The rate of cigarette smoking by youth in Chicago is down to 3.9 percent, a historic low, yet vaping is on the rise and racial disparities in tobacco use have widened, according to a report released today by the Chicago Department of Public Health (CDPH). If combustible and vapor products are combined, 16.6 percent of high school students in Chicago use some form of tobacco—a 12 percent increase since 2017. Chicago is faring better than the country as a whole when it comes to youth tobacco use. The city’s youth smoking rate of 3.9 percent is lower than the Illinois (4.7 percent) and U.S. levels (6.0 percent). Meanwhile, even though the youth vaping rate is up to 12.4 percent —an 88 percent increase over the last two years—it’s still lower than the averages for Illinois (19.9 percent) and the nation (32.7 percent).

Still, not all youth in Chicago are faring equally. Cigarette use by young Black males has risen 32 percent in the past two years even as all other demographics see declines. Moreover, the vaping rate for Black youth more than quadrupled in the last two years, by far the highest increase across racial and ethnic groups. Chicago has an almost nine-year life expectancy gap between Black and White residents, and tobacco-related diseases are responsible for nearly two years of that gap. In fact, Black Chicagoans are dying at higher rates from COVID-19 due in part to underlying health conditions caused by tobacco use and other factors, according to health officials. Chicago residents also have the highest cigarette tax burden in the country, a ban on redeeming tobacco coupons and a minimum purchasing age of 21 that went into effect years ago.