Tobacco & Vaping 101: New Mexico

Lawmakers are often bombarded with misinformation on the products used by adults in their state. This annual analysis provides up-to-date data on the adults who use cigarettes and e-cigarette products in New Mexico. This information aslo includes data on youth use, impacts of e-cigarettes and analyses of existing tobacco monies.

Key Points: 

• In 2021, 13.4 percent of adults were currently smoking in New Mexico. This is a 7.6 percent decrease from 2020.
• In 2021 (among all New Mexico adults), 6.9 percent of 18- to 24-year-olds, 18.5 percent of 25–44-year-olds, 14 percent of 45–64-year-olds, and 9.2 percent of adults aged 65 years or older were currently smoking combustible cigarettes.
• Among all adults earning $25,000 or less in 2021, 22.8 percent were currently smoking compared to only 7.4 percent of adults earning $50,000 or more.
• Among all smoking adults in 2021 in New Mexico, 46.4 percent were Hispanic, 41.5 percent were White, 9.1 percent were American Indian/Alaska Native and three percent were Multiracial, non-Hispanic.
• Cigarette excise taxes in New Mexico disproportionately impact low-income persons, while failing to significantly reduce smoking rates among that class.
• The number of percent of New Mexico adults earning $25,000 or less that were smoking decreased by only one percent between 2019 and 2021, while the percent of adults earning $50,000 or more that were smoking decreased by 28.2 percent during the same period.
• In 2021, 7.3 percent of New Mexico adults reported past-month e-cigarette use, which was a 49 percent increase from 2017.
• Youth vaping seems to have peaked in 2019 when 20 percent of youth reported current e-cigarette use. Between 2019 and 2022, current e-cigarette use declined by 53 percent.
• Traditional tobacco use among youth is at record lows. In 2022, only 1.9 percent of U.S. youth reported current cigar use, 1.6 percent reported current combustible cigarette use, and 1.3 percent reported using smokeless tobacco products.
• The introduction of e-cigarettes has not led to increases in cigarette smoking, but rather, correlates with significant declines in smoking rates among young adults.
• Between 2007 and 2018, smoking rates among New Mexico adults aged 18 to 24 years old declined by 49.2 percent. Since 2018, young adult smoking rates have decreased another 42.5 percent, with average annual declines of 8.9 percent.
• New Mexico woefully underfunds programs to prevent youth use of tobacco and/or vapor products and help adults quit smoking, while simultaneously receiving millions of dollars from the pockets of the adults who smoke. In 2021, for every $1 the state received in tobacco monies, it spent only $0.05 on tobacco control efforts.