Smoking Marijuana Is Now More Popular In The U.S. Than Smoking Tobacco Cigarettes, Gallup Polling Data Shows

Americans adults are now more likely to smoke marijuana than tobacco cigarettes.

That’s according to new survey data from Gallup finding that 15 percent of U.S. adults reported that they smoke cannabis, which is more than the 11 percent of who told the polling firm that they have smoked any cigarettes in the past week.

“While not statistically different from the average of 14% in 2021-2022,” Gallup said of the latest two-year average of U.S. marijuana use polling data, the rise to 15 percent is “consistent with the upward trend in recent years.”

Among other findings, the latest data—from 2023 to 2024—indicate that men are more likely than women to report smoking marijuana, at 17 percent compared to 11 percent. Younger adults, ages 18 to 34, were also more likely (19 percent) to smoke cannabis than adults aged 35 to 54 (18 percent) and those 55 and older (10 percent).

Gallup says the results are reported in two-year averages to improve statistical reliability.

By political party identification, reported use rates differed sharply. Among Democrats, 23 percent reported smoking marijuana, more than twice the 10 percent rate reported by Republicans. Independents were in the middle, at 14 percent.

The percentage of U.S. adults who report they smoke marijuana has more than doubled since 2013.

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By geographic region, the West led the country in reported marijuana smoking, at a rate of 19 percent, slightly higher than the East and Midwest (both 16 percent) and notably higher than in the South (11 percent). That may, of course, reflect not only cultural differences but also the varying legal status and availability of marijuana across regions.

Overall, Gallup says that marijuana smoking by U.S. adults as more than doubled since 2013.

While many surveys on cannabis use distinguish between daily, past-month, past-year and lifetime use, the Gallup data comes from a question that asks simply whether “you, yourself, smoke marijuana.” It further does not clarify whether the question is meant to encompass all cannabis use such as vaping or consumption of edibles and THC beverages, or only the combustion of cannabis flower.

Gallup does ask respondents separately about ever trying marijuana, a question introduced in 1969. The latest two-year average shows 47 percent of U.S. adults have tried the substance as least once in their lifetimes.

“Between then and 1977, it jumped 20 percentage points, from 4% to 24%,” the report says of the lifetime figure. “It rose another nine points by 1985, to 33%, but after that stalled at under 40% until 2015, when it ticked up to 44%. It has since increased slightly but remains below 50%.”

Gallup

While self-reported marijuana smoking has been on the rise in Gallup data since 2013, tobacco cigarette use has fallen relatively steadily in recent decades to what’s currently an 80-year low, the organization said.

“When Gallup first asked about cigarette smoking in 1944, 41% of U.S. adults said they smoked,” the cigarette report says. “The current smoking rate is about half as large as it was a decade ago and one-third as large as it was in the late 1980s.”

The decline was led by young adults 18–39, Gallup said, but that age group was also most likely to report e-cigarette use.

A separate Gallup report at the beginning of this year similarly found that significantly more Americans said they smoked marijuana than cigarettes—with young people being more than five times more likely to consume cannabis compared to tobacco.

At that point in time, Gallup said, 17 percent of Americans reported smoking marijuana, while 11 percent smoked cigarettes.

Reported use of both tobacco and marijuana are still far below America’s alcohol use rate, which Gallup said in a separate report is at 58 percent.

“About six in 10 U.S. adults, 58%, now say they have occasion to drink alcoholic beverages, slightly below the historical trend of 63% in Gallup polls dating back to 1939,” the group said. “Among those who do drink alcohol, 61% report having done so within the past week, including 28% who say it was in the past 24 hours and 33% two to seven days ago. Another 38% say their last drink was more than a week ago.”

In terms of public support for marijuana legalization—measured by the question, “Do you think the use of marijuana should be legal, or not?”—Gallup’s latest data show a 68 percent favorability rate, down just slightly from 70 percent last year.

Gallup

While regular cannabis use is still less popular in the U.S. than regular drinking, daily use rates are actually higher for cannabis. That’s according to a study authored by Carnegie Mellon University professor Jonathan Caulkins and published in May.

The rise in frequent cannabis use coincides with an increasing number of states that have ended marijuana prohibition, though the study said it’s not clear whether legalization led to increased use or the whether broader consumption by the public boosted support for policy changes that were later enacted.

The report notes the national marijuana use rate “mirrors changes in policy, with declines during periods of greater restriction and growth during periods of policy liberalization,” but Caulkins stops short of attributing use patterns to policy changes themselves.

Since 1992, it says—when reported use was at an all-time low—the per capita rate of daily cannabis consumption in the country has increased nearly 15 times over.

Use has risen especially among older Americans, according to another recent study backed by AARP that found that marijuana use among those 50 and older has nearly doubled in the last three years.

More than 1 in 5 Americans aged 50 and older now say they’ve used marijuana at least once in the past year, according to the survey conducted by the University of Michigan, while more than 1 in 10 consumed cannabis at least monthly. Researchers said they expect use rates among older adults to continue to increase as more states legalize.

As for youth marijuana use, however, a study published last month found what it called a “significant decrease” in youth marijuana use from 2011 to 2021—a period in which more than a dozen states legalized marijuana for adults—detailing lower rates of both lifetime and past-month use by high-school students nationwide.

In 2011, says the study, published this month in the journal Pediatric Reports, 39.9 percent of adolescents reported ever having tried marijuana. As of 2021, that number had fallen to 27.8 percent. The share who said they consumed cannabis at least once in the past month, meanwhile, fell from 23.1 percent in 2011 to 15.8 percent in 2021.

The declines came as marijuana use by adults climbed to “historic highs,” according to a federally funded report published last year. That report found that teen use rates, however, were for the most part stable.

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Photo courtesy of Mike Latimer.