Disposable vape statistics show a market that has expanded sharply even as youth e-cigarette use has declined. In 2024, 1.63 million U.S. middle and high school students reported current e-cigarette use, and 55.6% of current youth users most often used disposable devices. At the same time, disposables represented 58.1% of all e-cigarette unit sales in June 2024.
Contents
- Youth e-cigarette use in 2024
- How common were disposable devices?
- Brands reported by current youth users
- Disposable vape sales and product availability
- Flavors, frequency, and smart-vape use
- Regulation and unauthorized products
Youth e-cigarette use in 2024
The 2024 National Youth Tobacco Survey, reported by the CDC, counted 1,630,000 middle and high school students as current e-cigarette users. Current use was 5.9% overall. The survey measured current use rather than lifetime experimentation, so the figure describes students who reported using e-cigarettes during the survey’s current-use measurement period.
The rate differed by school level. Among high school students, current e-cigarette use was 7.8%, representing 1,210,000 students. Among middle school students, the rate was 3.5%. These figures show a substantial difference between the two age groups while describing the same 2024 survey year.
The CDC also reported a year-over-year decline. High school e-cigarette prevalence fell from 10.0% in 2023 to 7.8% in 2024. Across middle and high school students, current e-cigarette use fell from 7.7% in 2023 to 5.9% in 2024. Current middle and high school tobacco-product use fell from 10.0% to 8.1% over the same period.
Other 2024 youth tobacco indicators moved differently. Hookah use among all students declined from 1.1% in 2023 to 0.7% in 2024. Female students’ current use of any tobacco product declined from 11.2% to 7.7%, while Hispanic students’ use declined from 11.7% to 8.4%. AI/AN students’ current use of any tobacco product rose from 8.0% to 16.3%, and their current e-cigarette use rose from 5.9% to 11.5%.
The FDA described youth current tobacco use in 2024 as reaching its lowest recorded level in the past quarter century. It also reported that current youth e-cigarette use had declined nearly 70% over the previous five years. These are broad trend descriptions from the FDA’s 2024 review and should not be read as a measure of disposable devices alone.
For context, 1.4% of U.S. middle and high school students reported cigarette use in 2024, according to the FDA’s 2024 Year in Review. Cigarette use and e-cigarette use are separate measures.
How common were disposable devices?
Among current youth e-cigarette users in the 2024 CDC survey, 870,000 most often used disposable devices. Disposables accounted for 55.6% of the usual device type among current youth users. The share was higher among high school current users, at 58.7%, and lower among middle school current users, at 47.0%.
Other usual device categories were less common. Prefilled or refillable pods or cartridges accounted for 15.6% of usual device type, while tanks or mod systems accounted for 7.0%. A further 21.8% of current youth vapers did not know which device type they used most often. Because these categories describe usual device type, they should not be treated as a complete product-sales breakdown.
The sales market showed a similar prominence for disposables. CDC sales data put total e-cigarette unit sales at 21.1 million units in June 2024, up from 15.7 million units in February 2020. Disposable e-cigarettes made up 58.1% of June 2024 unit sales, or 12.3 million units. Their unit share rose from 26.0% in February 2020 to 58.1% in June 2024.
The Truth Initiative’s 2024 market report measured the market later in the year and reported a 60.4% disposable unit share by December 2024. It recorded 12.5 million disposable units in December, compared with 4.1 million in February 2020, a reported increase of 206.0%. The June and December figures come from different reporting points and sources, so they are best read as separate snapshots.
| Measure | Result | Period or geography | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Current youth e-cigarette use | 5.9% | U.S. middle and high school students, 2024 | CDC MMWR 2024 NYTS |
| Youth users most often using disposables | 55.6% | U.S. current youth users, 2024 | CDC MMWR 2024 NYTS |
| Disposable unit share | 58.1% | U.S. sales, June 2024 | CDC e-cigarette sales page |
| Disposable unit share | 60.4% | U.S. sales, December 2024 | Truth Initiative 2024 market report |
| Disposable products’ share of products on market | 93.4% | U.S. market, December 2024 | Truth Initiative 2024 market report |
The Truth Initiative also reported that disposable e-cigarette e-liquid volume increased 613.9% between February 2020 and June 2024. In June 2024, the price per milligram of nicotine in disposable devices was 27% of the price per milligram in prefilled devices. That comparison concerns price per nicotine quantity, not total purchase price or product performance.
Brands reported by current youth users
The CDC’s 2024 youth survey recorded brand use among current youth e-cigarette users. Elf Bar was reported by 560,000 current youth vapers, or 36.1% of current youth e-cigarette users. Breeze was reported by 310,000, or 19.9%, and Mr. Fog by 240,000, or 15.8%.
Other reported brands included Vuse at 210,000 users, or 13.7%, and JUUL at 190,000, or 12.6%. Esco Bars was reported by 160,000, or 10.2%, while Fume was reported by 140,000, or 9.1%.
The survey also recorded 120,000 users for SMOK, including NOVO, or 7.7%, and 120,000 for Kangvape, including Onee Stick, or 7.6%. blu was reported by 100,000, or 6.9%, while NJOY was reported by 90,000, or 6.1%, and Geek Bar by 90,000, or 5.8%.
Suorin, including Air Bar, was reported by 80,000 current youth vapers, or 5.2%. HQD was reported by 70,000, or 5.0%, and Logic by 70,000, or 4.9%. Lost Mary was reported by 50,000, or 3.4%.
The CDC dataset also identified the brands current youth users most often used. Elf Bar was the most-often-used brand for 240,000 current youth vapers, equal to 15.9% of current users. Breeze was most often used by 130,000, or 8.7%; JUUL by 50,000, or 3.2%; and Vuse by 40,000, or 3.1%. “Reported brand use” and “brand used most often” are different measures, so their figures should not be combined.
Disposable vape sales and product availability
Total U.S. e-cigarette dollar sales were $488.9 million in June 2024, according to the CDC’s e-cigarette sales page. Of the unit sales that month, 80.6%—17.0 million units—were for non-tobacco flavors. Nearly 6,300 different e-cigarette products were available for purchase in the United States as of June 2024.
The CDC identified the top 10 e-cigarette brands by dollar sales from April through June 2024 as Vuse, JUUL, Geek Bar Pulse, Breeze Smoke, NJOY, RAZ, HQD, Loon Maxx, Breeze Prime, and Juicy Bar. This ranking is based on dollar sales for that three-month period, not on unit sales, youth prevalence, or a full-year ranking.
The Truth Initiative reported that 7,051 e-cigarette products were on the market as of December 2024, and that 93.4% were disposables. The difference between the June CDC product count and the December Truth Initiative count reflects different dates and source methods; it does not establish that every additional product was newly introduced during the interval.
By December 2024, the FDA had authorized the sale of 39 e-cigarettes, all tobacco- or menthol-flavored, according to the Truth Initiative report. This authorization count is distinct from the number of products available for purchase in the market snapshot.
Flavors, frequency, and smart-vape use
Flavor use was widespread among recent youth and young adult e-cigarette users. From the Truth Initiative’s 2024 market report, 97.7% of youth ages 13–17 who used e-cigarettes in the past 30 days used a flavored e-cigarette. Among young adults ages 18–27 who used e-cigarettes in the past 30 days, 95.5% used a flavored e-cigarette.
Across e-cigarettes sold in 2024, 81.4% were flavored to taste like something other than tobacco. The sales measure covers products sold during the year, while the youth and young adult measures cover people who used e-cigarettes in the past 30 days. These percentages therefore describe related but different populations and time frames.
Frequency measures add another dimension. Among young adults who used e-cigarettes in the past 30 days, 51.1% used them frequently, defined in the report as 20 or more days. Among youth past-month users, 39.6% used e-cigarettes on 20 or more days. On the days they vaped, 24.0% of youth past-month users picked up their devices more than 20 times, compared with 30.9% of young adult past-month users.
Smart-vape use was reported by 32.3% of youth current e-cigarette users from August through December 2024. The comparable share among young adult current e-cigarette users was 32.6% over the same period. These figures concern smart-vape use, not disposable use specifically.
Nicotine pouches were also tracked in the 2024 market report. Dollar sales rose from $145.5 million in January 2023 to $404.1 million in December 2024, and mint accounted for 60.9% of nicotine pouch sales by December 2024. Current nicotine pouch use among high school students rose from 1.4% in 2022 to 2.4% in 2024. These are a separate product category from disposable e-cigarettes.
Regulation and unauthorized products
Federal enforcement figures show activity involving unauthorized e-cigarettes in 2024. In June, the FDA and U.S. Customs and Border Protection seized 53,700 unauthorized e-cigarette products valued at more than $1.08 million. The shipment included 179 boxes of unauthorized e-cigarettes.
The FDA’s 2024 Year in Review reported an October seizure of unauthorized e-cigarettes valued at $76 million. It also reported that the FDA and Department of Justice announced a seizure valued at more than $700,000 in April 2024. These are reported seizure values, not estimates of total unauthorized-market sales.
The FDA issued warning letters to more than 50 manufacturers and distributors in 2024 and to more than 430 retailers. It filed 44 civil money penalty complaints against manufacturers and more than 100 against retailers. “More than” figures indicate minimum reported counts rather than exact totals.
By 2024, the FDA had acted on more than 26 million tobacco product applications and had reached 99.5% of higher-market-share e-cigarette products, according to the FDA’s 2024 review. Separately, the Truth Initiative reported that only 27.2% of the U.S. population was covered by a flavored-tobacco sales restriction. The enforcement and coverage figures describe regulatory activity and population coverage, not the safety or air-quality impact of any specific disposable vape.