At least 15 million young people aged 13 to 15 use e-cigarettes globally, and teenagers are on average nine times more likely to vape than adults in countries with available data, the World Health Organization (WHO) said.
In its first global assessment of e-cigarette use, the WHO says more than 100 million people worldwide now use the products, including at least 86 million adults - mostly in high-income countries.
These data come at a time when global tobacco use continues to decline - the number of users of tobacco products fell from 1,38 billion in 2000 to 1,2 billion in 2024, Reuters reports.
As increasingly strict regulations contribute to a decrease in tobacco consumption, the industry is turning to alternative products such as electronic cigarettes to compensate for declining sales.
Tobacco companies claim to be targeting adult smokers, wanting to help them quit smoking and reduce the harms of traditional tobacco products.
However, e-cigarettes are driving a "new wave of nicotine addiction," said Etienne Krieg, director of the WHO's department of health determinants, promotion and prevention.
"They are advertised as harm reduction tools, but in reality they are getting children hooked on nicotine even earlier, thereby jeopardizing decades of progress," Krieg warned.
Governments and health authorities around the world are facing the challenge of balancing the potential benefits and risks of e-cigarettes, especially as the number of new nicotine users increases.
On the other hand, some research has shown that e-cigarettes can be effective in helping smokers quit cigarettes.
According to a 2024 review of evidence by the Cochrane Group, a non-profit network of health researchers, smokers were more likely to successfully quit smoking using e-cigarettes than with traditional nicotine patches or gum.
However, researchers warned that more data is needed, as the long-term health effects of e-cigarette use are still unknown.
The decline in the use of traditional tobacco products varies significantly by region. In Southeast Asia, smoking prevalence among men has almost halved - from 70 percent in 2000 to 37 percent in 2024 - making the region responsible for more than half of the global decline.
Europe now has the highest rate of tobacco use in the world - 24,1 percent, while women in Europe also record the highest rate of female smoking globally, at 17,4 percent.
The WHO warns that almost one in five adults on the planet still uses tobacco products and calls for stronger implementation of tobacco control measures and stricter regulation of new nicotine products such as electronic cigarettes.
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