Smoking

Tobacco products encompass a wide range of products, including cigarettes, smokeless tobacco, electronic cigarettes or vapes, cigars, hookahs, and pipe tobacco. Smoking tobacco is the leading cause of preventable death and disease in the United States. More than 16 million Americans live with a disease caused by smoking. Secondhand smoke is also dangerous and can cause health problems for the people around you. E-cigarettes, or vapes, are the most commonly used tobacco products among youth in the U.S. "Most e-cigarettes contain nicotine, which is highly addictive. Nicotine can harm the parts of an adolescent's brain that control attention, learning, mood, and impulse control."

This page provides data points and curated searches from OMH’s Knowledge Center library catalog related to smoking in minority and tribal populations in the United States and its territories. The number of catalog records for each topic reflect the search results at the time of this page’s latest update.

For the latest information on substance use among Americans, please see Key Substance Use and Mental Health Indicators in the United States: Results from the 2024 National Survey on Drug Use and Health.

American Indian/Alaska Native

According to SAMHSA’s 2023 National Survey on Drug Use and Health data, in 2023, the percentage of people aged 12 or older who used tobacco products or vaped nicotine in the past month was higher among American Indian or Alaska Native people (34.0%) than among people of other races or ethnicities.1

Asian American

According to SAMHSA’s 2023 National Survey on Drug Use and Health data, the number of people aged 12 or older who used tobacco products or vaped nicotine in the past month was lowest among Asian people (10.3%) compared with people in other racial or ethnic groups.2

Black/African American

According to SAMHSA’s 2023 National Survey on Drug Use and Health data, among current nicotine product users aged 12 or older in 2023, Black/African Americans were more likely to have used only tobacco products in the past month (69.9%) compared with people in other racial or ethnic groups.3

Hispanic/Latino

According to SAMHSA’s 2023 National Survey on Drug Use and Health data, among Hispanic people aged 12 or older in 2023, the percentage of people who were past month cigarette smokers was 10.9%.4

Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander

The CDC reports that in 2024, 17.8% of Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander middle and high school students reported ever using any tobacco product, compared to 9.3% of Asian middle and high school students.5

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1 Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. (2024). Key substance use and mental health indicators in the United States: Results from the 2023 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (HHS Publication No. PEP24-07-021, NSDUH Series H-59). Center for Behavioral Health Statistics and Quality, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. https://www.samhsa.gov/data/report/2023-nsduh-annual-national-report (Back to footnote)

2 Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. (2024). Key substance use and mental health indicators in the United States: Results from the 2023 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (HHS Publication No. PEP24-07-021, NSDUH Series H-59). Center for Behavioral Health Statistics and Quality, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. https://www.samhsa.gov/data/report/2023-nsduh-annual-national-report (Back to footnote)

3 Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. (2024). Key substance use and mental health indicators in the United States: Results from the 2023 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (HHS Publication No. PEP24-07-021, NSDUH Series H-59). Center for Behavioral Health Statistics and Quality, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. https://www.samhsa.gov/data/report/2023-nsduh-annual-national-report (Back to footnote)

4 Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. (2024). Key substance use and mental health indicators in the United States: Results from the 2023 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (HHS Publication No. PEP24-07-021, NSDUH Series H-59). Center for Behavioral Health Statistics and Quality, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. https://www.samhsa.gov/data/report/2023-nsduh-annual-national-report (Back to footnote)

5 CDC. (2024). Asian, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander People experience a health burden from commercial tobacco. Retrieved September 23, 2025, from https://www.cdc.gov/tobacco-health-equity/collection/anhpi-health-burden.html (Back to footnote)