National Youth Tobacco Survey (NYTS)

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

The NYTS was designed to provide national data on long-term, intermediate, and short-term indicators key to the design, implementation, and evaluation of comprehensive tobacco prevention and control programs. The NYTS also serves as a baseline for comparing progress toward meeting selected Healthy People 2020 goals for reducing tobacco use among youth:

• TU–18.1—Reduce the proportion of adolescents and young adults in grades 6 through 12 who are exposed to tobacco marketing on the Internet
• TU–18.2—Reduce the proportion of adolescents and young adults in grades 6 through 12 who are exposed to tobacco marketing in magazines and newspapers
• TU–18.3—Reduce the proportion of adolescents and young adults in grades 6 through 12 who are exposed to tobacco marketing in movies and television
• TU–18.4—Reduce the proportion of adolescents and young adults in grades 6 through 12 who are exposed to tobacco marketing at point of purchase (convenience store, supermarket, or gas station)

Items measured as part of the NYTS survey include correlates of tobacco use such as demographics, minors’ access to tobacco, and exposure to secondhand smoke.

The NYTS provides nationally representative data about middle and high school youth’s—

• Tobacco-related beliefs
• Attitudes
• Behaviors
• Exposure to pro- and anti-tobacco influences

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

To extract the 1999, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2009, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, and 2017 files, you must have zip software. You may download a trial version of WinZip at http://www.winzip.com/.

* Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Office on Smoking and Health (OSH) and Food and Drug Administration, Center for Tobacco Products (CTP) began collaborating together on the NYTS starting on the 2011 cycle year. This collaboration has made it possible to field NYTS on an annual basis since 2011, as well as, helping to fulfill tasks assigned to both federal agencies while preventing data replication. The NYTS questionnaire has a core set of questions, ranging from 45 to 50, which will be asked annually and agreed upon by both agencies. On odd numbered years, the NYTS questionnaire will more closely align to tasks assigned to OSH and on even numbered years the NYTS questionnaire will more closely align to tasks assigned to CTP.

Historical NYTS Data and Documentation

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

1. Not attempt to link nor permit others to link the data with individually identified records in another database.
2. Not attempt to learn the identity of any person or school included in the data and will not deliberately combine this 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 and/or presentations.
3. Not imply or state, either in written or oral form, that interpretations based on analysis of the data reflect official CDC policies or positions.
4. 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.

Download the NYTS 2011-2017 and earlier data