Cigarette Smoking and Use of Other Commercial Tobacco and Nicotine Products

Cigarette Smoking in 2021

Most adults (58%) have never been regular smokers. That is, they have not smoked at least 100 cigarettes in their lifetime. Adult Tobacco Survey (ATS) responses were divided into four key categories of smoking status, described in Table 3. Most adults (84%) were not current smokers; 16% of adults were current smokers. About one quarter (26%) of adults were former smokers, and about one third (32%) were experimental smokers. About one quarter (26%) of all adults had never tried smoking (Figure 7).

 

Cigarette Use Over Time

On December 20, 2019, President Trump signed a bipartisan bill that raised the minimum legal sales age for all commercial tobacco/nicotine products in the U.S. (including ENDS) to 21 (Carlisle, 2020). On March 13, 2020, Governor Gordon signed a similar law specific to Wyoming (Angell, 2020). These changes in laws did not affect most of the ATS respondents.

Cigarette smoking has become less common since a recent peak of 21% in 2006. Since then, the smoking rate has dropped significantly to 16% in 2021. The three-percentage-point difference between the 2019 and 2021 smoking rates was not significant (Figure 8).

Other Commercial Tobacco and Nicotine Products (Including ENDS)

Cigarettes, ENDS, and chewing tobacco were the most commonly used commercial tobacco/nicotine products. Cigarettes remained the preferred tobacco/nicotine product (Figure 9).

Use of non-cigarette commercial tobacco/nicotine products has remained consistent since 2010. The use of ENDS and chewing tobacco was about the same in 2021 as in 2019, but slight changes in the percentages made ENDS use rise from third to second most popular. Chewing tobacco dropped from second to third most popular.

Conclusions

The adult smoking rate has decreased significantly since its recent peak in 2006. However, since 2010, use of all commercial tobacco/nicotine products has remained fairly consistent.

Cigarettes, ENDS, and chewing tobacco were the three most popular commercial tobacco/nicotine products for adults. ENDS are a subject of concern for youth and young adults because of national trends showing increased use (Gentzke et al., 2022) and the potential for them to lead to cigarette smoking (Berry et al., 2019; Hair et al., 2021). Their relative popularity is also increasing.