Publication, Part of Smoking, Drinking and Drug Use among Young People in England
Smoking, Drinking and Drug Use among Young People in England, 2021
National statistics, Accredited official statistics
Correction to sources of information on drug use data (part 10)
Following the initial publication it was discovered that around half of pupil responses to the question on 'Sources of helpful information about drug use' had been excluded from the results. This was corrected and the affected tables and commentary have been re-issued.
In Part 10: Young people and drugs: the context, the affected outputs were tables 10.19, 10.20 and 10.21, and the associated chart and commentary in the section on 'Sources of helpful information about drug use'. Though some of the quoted figures changed by 0-3 percentage points, there was no effect to the order of contribution of the most common sources.
4 November 2022 00:00 AM
Part 5: Alcohol drinking prevalence and consumption
Introduction
In 2009, the Chief Medical Officer of England published the first official guidance on alcohol aimed specifically at children and young people.
It recommended that the healthiest and safest option was for children to remain alcohol free up to age 18. If they did drink alcohol it should not be at least until the age of 15. For young people aged 15 to 17, it was suggested they should only drink in a supervised environment, and no more than once a week.
The guidance was based on a body of evidence that drinking at a young age, and particularly heavy or regular drinking, can result in physical or mental health problems, impair brain development, and put children at risk of alcohol-related accident or injury. More broadly it is also associated with missing or falling behind at school, violent and antisocial behaviour, and unsafe sexual behaviour1.
The 2012 Alcohol Strategy had a particular focus on excessive drinking by adults, but also included the ambition to achieve ‘a sustained reduction in both the numbers of 11 to 15 year olds drinking alcohol and the amounts consumed’.
Government alcohol strategy 2012
Attempting to accurately measure alcohol consumption among young people presents similar challenges to surveys of adults. Recall of their drinking can be erroneous and the majority of pupils’ drinking is in informal settings where the quantities they drink are not necessarily standard measures. They are also not very knowledgeable about the alcoholic strength of different drinks. See appendix B for more background on the methods that were used to measure alcohol consumption.
This part includes information on drinking prevalence, frequency, and alcohol consumption levels including drunkenness.
Changes to question to establish whether a pupil had drunk alcohol (2016)
Prior to 2016, the question used to establish whether a pupil had drunk alcohol was:
‘Have you ever had a proper alcoholic drink – a whole drink, not just a sip? Please don’t count drinks labelled low alcohol’.
Before the 2016 survey took place the questionnaire was tested with a group of pupils and this question caused confusion. In general, pupils thought the use of the word ‘proper’ meant the question referred to spirits only. They were also unaware of what would be considered a ‘low alcohol’ drink and some assumed low alcohol would include beer, cider, cocktails and alcopops.
In light of this feedback, the question was changed in the 2016 survey to:
“Have you ever had an alcoholic drink – a whole drink, not just a sip?”
Whilst this means the survey now gives an improved picture of the proportion of young people who have drunk alcohol, comparisons with years prior to 2016 are not possible. However, large directional changes such as whether prevalence has decreased over a long period of time can be made as the impact of the new wording is small in comparison, (although the exact size of the change cannot be calculated).
This change to the initial alcohol question may also have had an impact on the more detailed questions which follow. This is because some of these were only asked of those pupils who answered ‘yes’ to the initial question on drinking alcohol, so the change to this question may lead to a slightly different group of pupils answering the more detailed questions than in earlier years.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
1. Viner R, and Taylor B, (2007) Adult outcomes of binge drinking in adolescence: findings from a UK national birth cohort. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, 61: 902-907.
Pupils who have ever had an alcoholic drink
Ever had an alcoholic drink, by year
Between 2003 and 2014 there was a decline in the proportion of pupils who had ever had an alcoholic drink.
Data prior to 2016 is not comparable due to a change in the survey question.
In 2021, 40% (confidence interval 37-44%) of pupils said they had ever had an alcoholic drink, compared to 44% in 2018 (confidence interval 41%-46%).
Ever had an alcoholic drink, by sex and age
Prevalence of having ever had an alcoholic drink was 39% for boys and 42% for girls (not a statistically significant difference).
It increases with age, from 13% of 11 year olds to 65% of 15 year olds.
Usual frequency of drinking, by age
6% of all pupils said they usually drank alcohol at least once per week, the same as in 2018. A further 11% of pupils said they usually drank between once a fortnight and once a month; making a total of 16% (based on rounded percentages) who said they usually drank alcohol at least once a month.
The proportion usually drinking once a week increased with age, from 1% of 11 year olds to 14% of 15 year olds.
For more data relating to this section:
Tables 5.1, 5.2, 5.6, 5.7, 5.27 and 5.29 Smoking, drinking and drug use among young people, 2021
Pupils who had an alcoholic drink in the last week
Had an alcoholic drink in the last week, by year
Between 2003 and 2014 there was a decline in the proportion of pupils who had drunk in the last week.
Data prior to 2016 is not comparable due to a change in the survey question.
In 2021, 9% (confidence interval 7-10%) of pupils said they had drunk in the last week, with no significant change since 2016.
Had an alcoholic drink in the last week, by sex and age
8% of boys and 9% of girls had drunk in the last week (not a statistically significant difference).
The proportion increased with age, particularly after the age of 13; from 2% of 11-12 year olds and 4% of 13 year olds, to 10% of 14 year olds, and 20% of 15 year olds.
Had an alcoholic drink in the last week, by ethnicity
White pupils were most likely to have had an alcoholic drink in the last week, with 11% having done so. This compares to less than 4% for other ethnic groups.
Had an alcoholic drink in the last week, by region
The prevalence of having had a drink in the last week was significantly lower in London (3%) than any other region. Prevalence in other regions ranged from 8% to 12%.
When pupils drank in the last week
For this question, pupils were able to give more than one answer.
Pupils who drank in the last week were most likely to have done so on Saturday (68%). 36% drank on Friday, and 32% drank on Sunday. The proportion was 9% or less for weekdays.
Factors associated with drinking in the last week
A logistic regression model was used to explore which characteristics might be associated with drinking in the last week. This identifies associations, not causes; in other words, factors which identify pupils with an increased or decreased likelihood of having drunk alcohol in the last week. See Appendix B3 for more information on the regression model used.
The 10 factors (explanatory variables) shown below had a significant association with having drunk alcohol in the last week. The size of the circles represents an estimate of the relative contribution to the model. See Appendix B3.4 for details of how this has been determined (additionally data table 5.26 shows the odds ratios for each possible value of each variable in the model).
It was estimated that having parents who don't discourage drinking had the strongest association, followed by age (being older), and recent drug use.
For more data relating to this section:
Tables 5.4, 5.5, 5.8 to 5.11, 5.26 and 5.30 Smoking, drinking and drug use among young people, 2021
Alcohol consumption for pupils who drank in the last week
This section is based only on pupils who said they had a drink in the last week (9% of all pupils).
Quantities of alcohol were converted into units of alcohol, using a standard method described in Appendix B.
How much pupils drink (units), by age
Pupils who drank alcohol in the last week consumed an average (mean) of 8.9 units that week (confidence interval 7.7-10.2).
18% of pupils who drank in the last week were estimated to have drunk more than 15 units. Younger pupils who drank in the last week were more likely to have drunk fewer units than older pupils.
What pupils drink
For this question, pupils were able to give more than one answer.
Pupils who drank in the last week were now just as likely to have drunk spirits as they were beer, lager or cider. The proportion saying they had drunk spirits has risen from 60% in 2018, to 67% in 2021. This is the same proportion of pupils who said they had drunk beer, lager or cider, but this is down from 76% in 2018.
However, boys were still most likely to have drunk beer, lager or cider than other drinks (80%), with girls most likely to have drunk spirits (77%).
What pupils drink as a proportion of total units
Beer, lager and cider accounted for around half (52%) of the alcohol units consumed by pupils in the last week, with the majority of the rest split between spirits (21%) and wine (17%).
However, beer, lager and cider only accounts for about a third of total units for girls, compared to around two thirds for boys.
For more data relating to this section:
Tables 5.12 to 5.20, Smoking, drinking and drug use among young people, 2021
Prevalence of drunkenness
This section covers prevalence of drunkenness among all pupils. Drunkenness as a proportion of pupils who drank in the last 4 weeks is reported in the part 6 tables (6.14 to 6.17).
Pupils who were drunk in the last four weeks, by sex
8% of pupils said they had been drunk in the last four weeks, including 6% of pupils who had been drunk once or twice, and 2% more often. This is similar to 2018.
Girls (10%) were more likely to have been drunk in the last four weeks than boys (6%).
Pupils who were drunk in the last four weeks, by age
The proportion of pupils who reported having been drunk in the last four weeks increased with age.
Close to 0% of 11 year olds, and 1% of 12 year olds had been drunk in the last four weeks, compared to 21% of 15 year olds.
For more data relating to this section:
Tables 5.21 and 5.22 Smoking, drinking and drug use among young people, 2021
Impact of Covid lockdowns on alcohol consumption and drunkeness
Usual frequency of drinking, by how often they met other people outside of home/school in the last four weeks
Pupils who met people outside of home/school more frequently in the last four weeks were more likely to be more frequent alcohol drinkers. 12% of pupils who said they met people every day said that they usually drank alcohol at least once a week, compared to only 2% for those who never met people outside of home/school.
Pupils who were drunk in the last four weeks, by how often they met other people outside of home/school in the last four weeks
Pupils who met people outside of home/school more frequently in the previous 4 weeks were more likely to have been drunk in the last four weeks; 18% of pupils who said they met people every day, compared to only 1% for those who never met people outside of home/school.
Estimates of drinking from other data sources
The results from this survey can be compared with estimates for children from the Health Survey for England (HSE) which is carried out in the respondent’s home.
Health Survey for England 2019
We would expect the estimates from HSE to be lower than SDD as children seem to be less likely to admit to risky behaviours such as smoking, drinking and drug taking when completing surveys at home. In HSE 2019, 9% of 11-12 year olds, and 35% of 13-15 year olds had ever had an alcoholic drink. This compares to 44% of all pupils in the 2018 SDD survey, although this uses a different question to establish drinking prevalence than HSE, so is not directly comparable.
Estimates for Scotland are available from the Scottish Schools Adolescent Lifestyle and Substance Use Survey (SALSUS).
Scottish Schools Adolescent Lifestyle and Substance Use Survey
Estimates from Wales are available from the Welsh government Student Health and Well-being Survey:
Last edited: 10 October 2024 11:40 am