Fewer South Dakota middle-schoolers trying nicotine, but more using it regularly

Fewer South Dakota middle-schoolers are trying nicotine than they were two years ago, but slightly more of them are using it every day.

Nicotine use rates for Native American kids in grades six through eight are higher than they are for non-Natives, meanwhile, and South Dakota kids overall are slightly more likely on average than their peers elsewhere in the U.S. to use cigarettes.

The findings from 2025 come from the recently released Youth Tobacco Survey from the South Dakota Department of Health. The state’s conducted the survey for middle-school kids every two years since 2003. Smoking and nicotine use rates for high schoolers are compiled as part of a wider Youth Risk Behavior Survey. The results of that 2025 survey haven’t been released.

For middle-schoolers in the new survey, 9.6% had tried any form of nicotine at some point in their lives — fewer than the 12.7% of kids nationwide who’d tried nicotine. South Dakota’s figure was 10.7% in 2023. 

E-cigarettes were the most prevalent choice in the 2025 survey for kids who’d tried nicotine at some point in their lives, at 6.6%, followed by cigarettes at 4.3% and smokeless tobacco at 1.5%. Eighty percent of e-cigarette users reported using flavors outside of traditional tobacco, such as fruit or candy.

The e-cigarette rate for all kids has dropped in South Dakota since peaking in 2019, when 16% had tried them and 6.7% of them were current users. In 2025, 3.1% reported current e-cigarette use.

The survey found that 4.7% of middle-schoolers counted themselves as current users of any kind of nicotine, up from 4.5% in 2023. 

For Native American kids, 19.4% had tried any nicotine as of 2025, with 14.8% of kids saying they’d tried e-cigarettes and 9.9% saying they currently vaped nicotine. 

South Dakota’s nicotine use figures trail the national numbers in most areas, but not all. For cigarettes, 4.3% of the state’s middle-schoolers reported trying them and 1.4% reported being regular smokers. For the U.S., the figures were 3.6% and 1.1%, respectively.

The report says kids who’d tried nicotine “were significantly more likely” to come from a household where at least one family member uses nicotine.