Smoking rates among high schoolers have declined precipitously since the mid-1990s, thanks in large part to widespread, effective public health campaigns advocating against tobacco use. Despite this progress, millions of high school students continue to smoke. Smoking causes a number of diseases and adverse health effects such as cancer, heart disease, stroke, and diabetes, and increases the risk of tuberculosis, certain eye diseases, and immune system problems.
Evidence has shown that
nearly 9 out of 10 adults who smoke cigarettes daily first tried smoking by the age of 18; working to combat youth smoking could be a pivotal way to reduce smoking as those youth enter adulthood. Ongoing surveillance of high school smoking rates is a critical step in identifying youth populations that are more prone to start smoking and can help inform efforts to end the smoking epidemic in the United States.
Smoking Rates for High School Students by State: Data Source
State Health Compare provides state-level rates of high school students who smoke cigarettes based on findings from the Youth Risk Behavioral Surveillance System (YRBSS).
