About National Youth Tobacco Survey (NYTS)

What to know

The National Youth Tobacco Survey (NYTS) datasets are available for public use. Researchers and public health managers can explore the data in detail. In addition, U.S. states can compare their estimates of prevalence of youth tobacco use with national data.

Purpose

The NYTS provides national benchmark data on commercial tobaccoA use behaviors and related risk factors among youth in the United States. The NYTS helps U.S. states design, implement, and evaluate comprehensive tobacco prevention and control programs. The NYTS also serves as a baseline for comparing progress toward meeting select Healthy People 2030 goals for reducing youth tobacco use:

  • TU-04 – Reduce current tobacco use in adolescents
  • TU-05 – Reduce current e-cigarette use in adolescents
  • TU-06 – Reduce current cigarette smoking in adolescents
  • TU-07 – Reduce current cigar smoking in adolescents
  • TU-08 – Reduce current use of smokeless tobacco products among adolescents
  • TU-09 – Reduce current use of flavored tobacco products in adolescents who use tobacco
  • TU-22 – Reduce the proportion of adolescents exposed to tobacco marketing

What's collected

The NYTS survey measures items related to tobacco use, like demographics, youth access to tobacco, and exposure to secondhand smoke.

The NYTS provides national data about middle school and high school students beliefs, attitudes, behaviors, and exposure to tobacco influences.

How the data are used

Data are available in SAS®, Microsoft Access®, and Microsoft Excel® formats. PDFs of the questionnaire, codebook, and methodology report are also available. If you do not have Microsoft Access®, you may download a free version of EPI InfoTM to view the datasets.

To extract the data files (for NYTS 2011–2023 and earlier data), you must have zip software. You may download a trial version of WinZip at http://www.winzip.com/.

Standards for NYTS data users

CDC expects that users of the NYTS dataset will adhere to the following standards for the analysis and reporting of research data. All research results should be presented or published in a manner that protects the confidentiality of participants. NYTS data will not be presented or published in any way in which an individual or school can be identified. Therefore, users will:

  • Not attempt to link nor permit others to link the data with individually identified records in another database.
  • Not attempt to learn the identity of any person or school included in the data and not deliberately combine these data with other CDC or non-CDC data for the purpose of matching records to identify individuals or schools. If you should inadvertently discover the identity of any person or school, you will ensure the identity of any person or school is kept confidential, and not used in any publications or presentations.
  • Not imply or state, either in written or oral form, that interpretations based on analysis of the data reflect official CDC policies or positions.
  • Understand that sub-national analyses are not appropriate for this national sample and will not be conducted.

By using these data, you signify your understanding of the above-stated terms.

Datasets

Download NYTS 2011–2023 and earlier data.

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Content Source:
National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion; Office on Smoking and Health
  1. "Commercial tobacco" means harmful products that are made and sold by tobacco companies. It does not include "traditional tobacco" used by Indigenous groups for religious or ceremonial purposes.