Tobacco & Vaping 101: Rhode Island

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 Rhode Island. This information aslo includes data on youth use, impacts of e-cigarettes and analyses of existing tobacco monies.

Key Points: 

• In 2021, 12.4 percent of adults were currently smoking in Rhode Island. This an 8.1 percent decrease from 2020.
• In 2021 (among all Rhode Island adults), 7.7 percent of 18- to 24-year-olds, 14.8 percent of 25–44-year-olds, 15.8 percent of 45–64-year-olds, and seven percent of adults aged 65 years or older were currently smoking combustible cigarettes.
• Among all adults earning $25,000 or less in 2021, 19.1 percent were currently smoking compared to only 9.9 percent of adults earning $50,000 or more.
• Among all smoking adults in 2021 in Rhode Island, 82.1 percent were White, 14.2 percent were Hispanic and 3.7 percent were Black.
• Cigarette excise taxes in Rhode Island disproportionately impact low income, low education persons, while failing to significantly reduce smoking rates among that class.
• The percentage of American adults earning $25,000 or less that were smoking decreased by 5.1 percent between 2009 and 2021, while the percentage of adults earning $50,000 or more who were smoking decreased by 29 percent during the same period.
• Among American who did not graduate high school, smoking rates decreased by 5.2 percent, while rates among adults with a college degree decreased by 33.3 percent.
• In 2021, 6.2 percent of Rhode Island adults reported past-month e-cigarette use, which was a 26.5 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, young adult smoking rates declined by 3.8 percent. Since 2018, young adult smoking rates have decreased another 43.5 percent, with average annual declines of 13.8 percent.
• Rhode Island 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 less than $0.01 on tobacco control efforts.