Global Youth Smoking Trend Survey: Youth Smoking Rate Declines, E-cigarette Use Rate Surpasses Cigarette Use

Global Youth Smoking Trend Survey: Youth Smoking Rate Declines, E-cigarette Use Rate Surpasses Cigarette Use

The Two Supremes sorted out the youth smoking data published by various countries. The data showed that the global youth smoking rate has declined, but the use rate of e-cigarettes has increased significantly, surpassing traditional cigarettes and becoming the main nicotine product used by teenagers.

 

On May 23, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the global tobacco industry monitoring organization "STOP" released a report called "Attracting the Next Generation", hoping to take this opportunity to call on governments to protect teenagers from the tobacco and nicotine industry.

 

In response to the theme of the upcoming World No Tobacco Day (May 31), many governments, health organizations, and monitoring organizations have successively announced the smoking situation of their own teenagers. The Two Supremes comprehensively sorted and analyzed the youth smoking data published by various countries.

 

Here are the details:

 

Global youth smoking trends: Youth smoking rates decline, e-cigarette use rates exceed cigarettes

 

The Health Behavior in School-Age Children (HBSC) study initiated by WHO is the largest campus survey to date. WHO cooperates with the WHO European Regional Office every four years to conduct a survey of 280,000 adolescents aged 11, 13 and 15 from 44 countries around the world. The report aims to clarify the status of adolescent substance use (smoking, e-cigarette use, drinking, drunkenness and marijuana use), gender, age and social inequality.

 

The latest 2021/2022 HBSC survey data shows that about 37 million children aged 13 to 15 use tobacco worldwide. In 2022, the smoking rate of adolescents aged 11 to 15 reached 13%, a decrease of 2% from 4 years ago.

 

Although the smoking rate of adolescents has declined, e-cigarettes and other new tobacco and nicotine products are enthusiastically sought after by young people. In most countries, the use of e-cigarettes has exceeded the use of cigarettes, and the use of e-cigarettes by teenagers even exceeds that of adults.

 

The study shows that the smoking rate of 15-year-old teenagers is 15%, while the e-cigarette use rate is 19.5%. Among them, the use of e-cigarettes by 15-year-old boys has risen to 26%, and the use of e-cigarettes by 15-year-old girls has risen to 40%; the smoking rate of 13-year-old teenagers is 5.5%, and the e-cigarette use rate is 9%; nearly 10% of 11-year-old teenagers said they have used e-cigarettes at least once.

 

Smoking situation of teenagers in various countries

 

The United States: The e-cigarette use rate of girls is only lower than that of adults

 

The Schmidt College of Medicine of Florida Atlantic University (FAU) in the United States released risk behavior survey data on 57,006 teenagers in grades 9 to 12 from 2015 to 2021. According to the survey, the use of e-cigarettes by teenagers in grades 9 to 12 in the United States dropped to 5% in 2021, but it has increased by more than two and a half times since 2015. In 2021, the proportion of girls using e-cigarettes (5.6%) was higher than that of boys (4.5%), an increase of 125% from 2015, while the e-cigarette use rate of girls in 2021 (5.6%) was only slightly lower than the 6% use rate of adults in 2022.

UK: The use of e-cigarettes by young people has tripled in two year

 

Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) in the UK released a survey report on youth smoking conducted from February to March 2024. The report used 13,266 adults aged 18 and above in the UK as adult samples and 2,349 adolescents aged 11 to 17 as adolescent samples. Among them, the number of e-cigarette smokers in the 11-17 age group increased significantly compared with before the epidemic, from 4.4% in 2019 to 7.6% in 2024.

 

In addition, a study by the University of London (UCL) in the UK investigated the e-cigarette and smoking situation of 132,252 British people from July 2016 to May 2023. The study found that from May 2021 to May 2023, the smoking rate of young people aged 18 to 24 in the UK fell from 25% to 21%, the overall nicotine use rate rose from 28% to 35%, and the proportion of e-cigarette use in this age group increased threefold in two years, from 9% to 29%. The researchers concluded that the more obvious the decline in smoking rates in the 18-24 age group, the greater the increase in e-cigarette use, because disposable e-cigarettes are popular in the country.

 

Southeast Asia: The use of e-cigarettes by teenagers is rising

 

According to the Global Youth Tobacco Survey (GYTS) of the World Health Organization (WHO), the use of cigarettes by teenagers aged 13 to 15 in countries such as Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines has declined, while the use of e-cigarettes has continued to rise. In 2022, the e-cigarette use rate among boys in Malaysia was 23.5%, and that among girls was 6.2%. In Thailand, 20.2% of boys and 15% of girls used e-cigarettes, while in the Philippines, 20.9% of boys and 7.5% of girls used e-cigarettes in 2019.

 

The results of the Global Adult Tobacco Survey, released in 2023, show that in the past 12 years, the number of e-cigarette users in Malaysia has increased by 600%, from 0.8% in 2011 to 5.8% in 2023. Among them, the number of e-cigarette users aged 15 to 24 increased from 1.1% in 2011 to 8.6% in 2023.

 

According to the Vietnamese Ministry of Health, the smoking rate of the 13-17 age group dropped from 5.36% in 2013 to 2.78% in 2019, while the smoking rate of the 13-15 age group dropped from 2.5% to 1.9%. The proportion of young people using e-cigarettes and heated tobacco is on the rise: among the 13-17 age group, the e-cigarette use rate increased from 2.6% in 2019 to 8.1% in 2023; among the 13-15 age group, it increased from 3.5% in 2022 to 8% in 2023.

 

Australia: The use rate of the 18-24 age group has surged

 

The latest report of the Australian Institute of Health Research (AIHW) shows that the use rate of e-cigarettes among young people aged 18 to 24 has increased significantly. In two years, the number of young Australians aged 18-24 who use e-cigarettes more than 3,000 times has increased from 18.5% to 36.5%.

 

Switzerland: Snus consumption among Swiss teenagers is on the rise, and the proportion of both men and women has increased

 

Research data released by the Zurich Addiction Research Foundation (Sucht Schweiz) shows that the consumption of snus among Swiss teenagers is also increasing. The proportion of 15-year-old boys who use snus at least once a month doubled from 2018 to 2022, reaching 13%, and the proportion of girls of the same age also increased from 1% to 6%.

 

Germany: The smoking rate of German teenagers has dropped significantly, and the use of disposable e-cigarettes has increased

 

The latest survey data released by the German Federal Center for Health Education (BZgA) pointed out that since 2001, the proportion of German teenagers who smoke has dropped significantly. The number of teenagers aged 12 to 17 who have never smoked has accounted for 83%, while among young people aged 18 to 25, this proportion is 47%; the proportion of male adolescent smokers has dropped from 27.2% in 2001 to 9.3% in 2015, and to 7.2% in 2023; among female smokers aged 12 to 17, the smoking rate has dropped from 27.9% in 2001 to 6.1% in 2016, and stabilized at 6.4% in 2023; the proportion of smokers among people aged 18 to 25 is also decreasing.

 

33.6% of young men and 18.4% of young women are smokers. Regardless of whether they are aged 12 to 17 or 18 to 25, people prefer disposable e-cigarettes. The survey shows that in the past 30 days, about 7% of people aged 12 to 17 and 12% of people aged 18 to 25 have used disposable e-cigarettes.