Editor's Note: This article was updated on Feb. 5, 2024, with Gallup's latest data on Americans' self-reported marijuana smoking.
Seventeen percent of Americans in 2023 reported they smoke marijuana, similar to the 16% found in 2022 but higher than the 11% to 13% range recorded from 2015 to 2021.
Americans' reported marijuana smoking has more than doubled since 2013, when Gallup first added the question in its annual Consumption Habits survey. That year, 7% said they did.
Age is a significant driver of the likelihood of smoking marijuana. About a quarter of young adults, those aged 18 to 34, say they smoke marijuana (26%), but reported use falls to 18% among adults aged 35 to 54 and is even lower, 11%, among adults aged 55 and older. Marijuana usage varies across other demographic groups:
- Men (19%) are more likely than women (14%) to use marijuana.
- College graduates (9%) are about half as likely as those without a college degree (21%) to smoke marijuana.
- Democrats (22%) are more likely than Republicans (12%) to report smoking marijuana, with independents’ rate (17%) falling between them.
What Percentage of Americans Have Ever Tried Marijuana?
A separate question finds that half of adults (50%) say they have tried marijuana.
Gallup’s much longer trend on ever having tried marijuana shows that experimentation increased sharply in the first decade after the initial measure. Between 1969 and 1977, it jumped 20 percentage points, from 4% to 24%. It rose another nine points by 1985, to 33%, but thereafter stalled at under 40% until 2015, when it ticked up to 44%. It remained at about that level through 2019 but then rose to 49% in 2021, roughly where it is today.
Do Americans Support the Legalization of Marijuana?
Gallup has also recorded a significant increase in the U.S. public’s support for the legalization of marijuana over the past six decades, rising from 12% in 1969 to 70% in 2023.
Gallup measures Americans' use of marijuana and tobacco as part of its annual Consumption Habits poll, one of 12 surveys that make up the Gallup Poll Social Series.
Explore Gallup articles about marijuana on our "Marijuana" topics page.
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