US teens are smoking and vaping less than their peers abroad |
Smoking and vaping continued to decline among middle school and high school students in 2025, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s 2025 National Youth Tobacco Survey, released in July 2026. This annual, school-based survey has been tracking smoking and other nicotine product use in American youth ages 11 to 18 since 1999.
Perhaps most excitingly, the survey found that smoking – the leading cause of preventable death and disease in the U.S. and worldwide – is at a historic low among U.S. youth, at just 1.4%. By contrast, in 1997 – when smoking rates in U.S. youth were the highest ever recorded, 36% of U.S. high school students reported currently smoking, and 70% reported having tried smoking at least once.
Meanwhile, the use of nicotine vapes, or e-cigarettes, fell to 5.2% in 2025, the lowest it’s been since its peak in 2019.
On the other hand, young people’s use of nicotine pouches – small pouches that are placed between the lip and gum and are available in different flavors and strengths – has risen over the past five years. The new survey shows that this rate is now stable compared with the previous year and remains relatively low at 1.7%.
We are public health researchers who study the use of tobacco products. We delved into this survey to see what it tells us about tobacco use in the U.S. more broadly and how use among young people in the U.S. stacks up against their peers in other countries.
New products on the market
With the introduction of nicotine vapes in the early 2010s and, more recently, nicotine pouches in the mid-2010s, the tobacco and nicotine market has been in flux. This is........