Marijuana use among American high school students is statistically similar across rural, urban and suburban communities, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) examining substance use among more than 10,000 teenagers nationwide.
The report, published online ahead of its October 15 date in the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, found that 14.3% of students attending rural public high schools reported using marijuana during the previous 30 days, compared with 13% of students in city schools and 12.9% in suburban or town schools.
Although the rural figure was slightly higher, researchers found that the differences were not statistically significant. The findings remained consistent after adjusting for sex, race, ethnicity and grade level.
Lifetime marijuana use was even more closely aligned across geographic classifications, with 25.5% of rural students, 25.5% of city students and 25.9% of suburban or town students reporting having used marijuana at least once.
The findings come from the CDC’s 2025 Youth Risk Behavior Survey, which included 10,710 students in grades nine through 12. Researchers linked the survey responses to federal school-location data, allowing them to examine differences in substance use based on whether students attended schools in cities, suburbs, towns or rural communities.
While marijuana use showed no significant geographic differences, the same was not true for several tobacco-related products.
Among rural students, 21.7% reported using electronic vapor products during the previous month, compared with 15.3% of city students and 15.2% of suburban or town students. Rural students were also more likely to report using cigarettes and smokeless tobacco.
After accounting for demographic differences, researchers found that rural students had a significantly higher prevalence of electronic vapor product use and smokeless tobacco use than students attending city or suburban schools.
The CDC also found no statistically significant urban-rural differences in alcohol consumption or the use of several other substances, including cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine.
Across the full national survey, 25.5% of high school students reported having used marijuana at some point in their lives, while 12.9% reported use during the previous 30 days.
The report was authored by a team of federal researchers led by Sanjana Pampati of the CDC’s Division of Adolescent and School Health. Researchers noted that marijuana and alcohol use may be more closely associated with factors shared across geographic settings, including peer behavior, parental monitoring and school connectedness, than with whether students attend school in an urban or rural community.
The geographic analysis covered public school students only, because comparable school-location information was not linked for private school students. It included 10,161 students with available geographic classifications, although the number answering each substance-use question varied.
