tobacco products, that literally dissolve in the mouth. Questions on snus were added to the 12th grade survey in 2011 and to the 8th and 10th grade surveys in 2012. Past year prevalence had been falling quite sharply in the upper grades since the introduction of those questions. The upper grades have tended to have considerably higher levels of use—at least until 2018.
The increase in 12th grade prevalence from 2024 to 2025 may reflect students reporting nicotine pouch use in response to the snus question. The survey wording—“Use snus (a small packet of tobacco that is put in the mouth)”—could easily be interpreted by students as referring to nicotine pouches. The snus question has appeared on the survey unchanged since 2011 in 12th grade and since 2012 in 10th and 8th grades, but it will need to be updated given the emergence of nicotine pouches.
Tobacco With Hookah
A hookah is a device used to inhale combustible tobacco and consists of a long, flexible tube through which users inhale tobacco smoke that has passed through water and is thereby cooled. In 2025, the percentage of 12th grade students who used a hookah in the past 12 months was 1.9%, which is the lowest level recorded by the survey since it was first tracked in 2010. Use increased from 2010 to 2014 but has been generally declining since, with 2025 prevalence about ten times lower than the high of 23% recorded in 2014.
Nicotine Pouches
Nicotine pouches are small, white pouches that contain nicotine that users place in their mouth. Nicotine pouches are different from other smokeless tobacco products such as snus, dip, or chew because they do not contain any ground tobacco leaf. Use of nicotine pouches is readily concealable by adolescents because they do not require the user to expectorate juice.
Lifetime and past 12-month use both significantly increased from 2023 to 2024 in 10th and 12th grade. In 12th grade, past 12-month prevalence doubled on the national scale in just one year from 3% to 6%, and in 10th grade it increased from 2% to 3%. In 8th grade, prevalence was below 1% and stayed steady.
Past 30-day use in 12th grade also significantly increased from 2023 to 2024, from 1.4% to 3.5%.
Nicotine pouches have generated much media attention amid concerns that adolescent use may grow rapidly, often drawing comparisons to the rise of nicotine vaping from 2017 to 2019. As of 2024, past 12-month prevalence of nicotine pouches remains relatively low at less than 6% (which compares to 21% for nicotine vaping). Similar oral nicotine products have made substantial inroads among adolescents in the past (e.g., smokeless tobacco reached a lifetime prevalence of 32% in the early 1990s), suggesting that prevalence of nicotine pouch use has a high ceiling.
Tobacco With Hookah
Use of tobacco with hookah is asked only of 12th graders. A hookah is a device to inhale combustible tobacco and consists of a long, flexible tube through which users inhale tobacco smoke that has passed through water and is thereby cooled. In 2024, the percentage of 12th grade students who used a hookah in the past 12 months declined slightly to 2%, which is the lowest level recorded by the survey since first tracked in 2010. Use increased from 2010 to 2014 but has been steadily declining since, with 2024 prevalence about ten times lower than the high of 23% recorded in 2014.
National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA): NIDA is a component of the National Institutes of Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NIDA supports most of the world’s research on the health aspects of drug use and addiction. The Institute carries out a large variety of programs to inform policy, improve practice, and advance addiction science. For more information about NIDA and its programs, visit https://www.nida.nih.gov/.
Annual National Youth Tobacco Survey (NYTS) data collected March 9-June 16 2023:
The NYTS is a cross-sectional, school-based, self-administered questionnaire administered to U.S. middle (grades 6-8) and high school (grades 9-12) students since 1999 to obtain a nationally representative sample of U.S. students attending private or public schools in grades 6-12. In 2023, data were collected from 22,069 students for ever use and current use (use on ≥1 day during the past 30 days) of nine tobacco products. Current e-cigarette use was reported by frequency of use, device type, brand, and flavor. Data on flavored e-cigarette use by device type and flavored product use overall and by flavor type used by tobacco product were also reported.
Current Use: NYTS 2023 says about 2.8 million youth currently use any tobacco product
- 10.0% of students (2.80 million) reported current use of any tobacco product
- 12.6% (1.97 million) high school students and 6.6% (800,000) middle school students reported current use of any tobacco product.
- 3.4% of students (920,000) reported current use of any combustible tobacco product
- 3.4% of students (940,000) reported current use of multiple (≥2) tobacco products
Most Commonly Used Types of Devices
- E-cigarettes (7.7%)
- Cigars (1.6%)
- Cigarettes (1.6%)
- Nicotine Pouches (1.5%)
- Smokeless (chewing tobacco, snuff, dip, or snus) (1.2%)
- Other oral nicotine products (lozenges, discs, tablets, gums, dissolvable tobacco products, and other products) (1.2%)
- Hookahs (1.1%)
- Heated Tobacco Products (1.0%)
- Pipe Tobacco (0.5%)
The CDC’s 2024 National Youth Tobacco Survey shows that e-cigarette use among U.S. youth declined significantly this year.
2023 NYS Quitline Sustainability Report: Statewide Highlights
The American Lung Association 22nd Annual State of Tobacco Control Report
This report evaluates the actions taken by states and the federal government to enact evidence-based commercial tobacco control laws and policies that are necessary to save lives.
Resources
For help Quitting smoking/vaping or to help a loved one beat a Nicotine Addition. The Lung HelpLine, is available via phone or online and is ready to assist teens between the ages of 13 -17 in quitting tobacco, including vaping. Call 800-LUNGUSA or chat online through their website at Lung.org.
NYS Smoker’ Quitline
For Quit help the NYS Smoker’ Quitline provides free and confidential services that include information, tools, quit coaching, and support in both English and Spanish. Services are available by calling 1-866-NY-QUITS (1-866-697-8487), texting (716) 309-4688, or visiting www.nysmokefree.com, for information, to chat online with a Quit Coach, or to sign up for Learn2QuitNY, a six-week, step-by-step text messaging program to build the skills you need to quit any tobacco product. Individuals aged 13 to 24 can text “DropTheVape” to 88709 to receive age-appropriate quit assistance.
Tobacco Action Coalition of Long Island (TAC)
TAC is funded by the NYS Tobacco Control Program through a grant administered by the American Lung Association made up of two components—community engagement and a youth action team called Reality Check LI. TAC works throughout Long Island to promote environments that are open to creating a tobacco-free norm to educate and empower youth to become change agents in their communities. TAC also supplies free tobacco education and cessation literature to local agencies and schools.
This fact sheet for teens provides facts about tobacco use. It describes short- and long-term effects and lists signs of tobacco use for youth. The fact sheet helps to dispel common myths about tobacco use.
