🚭 Teen Smoking Just Hit a 25-Year Low
Fewer teenagers are lighting up than at any point in a generation.
Fewer Teens Are Smoking Than Ever Recorded
According to the CDC's National Youth Tobacco Survey, cigarette smoking among U.S. middle and high school students fell to its lowest level in 25 years in 2024. It's part of a much longer slide: the teen smoking rate has dropped dramatically from its peak in the late 1990s, when nearly a third of high schoolers smoked.
The decline has held steady even as e-cigarettes rose and fell in popularity, suggesting this is a genuine generational shift, not just one habit replacing another.
If you're picturing today's teenagers the way old smoking-era stereotypes once painted them, it might be time to update the picture. This is one habit an entire generation is genuinely leaving behind.