49 Vaping Statistics (How Many People Vape?)

Did you know: 1 in 20 Americans vape, and teenage e-cigarette consumption has increased by 1,800% over the last year.

steven zauderer
Steven Zauderer
September 19th, 2023

Key Vaping Statistics & Facts

If you're wondering "how many teens vape" or "how many people vape" you've come to the right place. The statistics below will likely answer your questions.

  1. 1 in 20 Americans vape, and teenage e-cigarette consumption has increased by 1,800% over the last year.
  2. 14.1% (2.14 million) of high school students and 3.3% (380,000) of middle school students reported current e-cigarette use.
  3. 11.3% (3.08 million) of middle and high-school students reported current use (in the last 30 days) of any tobacco product.
  4. Around 3.7% (1.0 million) of all students reported currently smoking any combustible tobacco product.
  5. There was an estimated 55 million e-cigarette users worldwide in 2021.
  6. Global vaping sales reached $15.7 billion in 2018 and they’re expected to reach $40 billion by 2023.
  7. Teenagers that use e-cigarettes are twice as likely to smoke tobacco cigarettes sometime in the future.
  8. 1 in 5 Americans ages 18 to 29 use vape products, compared with 16% of those ages 30 to 64, and fewer than 0.5% among those 65 and older.
  9. Just 15% of U.S. e-cigarette users are non-smokers.
  10. Recent reports list 2,807 cases that involved hospital visits from using vaping and e-cigarettes. This led to a total of 68 people dying from vaping in 2020.
  11. There are almost 5,000 kids less than five years of age that went to a hospital emergency room after being in contact with nicotine from e-cigarettes or vaping.
Year Number of People Vaping
2013 2.6 million
2014 3.7 million
2015 4.2 million
2016 5.3 million
2017 6.2 million
2018 7.3 million
2019 8.5 million
2020 30.55 million
2021 55 million
vaping statistics

How Many Teens Vape?

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

youth e-cigarette use infographic
Source: FDA.gov

Worldwide Vaping Statistics

5. In 2021, 27.6% of high school e-cigarette users and 8.3% of current middle school e-cigarette users reported vaping daily, according to the 2021 National Youth Tobacco Survey.

vaping prevalence

6. The three countries that have the biggest purchases and retailers of vaping products, including the market, are the United States, the United Kingdom, and Japan.

Number Of Vapers By Country

Country Number of Vapers
United States 9 million
United Kingdom 3 million
France 2.4 million
Japan 1.2 million

U.S. Vaping Statistics

7. 1 out of every 20 Americans routinely uses a vaping product, with one in three smokers vaping daily.

8. 8% of Americans have reported vaping every other week.

percentage of americans who vape

9. The state of Oklahoma recorded the highest rate of people that used e-cigarettes in 2017. The other states that ranked close were Louisiana, Nevada, Tennessee, Kentucky, and Ohio.

10. The lowest rate of e-cigarette usage in the United States is in Washington, D.C. Several other states ranked close, which are California, South Dakota, Vermont, and Maryland.

How Popular Is Vaping?

11. Since the year 2018, 9% of Americans aged 18 and older reported that they vaped either regularly or on seldom occasions

12. 27.5% of American high school students regularly use vaping products.

how popular is vaping

13. In a survey conducted in 2019, over five million American high school and middle school students were users of e-cigarettes, consuming them in the previous 30 days.

14. Almost one million young people use e-cigarettes every day, with 1.6. million using them over 20 times monthly, according to the FDA.

Vaping Statistics By Age

Age Number of Vapers
18-24 2.3 Million
25-44 3.2 Million
45-64 1.1 Million
65+ 0.2 Million

15. Exactly 20% of Americans between the ages of 18 and 29 vape, in comparison to 16% of adults between 30 and 64 years old. Less than 0.5% of adults over 65 vapes.

16. Teenagers between 15 and 17 years of age have a 16 times greater chance of vaping than adults between ages 25 and 34.

teenagers are 16 times more likely to vape than adults

17. Between the years 2017 and 2019, the percentage of high schoolers that vaped in the previous month rose. Seniors had the highest increase, from 11% to 25%. Sophomores were between 8% and 20%. For eighth graders, it was 4% to 9%.

Teen Vaping Statistics

18. Teenage use of e-cigarettes increased 1,800% between 2011 and 2019.

teenage use of e-cigarettes increasing

19. 66% of vaping users between ages 15 and 21 are unaware that some companies contain nicotine in their products.

20. 10.5% of middle school-aged students in 2019 admitted to using vapers in the last thirty days.

21. 61% of teenagers who vape partake in it for experimental purposes, with 42% saying they do it primarily for taste. 38% use them for their enjoyment, 29% for their potential intoxication, and 37% for the relief of anxiety.

22. In a study conducted between 2013 and 2014, the research found that the majority of teenagers using e-cigarettes begin with those that are flavored and that flavors were the main reason for continuing their usage.

percent of students who vaped in the past 30 days

23. 84.9% of young people admitted to using flavored e-cigarettes in 2022. For any high school and middle school students using flavored e-cigarettes in the same year, the most popular flavors are fruit, listed at 69. Desserts and candy, along with additional sweets, were liked by 38% of them. Mint was gauged at 29% of the users, and menthol at 26%.

24. In early January 2020, The US Food and Drug Administration, or the FDA, finished the creation of a policy that makes cartridge e-cigarettes that are pre-filled limited to only tobacco and menthol flavors. For other flavors to be included, they must be permitted by the FDA. Since then, the FDA has worked on more policies to stop companies from retaining e-cigarettes that would attract younger smokers.

25. In 2021, 76% of students saw some form of advertising related to the use of cigarettes and other tobacco products. 74% of students that used social media read or listened to content on the topic of smoking tobacco, including the use of e-cigarettes. These are shown to heavily influence and entice young people to try out tobacco products of different varieties.

26. 75% of young people use e-cigarettes due to their being curious about the products and how they work.

how students who used e-cigarettes get them

27. 11.7% of high schoolers in 2017 used e-cigarettes in the last month. Two years later, in 2018, this increased to 21%. By 2019, 27.5 high schoolers tried e-cigarettes in the last thirty days. But in 2020, the amount decreased slightly to 19.6%.

28. The use of e-cigarettes rose among middle school students between 2011 and 2019, from 0.6% to 10.5%. However, the rate saw a drop in 2020 to 4.7%.

29. Studies show that 18% of students between grades 8 and 12 vaped in the last four weeks. This did change much from the previous year in 2019, which was reported at 18.1%.

30. The percentage of young people in the 8th, 10th, and 12th grades saw their vaping use lower from 15.8% in 2019 to 10.4% in 2020. It was twice that between 2017 and 2019, showing 7.5% and 16.5% for the youngest.

31. Sophomores were lower, with 15.8% to 30%. Seniors were higher than sophomores, showing 18.8% and 35.3%. The number of teens that used a vape in the last year from 2020 didn't change much either. It was 16.6% in 8th grade, 30% for sophomores, and 34% for seniors.

32. E-cigarette consumption among adults between 18 and 24 was 9.3%. 56% of them said that they never used cigarettes before.

E-cigarettes became the second most used nicotine product in 2019, with 4.5% of American adults consuming them. That's approximately 11 million people.

The Cost Of Vaping

33. The number of cases where people were hospitalized for lung problems related to vaping was 2,807 in 2020, the same year that 68 deaths occurred from the products.

34. Approximately 5,000 kids that are younger than five years old went to a hospital for e-liquids between 2013 and 2017.

35. Researchers studying mice learned that 22% of them came down with adenocarcinoma after inhaling the smoke from e-cigarettes.

36. Two-thirds of people in the US believe that vaping is healthier than smoking.

Why Do People Vape?

Reason Description
To Quit Smoking Many people use vaping to help them quit or reduce their smoking habits.
For Enjoyment Vaping is fun, and many people enjoy it as a hobby.
To Be Discreet Vaping does not produce as much smoke or odor as traditional cigarettes, making it more discreet.
For Health Reasons Vaping can be a healthier alternative to smoking, as it does not contain the same toxic chemicals.

People primarily vape for the appeal of the flavors, and to beat tobacco addictions, as vaping is typically considered a safe alternative.

Vaping became popular with people who smoked cigarettes, which is still the case today. Smoking would purchase vaping products or e-cigarettes, thinking that the chemicals being inhaled were mostly water vapor.

However, this isn't completely true, as recent statistics show. Smokers also liked the taste and scent of the products over cigarettes, which have increasingly become restricted from being used in public throughout the world.

Over a short period, vaping has become increasingly popular among teenagers.

Today, the average person that uses vaping products is no longer young adults, but rather teenagers.

The primary ages for this are between 15 and 19 years, mainly consisting of students in high school or who have just recently graduated. Young people use e-cigarettes and vapes with their friends during and after school.

Overall, it's clear that the purposes of using vaping have changed. In the past, vaping centered around older people, though the increasing use of different flavors plays a factor in the age drop. They were more difficult to obtain in years past as well.

Currently, many vaping goods are purchased online, but smaller vapes are easy to find in some convenience stores, though not in all localities. 

Regardless, teens acquire them, sometimes from adults in regions where it's more difficult for them to buy on their own. Another reason for higher teen usage relates to the way vapes are manufactured, with all varieties of sizes, shapes, and colors made for people to try out.

60.9% of teens vape to see what the experience is like. Most teen vapers do it casually, though the habit-forming nicotine can push them into a habit very quickly. Some vapers are shown to mistakenly believe that some of the vapes they use have no nicotine content in them.

41. 41.% 7% of teens continue to vape for the taste and flavor of the brands.

42. 37.9% of teenagers vape with friends as a social stimulator.

43. 37.4% of students admit to vaping for relaxation purposes.

44. 29% of young people do it to make themselves feel intoxicated.

45. Some teens vape out of boredom, listed as 28.7%.

46. 8.1% of teens partake in vaping as an admitted addiction to the nicotine that it contains.

47. 6.1% of teenagers use vapes as a way to wane themselves of tobacco addiction.

References

  1. https://news.gallup.com/poll/267413/percentage-americans-vape.aspx
  2. https://www.fda.gov/tobacco-products/youth-and-tobacco/results-annual-national-youth-tobacco-survey
  3. https://www.doverecovery.com/blog/vaping-statistics
  4. https://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/basic_information/e-cigarettes/Quick-Facts-on-the-Risks-of-E-cigarettes-for-Kids-Teens-and-Young-Adults.html
  5. https://truthinitiative.org/research-resources/emerging-tobacco-products/e-cigarettes-facts-stats-and-regulations
  6. https://www.niagararecovery.com/blog/vaping-statistics
  7. https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/wellness-and-prevention/5-truths-you-need-to-know-about-vaping
steven zauderer

CEO of CrossRiverTherapy - a national ABA therapy company based in the USA.

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