Is Gen Z Actually Smoking More? An Investigation

Like a unreality of second-hand smoke, there’s a lingering vibe that Generation Z is getting into cigarettes.

Images of Gen Z icons specified arsenic Rosalía aliases Charli XCX lighting up (or moreover nan erstwhile presenting nan different pinch a cigaret bouquet) and anecdotes of nihilistic teens vaping abound. But if Gen Zers are smoking much (big “if”), past why are they doing it? Don’t they cognize it’s bad for them? (They do—but that’s not nan point.)

What surely seems to beryllium existent is that, aft years of diminution successful movies and TV, images of smoking person crept up successful caller years, says Dan Romer, who researches risky societal behaviour among adolescents astatine nan University of Pennsylvania. Of nan apical 152 movies astatine nan container agency released successful 2024, baccy imagery was coming successful 77—up from 58 retired of 141 nan twelvemonth before, according to nan antinicotine group Truth Initiative. Smoking was coming successful immoderate shape successful 34 percent of movies pinch G, PG aliases PG-13 ratings, nan group found. That’s a stark reversal, Romer says.

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Interestingly, smokers successful movies and TV shows coming look to reflector smokers connected screens gone by. They “tend to beryllium benignant of antisocial rebels,” Romer says. “Hollywood is not afraid, it seems, of showing group smoking, particularly if it fits their characters.”

The inclination isn’t confined to accepted media, of course. Instagram, TikTok and Twitch influencers are besides progressively lighting up cigarettes.

That’s contempt galore societal media sites having policies against promoting tobacco—but that typically extends only to paid posts. TikTok, for example, does not allow “trading, marketing, aliases providing access” to baccy products. Instagram won’t needfully prohibition aliases ace down connected an mean personification posting photos of themselves smoking, but it has rules against users getting paid to beforehand baccy products.

As a result, members of Gen Z apt spot much contented that makes smoking look cool. One Instagram relationship dedicated to “cigfluencers” features photos of celebrities specified arsenic Supergirl prima Milly Alcock, The Batman star Robert Pattinson and Heated Rivalry lead Connor Storrie lighting up. It has much than 100,000 followers. On Pinterest, searches for nan word “smoking pose” roseate 70 percent twelvemonth complete twelvemonth among American 18- to 24-year-olds, according to manner information patient Style Analytics.

Melissa Little, an subordinate professor of nationalist wellness sciences astatine nan University of Virginia, says kids mightiness beryllium aiming for “the thought of nan full Lana Del Rey vibe” and besides cites Sabrina Carpenter arsenic a imaginable influence.

“I consciousness for illustration they person this glamorizing smoking coquette esthetic,” she says.

Vibe aliases not, nan information aren’t keeping up. The astir caller Centers for Disease Control and Prevention figures search smoking successful young adults betwixt nan ages of 18 and 24 day to 2022—then astir 5 percent of that group reported smoking cigarettes. That suggested elder Gen Zers were nan slightest apt adults to fume successful nan U.S. Younger Gen Zers were moreover little apt to fume cigarettes, according to a 2024 CDC survey—only 1 successful 91 said they had smoked a cigaret successful nan past 30 days.

“The nationalist information presently is showing that that levels among nan younger property group either proceed to beryllium unchangeable aliases are declining,” says Sherry McKee, head of nan Yale Behavioral Pharmacology Laboratory. “But what you don’t cognize is whether this imagery is slowing down aliases starting to reverse a decline.”

Researchers, meanwhile, are playing drawback up.

“I really told my team, ‘Guys, we gotta get connected this,’” Little says. “‘We gotta fig retired why Gen Z is smoking, because I’m getting asked this, and I request my ain information to backmost it up.’”

There are early signs of an uptick. A 2025 Truth Initiative survey recovered that nan number of 12th graders—kids aged 17 to 18—who usage immoderate baccy products roseate from 17 percent successful 2024 to 21.8 percent past year. And successful nan 2025 National Survey connected Drug Use and Health, nan percent of group aged 12 aliases older who began smoking cigarettes roseate from 0.4 percent successful 2021 to 0.6 percent successful 2025. Among young adults aged 18 to 25, nan emergence was moreover steeper: 2.2 percent to 3.2 percent.

“I deliberation that’s astir apt nan biggest indicator” that a broader emergence successful baccy usage will soon go evident successful nan data, Little says. “We besides cognize that a batch of nan kids utilizing e-cigarettes are besides utilizing different baccy products, including cigarettes. I deliberation that’s beautiful telling.”

However celebrated smoking is successful general, nan much celebrated it tends to beryllium pinch young people, Romer says. Gen Z is nary different from past generations.

“It’s nan cool factor,” he says. “Back erstwhile I was young, it was cool to smoke, and that persisted. The e-cigarette craze was: nan cool kids were utilizing it. And that’s beautiful overmuch nan story, I think.”

Coolness whitethorn not beryllium nan only facet astatine play pinch Gen Zers, however. They are base nan brunt of nan loneliness epidemic. And fume breaks are often a group activity. McKee notes that galore erstwhile smokers opportunity they miss nan societal relationship of these informal gatherings.

“You’re missing retired connected those societal interactions, truthful smokers do admit that arsenic a perceived loss,” she says. Perhaps Gen Z likewise sees smoking arsenic a chance to connect.

More bleakly, it would make consciousness for Gen Zers to simply attraction little astir their wellness than erstwhile generations. The kids who grew up successful nan aftermath of 9/11 person lived done aggregate economical crises, spent their lives surviving pinch nan knowledge and effects of ambiance change, had to spell done nan COVID pandemic during a formative portion of their lives and are now entering a occupation marketplace that could beryllium permanently disrupted by artificial intelligence. Who could blasted them for a small nihilistic hedonism?

And yet, by and large, nan information we person propose members of this procreation thin to prosecute successful little risky behaviour than their elders: different (old, 2023) CDC survey recovered they are having little sex, some wide and pinch less partners, and are drinking little alcohol.

It’s a unusual paradox, Little acknowledges, and 1 that requires much study to reconcile.

“Gen Z is 1 of nan astir health-focused groups of generations we’ve ever had,” she says. “They attraction astir eating organically and what they put into their bodies, and much of them don’t portion than ever before. Yet they’re consenting to fume a cigarette, and truthful those 2 things are truthful contradictory successful my mind.”