On this page:  

• 2022 Findings on Youth E-Cigarette Use 
• 2021 Findings on Youth Tobacco Use 
• Public Education Campaigns  
• Goals of NYTS

2022 Findings on Youth E-Cigarette Use 

In October 2022, FDA and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released federal data from the 2022 National Youth Tobacco Survey (NYTS) on e-cigarette use among U.S. youth in the Morbidity & Mortality Weekly Report “Notes from the Field: E-cigarette Use Among Middle and High School Students — United States, 2022.” E-cigarette use among youth remains a top concern for the FDA. In 2022, about 1 in 10 or more than 2.5 million U.S. middle and high school students currently used e-cigarettes (past 30-day). 

Current Use  

• 14.1% (2.14 million) of high school students and 3.3% (380,000) of middle school students reported current e-cigarette use.  

Flavored E-Cigarette Use 

• Overwhelmingly, current users (nearly 85%) used flavored e-cigarettes, with fruit flavors being the most popular, followed by candy, desserts, or other sweets. 

Frequency of Use  

• More than a quarter (27.6%) of current youth e-cigarette users use an e-cigarette product every day.  
• More than 4 in 10 youth e-cigarette users report using e-cigarettes at least 20 of the last 30 days. 

Type of Device  

• The most commonly used device among current users was disposables (55.3%), followed by prefilled/refillable pods or cartridges (25.2%).  

Commonly Used Brands  

• Current users reported their usual brands as: Puff Bar (14.5%), Vuse (12.5%), Hyde (5.5%) and SMOK (4%). 

Methodology  

The 2022 data was collected between January and May of 2022, using an online survey among U.S. middle school (grades 6-8) and high school (grades 9-12) students. The use of an online survey allows all eligible students to participate in a classroom or at home during a designated class period as part of a class activity, however most students completed the survey in a classroom setting. Prior to 2021, the survey was solely conducted in a classroom setting. Due to changes in methodology, including differences in survey administration and data collection procedures in recent years due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the ability to compare estimates from 2022 with those from prior NYTS waves is limited.

2021 Findings on Youth Tobacco Use 

In March 2022, the FDA and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released findings on use of tobacco products by high school (grades 9-12) and middle school (grades 6-8) students from the 2021 National Youth Tobacco Survey (NYTS) in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report “Tobacco Product Use and Associated Factors Among U.S. Middle and High School Students – National Youth Tobacco Survey, United States, 2021.”

Methodological changes made to conduct the NYTS during the COVID-19 pandemic prevent year-to-year comparisons of the 2021 data with data from previous surveys. In 2021, data were collected using an online survey to allow eligible students to participate in classrooms, at home, or in some other place to account for various instructional models during this time. Prior to 2021, the survey was conducted in person, inside the school classrooms. 

In 2021, approximately, 2.55 million (9.3%) students reported current (past 30-day) use of a tobacco product: 2.06 million (13.4%) high school students and 470,000 (4.0%) middle school students. 

The 2021 NYTS asked students about their use of nine types of tobacco products. E-cigarettes were the most commonly currently used tobacco product, cited by 2.06 million (7.6%) middle and high school students, followed by cigarettes (410,000; 1.5%), cigars (380,000; 1.4%), smokeless tobacco (240,000; 0.9%), hookahs (220,000; 0.8%), and nicotine pouches (200,000; 0.8%). This was the first time that NYTS collected data on use of nicotine pouches.

Tobacco product use was higher among certain subpopulations. For example, current use of any tobacco product was reported by 14.2% of students identifying as lesbian, gay, or bisexual (versus 7.9% of heterosexual) and 18.9% of students identifying as transgender (versus 8.2% of not transgender).

Also, current use of any tobacco product use was reported by 14.2% of students reporting severe psychological distress (versus 5.5% with no distress). 

Notably, almost two-thirds (65.3%) of students who currently used any tobacco product reported seriously thinking about quitting the use of all products, and 60.2% had stopped using all products for ≥1 days because they were trying to quit during the past 12 months.

Public Education Campaigns

FDA conducts several public education campaigns aimed at young audiences to prevent youth from tobacco initiation and use. FDA’s longest-running campaign, “The Real Cost,” educates teens on the health consequences of smoking cigarettes and in recent years has prioritized e-cigarette prevention messaging. 

In the 2021 NYTS, 75.2% of middle and high school students reported having seen or heard any antitobacco public education campaign ad within the past year. An estimated 15.8 million (60.9%) students reported recognizing the FDA’s “The Real Cost” campaign ad: by school level, almost two-thirds (65.8%) of high school students and more than half (54.8%) of middle school students reported recognizing “The Real Cost” campaign ad.

However, public health education campaigns are not the only messaging about tobacco products that youth receive and notice. 

They might see advertisements for tobacco products while engaging in common activities – such as going to a convenience store, supermarket, or gas station; using the Internet; watching television or streaming services or going to the movies; or reading newspapers or magazines. In the 2021 NYTS, among youth who reported engaging in those common activities, 75.7% reported exposure to marketing or advertising for any tobacco product.

Among students who reported using social media, 73.5% had ever seen e-cigarette–related content. 

Vaping Prevention and
Education Resource Center

Goals of NYTS

FDA is committed to a science-based approach that addresses public health issues associated with tobacco use. We collaborate with CDC on this nationally representative survey of middle and high school students that focuses exclusively on tobacco use behaviors and associated factors. 

NYTS was designed to provide national data on long-term, intermediate, and short-term indicators key to the design, implementation, and evaluation of comprehensive tobacco prevention and control programs.

For a deeper look at the agencies’ collaboration on the study over the years, see CDC’s “Historical NYTS Data and Documentation.”