Tobacco & Vaping 101: Colorado

Current Adult Smoking Rates

According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance Survey (BRFSS), smoking rates continue to decline in the Centennial State.[i]

In 2020, 12.4 percent adults were classified as current smokers, amounting to 565,153 adults.[ii] This is an 8.1 percent decrease from 2019 when 13.5 percent of adults were current smokers. Further, this is a 43.1 percent decrease from 1995 when 21.8 percent of Colorado adults reported smoking and the first year the BRFSS started collecting data on smoking rates.

In 2020, among adults, 8.4 percent reported smoking every day, 3.9 percent reported smoking some days, 26.2 percent reported being a former smoker, and 61.4 percent had never smoked. Daily smoking rates have decreased by 5.6 percent since 2019, and by 53.1 percent since 1995. Moreover, never-smokers increased by 0.7 percent between 2019 and 2020, and by 20.2 percent between 1995 and 2020.

Lower Income Persons More Likely to Smoke

In Colorado, in 2020, among current adult smokers, 26 percent reported annual incomes of less than $15,000 and 21 percent of current smokers reported earning between $15,000 and $24,999 per year. In fact, nearly half (47 percent) of all current adult smokers earned less than $24,999 per year in 2020. Only 8.5 percent of current adult smokers in Colorado reported earning $50,000 or more a year in 2020.

Interestingly, smoking rates have declined more rapidly among higher income persons in the Centennial State than their low-income counterparts. Between 1995 and 2020, smoking rates among current smokers earning $24,999 or less increased by 16.7 percent. Conversely, among persons earning $50,000 or more, smoking rates decreased by 31.5 percent during the same period. In fact, between 2019 and 2020, smoking rates decreased by only 3.5 percent among low-income earners, yet decreased by 13.3 percent among higher income smokers.

Adult Vaping Rates

Despite providing annual data on cigarette and smokeless tobacco use, the CDC’s BRFSS only reports on adult e-cigarette use for 2016 and 2017.

In 2017, according to the BRFSS, 5.3 percent of Colorado adults were current e-cigarette users. Similar to income status among smokers, lower income persons are more likely to use vapor products. In 2017, among current adult e-cigarette users, 16.2 percent reported household incomes of $24,999 or less per year. Conversely, only 4.1 percent reported earning $50,000 a year or more.

Economic Impact of Vaping in Colorado

In 2021, according to the analysis by the Vapor Technology Association, the industry created 1,125 direct vaping-related jobs in Colorado. These jobs generated more than $48.4 million in wages.[iii] Moreover, the industry has created hundreds of secondary jobs in the Centennial State, bringing the total economic impact in 2021 to $366.7 million. In the same year, Colorado received more than $23 million in state taxes attributable to the vaping industry.

Unfortunately, efforts by anti-vaping organizations and policymakers have negatively impacted vape shops in the Centennial State. The number of employees in the vaping industry has decreased by 13.7 percent from 1,303 in 2018 to 1,125 in 2021, representing a loss of $11.6 million in wages.[iv] Further, state tax collections in 2020 were down 10.8 percent from 2018’s level of $25.8 million. Overall, the economic output from the vaping industry in Colorado was reduced from $413 million in 2018 to $366.7 million in 2021, a 11.2 percent decrease.

Youth Tobacco and Vaping Rates

The most recent data on youth tobacco and vapor product use in Colorado comes from the 2019 Youth Risk Behavior Survey.[v] In 2019, 50.3 percent of Coloradan high school students reported ever-trying e-cigarettes, 28.9 percent reported past 30-day use, and 7.1 percent reported using vapor products daily.

It is worthy to note that youth combustible cigarette use is at an all-time low. In 2019, 5.3 percent of Colorado high school students reported using combustible cigarettes in the 30-days prior to the survey. This is a 71.7 percent decrease from 18.7 percent in 2005. Further, daily cigarette use has decrease by 75.6 percent, from 4.5 percent of high school students reporting daily smoking in 2005, to 1.1 percent in 2019.

Moreover, nationally, the youth vaping rate continues to decline. In 2021, according to the National Youth Tobacco Survey (NYTS), an estimated 11.3 percent of high school students and 2.8 percent of middle school students reported having used a vapor product on a least one occasion in the month prior to the survey.[vi] Further, only 3.1 percent of high school students and less than one percent of middle schoolers reported daily e-cigarette use. The rate of decline is remarkable: among high school students, vaping rates have declined by 41.8 percent since 2020 and by 58.9 percent since 2019, when 27.5 percent reported using e-cigarettes.

Young Adult Smoking Rates

Electronic cigarettes and vapor products were first introduced to the U.S. in 2007 “and between 2009 and 2012, retail sales of e-cigarettes expanded to all major markets in the United States.”[vii] Moreover, between September 2014 and May 2020, e-cigarette sales in the U.S. increased by 122.2 percent.[viii]

Examining data from the CDC’s BRFSS finds that e-cigarettes’ market emergence has coincided with a significant reduction in smoking rates among young adults.

In 1998, among current adult smokers, 30.1 percent were 18 to 24 years old. In 2008, this had decreased by 25.9 percent to 22.3 percent of adult smokers in Colorado being between 18 to 24 years old.

In the years after e-cigarette’s market emergence in the early 2010s, smoking rates among current smokers aged 18 to 24 years decreased by 49.4 percent. Indeed, in 2010, among current smokers in Colorado, 15.8 percent were between 18 to 24 years old. In 2020, only eight percent of current smokers were 18 to 24 years old.

Interestingly, e-cigarettes’ market emergence was associated with a larger decline in average annual percent decreases. Between 1998 and 2008, the percentage of current smokers aged 18 to 24 years old decreased on average by 1.2 percent each year. Between 2010 and 2020, annual percentage decreases average at four percent.

Further, since 2016, when the U.S. surgeon general issued an alarm about youth e-cigarette use, smoking rates among adults aged 18 to 24 years in the Centennial State have decreased by 49 percent, with an average annual decrease of 14.4 percent.

Wasted Tobacco Dollars

Between 2000 and 2020, Colorado collected an estimated $2.9 billion in cigarette taxes.[ix] During the same 20-year period, the Centennial State increased the tax rate on cigarettes twice. The last tax increase raised the rate by $0.64, to $0.84 per pack.

The increase did lead to an immediate 79.2 percent increase in cigarette tax revenue the year after the tax was imposed, but this has steadily declined in the long-term. Since 2007 cigarette tax revenue declined on average by 2.7 percent annually. In 2020, Colorado collected $140 million in cigarette tax revenue, a 32.1 percent decrease from the $206.1 million in cigarette tax revenue that was collected in 2006.

In the mid-1990s, Colorado sued tobacco companies to reimburse Medicaid for the costs of treating smoking-related health issues. And, in 1998 with 45 other states, the Centennial State reached “the largest civil litigation settlement in U.S. history” through the Master Settlement Agreement (MSA).[x]

Under the MSA, states receive annual payments – in perpetuity – from the tobacco companies, while relinquishing future claims against the participating companies. Between 2000 and 2020, Colorado collected $1.966 billion in MSA payments.[xi]

Tobacco taxes and tobacco settlement payments are justified to help offset the costs of smoking, as well as prevent youth initiation. Like most states, Colorado spends very little of existing tobacco moneys on tobacco control programs – including education and prevention.

Between 2000 and 2020, Colorado allocated only $403 million in state funds towards tobacco control programs.[xii] This is 13.7 percent of what the state collected in cigarette taxes in the same 20-year time span and 20.5 percent of MSA payments. In total, in 20 years, Colorado allocated only 8.2 percent of what the state received in tobacco taxes and settlement payments towards tobacco education and prevention efforts. In essence, for every $100 received in tobacco-related taxes and settlement payments, the state spent $8.20 funding tobacco control programs.

Summary Points:

• Smoking rates continue to decline in the Centennial State. In 2020, only 12.4 percent of adults were current smokers. This is an 8.1 percent increase from 2019.
• Nearly half (47 percent) of all current smokers earned less than $24,999 per year in 2020.
• Nationally, current vapor product use among high school students has declined by 41.8 percent since 2020 and by 58.9 percent since 2019, when 27.5 percent reported using e-cigarettes on at least one occasion in the 30 days prior to the survey.
• E-cigarettes’ market emergence is associated with low young adult smoking rates. In 2020, among current smokers in Colorado, only 15.8 percent current smokers were 18 to 24 years old – a 49.4 percent decrease from 2010. Further, since 2016, smoking rates among young adults have decreased by 49 percent.
• Colorado’s vaping industry generated $366.7 million in economic activity in 2021 while generating 1,125 direct vaping-related jobs and contributed more than $23 million in state taxes.
• Colorado continues to allocate very little of tobacco-related settlement payments and taxes on tobacco control programs, including education and prevention.
• In 2020, the Centennial State collected $140 million in state cigarette excise taxes and $82.4 million in tobacco settlement payments, yet allocated only $21.4 million (9.6 percent) to tobacco control. In 20 years, for every $100 the state received in tobacco-related payments, it spent $8.20 funding tobacco control programs.

[i] Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “BRFSS Prevalence & Trends Data,” 2020, https://www.cdc.gov/brfss/brfssprevalence/.

[ii] Kids Count Data Center, “Total population by child and adult populations in the United States,” The Annie E. Casey Foundation, September 2021, https://datacenter.kidscount.org/data/tables/99-total-population-by-child-and-adult-populations#detailed/1/any/false/1729,37,871,870,573,869,36,868,867,133/39,40,41/416,417.

[iii] Vapor Technology Association, “The Economic Impact of the Vapor Industry Colorado,” 2021, https://vta.guerrillaeconomics.net/reports/1f672ad0-d7b7-4ed4-86c3-8772037c7a9b?.

[iv] Vapor Technology Association, “The Economic Impact of the Vapor Industry Colorado,” 2018, https://vta.guerrillaeconomics.net/reports/a456da69-1c66-4988-856e-3fe2807c445e?.

[v] Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “High School YRBS 2019 Results,” 2019, https://nccd.cdc.gov/Youthonline/App/Default.aspx.

[vi] Eunice Park-Lee PhD. et al., “Notes from the Field: E-Cigarette Use Among Middle and High School Students – National Youth Tobacco Survey, United States, 2021,” Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, October 1, 2021, https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/70/wr/mm7039a4.htm.

[vii] National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, “E-Cigarette Use Among Youth and Young Adults: A Report of the Surgeon General,” 2016, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK538679/.

[viii] Fatma Romeh M. Ali, PhD., et al., “E-cigarette Unite Sales, by Product and Flavor Type – United States, 2014 – 2020,” Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, September 18, 2020, https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/69/wr/mm6937e2.htm/.

[ix] Orzechowski and Walker, “The Tax Burden on Tobacco Historical Compilation Volume 55,” 2021. Print.

[x] Tobacco Control Legal Consortium, “The Master Settlement Agreement: An Overview,” August 2015, p. 1, http://publichealthlawcenter.org/sites/default/files/resources/tclc-fs-msa-overview-2015.pdf.

[xi] Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, “Actual Annual Tobacco Settlement Payments Received by the States, 1998 – 2021,” January 11, 2022, https://www.tobaccofreekids.org/assets/factsheets/0365.pdf

[xii] Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, “Appendix A: History of Spending for State Tobacco Prevention Programs,” 2021, https://www.tobaccofreekids.org/assets/factsheets/0209.pdf.