E-cigarettes and Vaping: Data and Statistics

Tobacco Use and Asthma

One in five Minnesota teens (grades 6-12) have asthma, a serious chronic disease that can make it difficult to breathe. Minnesota youth who have asthma are more likely than their peers to smoke or vape, and people who have asthma who smoke or vape are likely to experience worsening symptoms and require medical treatment.

Minnesota’s middle school and high school students who have asthma who vaped or smoked in the past 30 days reported experiencing more frequent symptoms of asthma than students who did not have asthma who had not vaped or smoked.

Download this Brief: Tobacco Use and Asthma (PDF)

Smoking and Vaping around Youth who have Asthma

The CDC advises people who have asthma to avoid tobacco smoke, yet Minnesota teens who have asthma are more likely to breathe someone else’s tobacco smoke or e-cigarette aerosol than teens who do not have asthma. Minnesota’s teens who have asthma are less likely to be protected by rules against smoking in the family’s homes or vehicles.  

Download this Brief: Smoking and Vaping around Youth who have Asthma (PDF)

Teen Tobacco Use in Rural Minnesota

Rural teens start earlier, use more often, use smokeless

The tobacco use landscape in the United States and Minnesota is evolving. E-cigarettes are rapidly increasing in popularity, especially among youth. However, products like cigarettes and smokeless tobacco continue to have a stronger hold in rural areas due to decades of targeted marketing by the tobacco industry, which integrated tobacco use into rural culture.

Tobacco products contain nicotine, which is highly addictive and can harm brain development as teens grow. Rural youth are at higher risk for harm, because they tend to begin using tobacco products at a younger age and use tobacco products more frequently.

This data brief dives deeper into rural youth tobacco use in Minnesota.

Download this brief: Teen Tobacco Use in Rural Minnesota (PDF)

Which Minnesota Teens Try Vaping?

One in four middle school and high school students in Minnesota had tried e-cigarettes (teens call it vaping or juuling). Half of high school seniors reported having tried e-cigarettes at least once. The growing popularity of e-cigarettes among Minnesota’s youth caused the first rise in overall tobacco use in over two decades.

So, which teens try e-cigarettes? This data brief demonstrates that teens whose environments put them at risk for use of e-cigarettes are more likely to try them.

Download this brief: Which Teens Try Vaping? (PDF)

Teen Vaping Initiation in Minnesota

Minnesota teens are using e-cigarettes and vapes at alarming rates, exposing themselves to the harms of nicotine and risking addiction. In this data brief we use the 2017 MYTS to report e-cigarette initiation prevalence, which teens are trying e-cigarettes, and why initiation is a problem.

Download this brief: Teen Vaping Initiation in Minnesota (PDF)

E-Cigarette Use

• One in four (26.4%) 11th graders report current use of e-cigarettes, up from 17.1% in 2016 (54% increase)
• 8th and 9th graders reported even larger increases from 2016 to 2019:
  • 8th grade: from 5.7% to 11.3% (98% increase)
  • 9th grade: from 9.3% to 16.3% (75% increase)

Source: Minnesota Student Survey, 2019

E-cigarettes and Recreational Marijuana Use

• 34.7% of high school students and 15.8% of middle school students who currently use e-cigarettes have used an e-cigarette for recreational marijuana, THC or hash oil, or THC wax at least once in their lifetime.

Source: Minnesota Youth Tobacco Survey, 2017

E-cigarette Advertising

• 88.4% of students had seen ads promoting e-cigarettes in the past 30 days, down slightly from 90.1 percent in 2014.
  • 50.9% had seen ads in convenience stores and other stores in the past 30 days, up from 47.5 percent in 2014.
  • 39.6% of students had seen ads on the internet, 38.6% on TV, 18.6% in magazines, 14.5% on billboards, and 6.8% had heard ads on the radio.
  • 29.9% of high school students who encountered ads in 5 or more locations in the past 30 days were current e-cigarette users.

Source: Minnesota Youth Tobacco Survey, 2017

Youth Access

• 72.3% of 11th grade e-cigarette users get e-cigarettes from their friends
  • 14.0% purchased it from a vape shop
  • 9.6% purchased it from the internet

Source: Minnesota Student Survey, 2019

E-cigarette Use

• Overall e-cigarette use (used at least once in the past 30 days) among has not increased significantly since 2014 (5.9% in 2014 compared to 6.0% in 2018).
• 44.0% of e-cigarette users report they have never smoked cigarettes, up from 22.5% in 2014.
• Most adult e-cigarette users use flavored (80.2%).
• The percent of adult e-cigarette users of all ages who are also current smokers declined significantly, from 65.8% in 2014 to 37.0% in 2018.

Among 18-24 year olds

• E-cigarette use nearly doubled from 2014 (12.8%) to 2018 (21.9%) and exceeds cigarette use for this age group.
• Most e-cigarette users (3 in 4) never smoked, an almost 150% increase since 2014 (72.6% in 2018 from 30.4% in 2014.)
• Almost all of e-cigarette users (96.7%) report their usual e-cigarette is flavored.

Source: Minnesota Adult Tobacco Survey, 2018