E-cigarette sales surge to more than 22 million units per month
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Key takeaways:
- Overall, e-cigarette sales increased by 46.6% during the study period.
- Researchers noted increases in the number of brands and sales of disposable devices and flavors popular among youth.
E-cigarette sales in the United States surged by nearly 47% from 2020 to 2022 to more than 22 million units per month, according to study findings published Thursday in MMWR.
During the study period, there were increases in both the number of brands and in the sales of disposable devices and flavors that are popular among youth, the CDC noted.
In recent years, the FDA has enforced several bans and penalties related to e-cigarettes, although there is other evidence the restrictions have not worked.
“The dramatic spikes in youth e-cigarette use back in 2017 and 2018, primarily driven by JUUL, showed us how quickly e-cigarette sales and use patterns can change,” Deirdre Lawrence Kittner, PhD, MPH, director of CDC’s Office on Smoking and Health, said in a press release. “Retail sales data are key to providing real-time information on the rapidly changing e-cigarette landscape, which is essential to reducing youth tobacco use.”
Overall, e-cigarette monthly unit sales increased by 46.6% from 15.5 million in January 2020 to 22.7 million in December 2022, according to the new study, which analyzed retail data from a U.S. data analytics and market research company.
This study also found that the percentage of prefilled e-cigarettes cartridge sales decreased from 75.2% to 48%, whereas the share of disposable e-cigarettes increased from 24.7% to 51.8%. The number of available brands also increased by nearly half in the same time, from 184 to 269.
Menthol-flavored e-cigarette sales remained stable, and unit shares of tobacco-flavored e-cigarettes decreased from 28.4% to 20.1% and mint-flavored products decreased from 10.1% to 5.9%, respectively. However, the sale of other flavors — including fruit, clove or spice, candy or sweets and chocolate — increased from 29.2% to 41.3%.
“The surge in total e-cigarette sales during 2020-2022 was driven by nontobacco flavored e-cigarette sales, such as menthol, which dominates the prefilled cartridge market, and fruit and candy flavors, which lead the disposable e-cigarette market,” Fatma Romeh Ali, PhD, MA, a health economist at the CDC Foundation and co-author of the study, said in the release. “Data from the 2022 National Youth Tobacco Survey also highlight the popularity of these flavored e-cigarettes among U.S. middle and high school students.”
References:
Ali F, et al. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. 2023;doi:10.15585/mmwr.mm7225a1.
U.S. e-cigarette sales climbed during 2020-2022. https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2023/p0622-ecigarettes-sales.html. Published June 22, 2023. Accessed June 22, 2023.