CBD Usage in America — A Snapshot

What is CBD? CBD, short for cannabidiol, is a chemical compound from the Cannabis sativa plant, the same plant that marijuana and hemp come from. CBD is a naturally occurring substance used in oils, topicals, and ingestibles for wellness purposes including relieving pain, easing anxiety and alleviating cancer-related symptoms.

Highlights

1. We surveyed 1087 people to learn about their knowledge of, and interest in using CBD products.
2. 58% of respondents didn’t know the difference between CBD and THC-containing products such as marijuana.
3. 53% of respondents would not consider using a CBD product for any reason.
4. The results show that 62% of people have never tried a CBD product and the majority are also unwilling to try one.
5. 40% of respondents who have tried CBD products said their primary reason was to reduce stress.
6. Women are the biggest consumers of CBD products and they are using it in both topical and ingestible forms.

Results

We asked 1087 respondents across age and genders if they had ever tried a CBD product including in ingestible and topical forms, or a combination of. Our survey found that 62% of respondents had never tried a CBD product in any form. Of the respondents who had tried CBD, 14% used it in an ingestible form, 11% as a topical ointment or cream, and 13% had tried it in both ingestible and topical form.

Our survey revealed that the majority of respondents, 58%, did not know the difference between CBD and THC-containing products such as marijuana.

When we analyzed the data, we learned that 68% of respondents who have not tried CBD said that they don’t know the difference between CBD and THC-containing products such as marijuana. Alternatively, 64% of respondents who have tried CBD did understand the difference between the compounds. 36% of respondents who have tried CBD did so without knowing the difference between CBD and THC-containing products. 32% of respondents who have not tried CBD products still understood the difference between CBD and THC-containing products like marijuana.

Our survey revealed that over half of respondents (53%) would not consider using a CBD product for any reason. Of the remaining 47% of respondents who said they would consider using a CBD product, 24% said they would use it to reduce stress and anxiety, 14% said they would use or consider using CBD to reduce both stress and physical pain, and 9% said they would use or consider using CBD solely to reduce chronic physical pain.

Just under 71% of respondents who have never tried a CBD product said that they “won’t use any CBD product” while nearly 30% of respondents who have never tried a CBD product would consider using it to reduce stress, anxiety or physical pain. 40% of respondents who have tried CBD said their primary reason was to reduce stress and anxiety while 17% said their primary reason was to reduce physical or chronic pain. 32% of respondents who have tried CBD use it for both reasons.

The survey showed that 50% of respondents identified as female, 28% as male, and 22% identified as non-binary.

Our data shows that women use CBD more frequently than men and non-binary respondents, in both ingestible and topical forms with 59% of women saying they have tried both, compared to only 26% of men and 24% of non-binary respondents that have tried both. Women also tried topical CBD more than twice as much as their male and non-binary counterparts, with women making up 56%, compared to 24% of men and 20% of non-binary respondents.

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The Process

From March 2nd – 24th, 2021 Invisibly questioned 1087 Americans about their use and knowledge of CBD. Invisibly used their Realtime Research polling tool to learn whether they had ever used CBD, if they knew the differences between CBD, marijuana, and THC; and if they would ever consider using CBD. We broke down the use-cases further by asking respondents which form of CBD they have tried: ingestibles or topicals. We also asked questions about age and gender to see if this played a factor in people’s responses.

We Asked

1. Have you ever used a CBD Product?
2. Do you know the difference between CBD and Marijuana or THC containing products?
3. What is the primary reason you’d use or consider using a CBD product?
4. What is your gender?
5. What is your age?
   
   

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Discussion

We learned that people across the board are considering CBD products, though primarily women are the ones who are using them more. Surprisingly, more than half of those surveyed did not know the difference between CBD and marijuana, but this also makes sense as to why so many people overall are not willing to try a CBD product. People who are open to trying CBD are looking to alleviate stress and anxiety or to soothe chronic physical pain. Non-binary individuals were the least active CBD users in the survey, but among them, they were more likely to use CBD in topical form. Based on these findings, it’s women represent the majority using CBD products and they are using it to either relieve stress and anxiety, or to alleviate chronic pain.

Invisibly Realtime Research surveys differ from traditional online surveys in that the questions are shown to the user on web pages in place of an ad (Figure 1). Unlike Google Surveys, which block access to content until the questions are answered, Realtime Research surveys are optional, thus ensuring that participants are responding voluntarily.