Tobacco Use

From 2009 through 2019, current cigarette smoking was more prevalent among adults with lower levels of education than among adults with higher levels of education.

NOTES: HS is high school diploma. APC is annual percent change.
SOURCE: National Center for Health Statistics, National Health Interview Survey. See Sources and Definitions, National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) and Health, United States, 2020–2021 Table SmokEduc.

• From 2009 through 2018, the age-adjusted percentage of adults aged 25 and over who currently smoke cigarettes decreased among adults at each education level.
• From 2009 through 2018, current cigarette smoking was more common among adults aged 25 and over with no high school diploma or GED (23.5% in 2018) and with a high school diploma or GED (22.9% in 2018) than among adults with higher levels of education (17.2% among adults with some college education and 5.8% among adults with a bachelor’s degree or higher in 2018).
• In 2019, the prevalence of current cigarette smoking among adults aged 25 and over was highest among those with no high school diploma or GED (23.9%) and those with a high school diploma or GED (22.0%) and lowest among those with a bachelor’s degree or higher (5.8%).

Among adolescents aged 12–17, cigarette use in the past 30 days was lower in 2019 than in 2009 across all age groups.

SOURCE: Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Center for Behavioral Health Statistics and Quality, National Survey on Drug Use and Health. See Sources and Definitions, National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) and Health, United States, 2020–2021 Table SubUse.

• Between 2009 and 2019, the percentage of adolescents aged 12–13 years who currently smoke cigarettes decreased from 1.4% to 0.5%.
• Between 2009 and 2019, the percentage of adolescents aged 14–15 years who currently smoke cigarettes decreased from 7.6% to 1.8%.
• Between 2009 and 2019, the percentage of adolescents aged 16–17 years who currently smoke cigarettes decreased from 17.1% to 4.6%.
• The prevalence of current cigarette smoking was highest among adolescents aged 16–17 years and lowest among adolescents aged 12–13 years in both 2009 and 2019.

Download the data

• Current cigarette smoking: The National Health Interview Survey defines current cigarette smoking as ever smoking 100 cigarettes in one’s lifetime and smoking now every day or some days. The National Survey on Drug Use and Health defines current cigarette smoking as smoking part, or all, of a cigarette in the past 30 days. Cigarette smoking does not include the use of e-cigarettes. See Sources and Definitions, Tobacco use.
• Education: Education level is defined by the highest level of school a person has completed or the highest degree received. Estimates by level of education are presented for adults aged 25 and over to allow for completion of education. See Sources and Definitions, Education.
• Nicotine vaping: The Monitoring the Future Study defines past 30-day nicotine vaping as ever using use a device such as a JUUL, vape-pen, e-cigarette, e-hookah, or e-vaporizer to inhale an aerosol containing nicotine into the lungs at least once in the past 30 days. See Sources and Definitions, Tobacco use.

1. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The health consequences of smoking—50 years of progress: A report of the Surgeon General. Rockville, MD: Office of the Surgeon General. 2014.
2. U.S. Burden of Disease Collaborators. Mokdad AH, Ballestros K, Echko M, Glenn S, Olsen HE, Mullany E, et al. The state of U.S. health, 1990–2016: Burden of diseases, injuries, and risk factors among U.S. states. JAMA 319(14):1444–72. 2018.