Publication, Part of Smoking, Drinking and Drug Use among Young People in England
Smoking, Drinking and Drug Use among Young People in England 2018 [NS]
National statistics, Accredited official statistics
Summary
This report contains results from a biennial survey of secondary school pupils in England in years 7 to 11 (mostly aged 11 to 15), focusing on smoking, drinking and drug use. It covers a range of topics including prevalence, habits, attitudes, and for the first time in 2018, wellbeing.
It includes this summary report showing key findings, excel tables with more detailed outcomes, technical appendices and a data quality statement. An anonymised record level file of the underlying data on which users can carry out their own analysis will be made available via the UK Data Service later in 2019 (see link below).
This release has been delayed from the pre-announced publication date of 25th July 2019, due to operational reasons.
Highlights
Based on the 2018 survey:
16% of pupils had ever smoked cigarettes
Down from 19% in 2016, and 49% in 1996
10% of pupils said they had drunk alcohol in the last week
This varied from 2% of 11 year olds and 3% of 12 year olds, to 23% of 15 year olds
24% of pupils reported they had ever taken drugs
This varied from 9% of 11 year olds, to 38% of 15 year olds
40% of recent smokers reported low life satisfaction nowadays
This compares to 18% for all pupils
Resources
Last edited: 23 January 2020 3:48 pm