Smoking, Drinking and Drug Use among Young People in England, 2021

This part focuses on the behaviour of pupils who are categorised as current and/or regular smokers.

As presented in Part 1: Smoking prevalence and cigarette consumption, only 1% of young people were regular smokers in 2021, and the detailed questions on smoking are only answered by around half of the children participating in this survey (see Appendix A1 for further details). This means that the number of regular smokers who have provided answers to many of the questions reported on in this section of the release is very small and it is not possible to calculate reliable estimates for these break downs (see the Accuracy and Reliability section of the Data Quality Statement for details of how estimates from small bases are shown in the data tables). Therefore, the commentary presented in this section of the report is smaller than in previous surveys. More detailed information is presented in the accompanying data table file.

Current smokers include regular smokers (defined as usually smoking at least one cigarette per week) and occasional smokers (defined as usually smoking less than one cigarette per week). The category of occasional smokers includes pupils who said that they did not smoke but who recorded some cigarette consumption in the last week.​

Three things should be kept in mind when considering the findings in this part.​

• The findings are based on a small proportion of 11 to 15 year olds.

• The profile of current smokers is weighted towards girls: 58% of current smokers were girls¹.​

• Almost three quarters of current smokers were aged 15 (72%). 19% were aged 14 and 9% were aged between 11 and 13¹.

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^{1. Based on weighted data.}

Usual sources, by year (current smokers)

Pupils could give more than one answer for this measure and only the most common sources are shown. A longer time series based on regular smokers can be seen in the data tables (table 2.1b), but it is current smokers who are discussed here as the sample size for regular smokers in 2021 was very small.

In 2021, the most common source of cigarettes for current smokers was to be given them by friends (46%).  ​

The proportion buying cigarettes from shops was 32% (the increase since 2018 shown on the chart is not statistically significant).

Of pupils who tried to buy cigarettes from a shop in the last year, 59% were refused at least once, and 33% on the most recent occasion (see tables 2.8 and 2.9)

For more data relating to this section:

Tables 2.1a, 2.8 and 2.9, Smoking, drinking and drug use among young people, 2021

Approaches and services used to help give up smoking, by smoking status

This measure includes pupils who have stopped smoking or tried to do so. Pupils could give more than one answer.

Most current and ex-smokers had used one of the services or approaches asked about (89% and 80% respectively).

E-cigarettes were the most common form of help used, with 58% of ex-smokers and 78% of current smokers, saying they used them to help give up smoking.

For more data relating to this section:

Tables 2.23 and 2.24, Smoking, drinking and drug use among young people, 2021

This measure excludes ‘reclassified’ occasional smokers; pupils who recorded some smoking in the past seven days, but described themselves as non-smokers and so were not given the opportunity to record whether their families knew they smoked.

Family knowledge by pupil smoking status

Of the pupils that currently smoke, 43% were secret smokers.

For more data relating to this section:

Tables 2.25 and 2.26, Smoking, drinking and drug use among young people, 2021