Monitoring a Changing Tobacco Product Market in the United States

Urgent Action Needed to Protect Kids from Flavored Tobacco

Monitoring a Changing Tobacco Product Market in the United States is the second annual review of nicotine market trends from the Monitoring Tobacco Product Use project. The report analyzes retail data on nicotine products sold from January 2019 to December 2024 and results from the Tobacco Epidemic Evaluation Network (TEEN+) Study, a nationally representative survey of youth and young adults aged 13-24. 

Executive summary

While youth e-cigarette use has declined from its peak in 2019—when over 5 million young people used e-cigarettes—youth and young adult tobacco product use, which drives nicotine addiction, remains a serious concern. Young people have access to bigger and cheaper e-cigarettes and are using them with alarming frequency, showing signs of addiction. Additionally, the introduction of nicotine pouches, the most rapidly expanding tobacco or nicotine product category, provides a new avenue for youth uptake of flavored nicotine.

Retail sales data show that, due to increases in product size and nicotine concentration, the total amount of nicotine sold in e-cigarettes surged by 249.2% between February 2020 and June 2024. This increase in nicotine sales has been observed even as sales of e-cigarette devices have declined. Flavored, disposable products continue to account for the majority of sales. In a market where most e-cigarette products offered for sale are illegal and do not have U.S. Food and Drug Administration authorization, the proliferation of flavored, high-nicotine products—combined with low prices and new “smart” features such as screens, games and apps—threatens to undo progress to curb nicotine addiction among young people. 

This report uses retail scanner data on e-cigarettes and nicotine pouches sold from January 2019 through December 2024 at brick-and-mortar retailers like convenience stores, gas stations, mass merchandisers, dollar stores and military commissaries. It also uses behavioral data from the Tobacco Epidemic Evaluation Network (TEEN+) Study, a nationally representative, address-based, longitudinal cohort of youth and young adults. Specifically, this report includes data from TEEN+ Wave 5, fielded from August to December 2024. This report additionally describes the impact of state and local flavored tobacco restrictions, including a case study on California’s law, covering implementation, enforcement and the early success of the statewide law.

Specifically, this report finds that:

• Disposable e-cigarettes deliver more nicotine at cheaper prices: Disposable e-cigarettes continue to grow bigger and cheaper, offering more nicotine at a lower price per milligram, making them more accessible to price-sensitive youth. The average e-liquid volume for disposable devices increased 613.9% between February 2020 and June 2024, and the price per milligram of nicotine in disposable devices was 27% of the price per milligram of nicotine in prefilled devices in June 2024.
• Disposable e-cigarettes continue to be top sellers: As of December 2024, 93.4% of the 7,051 e-cigarette products available on the market were disposable e-cigarettes. Disposable e-cigarette sales surged following the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) February 2020 enforcement policy, which restricted the sale of flavored (except menthol) cartridge-based e-cigarettes and allowed for the continued sale of disposable e-cigarettes of any flavor. Between February 2020 and December 2024, disposable e-cigarette sales increased by 206.0% (4.1 million units to 12.5 million units) with their unit share increasing to 60.4% of total e-cigarette sales.
• Flavored e-cigarettes continue to drive e-cigarette sales and youth use: 97.7% of youth (ages 13–17) and 95.5% of young adults (ages 18–27) who used e-cigarettes in the past 30 days reported using a flavored e-cigarette. Similar to previous years, the majority (81.4%) of e-cigarettes sold in 2024 were flavored to taste like something other than tobacco.
• Most e-cigarette products on the U.S. market are illegal and do not have FDA authorization: To date, the FDA has authorized the sale of 39 e-cigarettes, all of which are tobacco- or menthol-flavored. All other e-cigarettes offered for sale in the U.S.—most of which are fruit, sweet and mint flavors—are being sold illegally.
• Young people are using e-cigarettes with alarming frequency: About half of young adults (51.1%) and 39.6% of youth who used e-cigarettes in the past 30 days used them frequently—on 20 or more days. Nearly one-quarter (24.0%) of youth and nearly one-third (30.9%) of young adults who reported past-month e-cigarette use indicated that on the days they used e-cigarettes, they picked up their devices to use them more than 20 times.
• High-tech “smart” vapes pose new risks to young people: Several top e-cigarette brands are selling “smart” vapes, a growing category of unauthorized e-cigarettes that appeal to young people. From August to December 2024, nearly one-third of youth (32.3%) and young adults (32.6%) who currently used e-cigarettes reported that they used a “smart” vape in the past 30 days.
• Nicotine pouches offer a new source of flavored nicotine: From January 2023 to December 2024, total nicotine pouch dollar sales nearly tripled from $145.5 million to $404.1 million. The top-selling nicotine pouches are flavored, with mint leading the way, accounting for 60.9% of nicotine pouch sales by December 2024.5 Current (past 30-day) use of nicotine pouches increased from 1.4% among high school students in 2022 to 2.4% in 2024.
• Flavored tobacco sales restrictions reduce tobacco product access and use: The U.S. Surgeon General’s report on reducing tobacco-related death and disease explicitly recommends sales restrictions as a tool to reduce youth tobacco use and tobacco use disparities. Despite established research that these policies work, only 27.2% of the U.S. population is covered by a flavored tobacco sales restriction. 

These findings make it clear that ongoing federal regulation is needed to eliminate illegal e-cigarette products, as well as all flavored nicotine products, from the market. In the meantime, states, localities and tribal nations should continue their efforts to educate people about the public health concerns associated with flavored tobacco products. Jurisdictions with the capacity should continue their efforts to prohibit the sale of all flavored tobacco products, educate retailers and implement strong enforcement policies, learning lessons from states who have successfully paved the way.