Table 4.

Cigarette Use Among United States Adolescents by High School Grade, 1991 vs 2021

		Cigarette Use by Year, % (95% CI)a
Cigarette Usage Category	High School Grade	1991	2021
Ever	9	64.8 (61.6-67.9)	13.9 (11.6-16.6)
	10	68.3 (64.8-71.6)	16.4 (13.9-19.2)
	11	72.8 (69.3-76.0)	18.3 (16.1-20.7)
	12	74.5 (71.2-77.6)	22.7 (19.7-26.0)
	Overall	70.1 (67.8-72.3)	17.8 (15.9-19.9)
Occasional	9	23.2 (19.5-27.4)	2.2 (1.6-3.0)
	10	25.2 (22.5-28.1)	3.8 (3.0-4.8)
	11	31.6 (27.8-35.7)	4.1 (3.4-5.0)
	12	30.1 (25.7-34.8)	5.2 (4.4-6.2)
	Overall	27.5 (24.8-30.3)	3.8 (3.3-4.4)
Frequent	9	8.4 (6.2-11.3)	0.4 (0.2-0.8)
	10	11.3 (9.0-14.1)	0.6 (0.3-1.3)
	11	15.6 (12.9-18.8)	0.8 (0.4-1.4)
	12	15.6 (12.4-19.4)	1.0 (0.7-1.5)
	Overall	12.7 (10.6-15.3)	0.7 (0.6-1.0)
Daily	9	6.4 (4.6-8.7)	0.3 (0.1-0.7)
	10	8.8 (6.5-11.8)	0.4 (0.2-0.9)
	11	12.2 (9.7-15.2)	0.6 (0.3-1.0)
	12	12.2 (9.7-15.2)	0.9 (0.6-1.3)
	Overall	9.8 (7.8-12.2)	0.6 (0.4-0.8)

^aStatistically significant differences (P<0.05) were observed in cigarette use between 1991 and 2021 across all high school grades.

Note: Ever is defined as taking even 1 or 2 puffs; occasional is defined as smoking on at least 1 day during the 30 days before completing the Youth Risk Behavior Survey; frequent is defined as smoking on 20 or more days during the 30 days before the survey; and daily is defined as smoking on all 30 days during the 30 days before the survey.