Publication, Part of Smoking, Drinking and Drug Use among Young People in England

Smoking, Drinking and Drug Use among Young People in England, 2023

National statistics, Accredited official statistics

Publication Date:: 17 Oct 2024
Geographic Coverage:: England
Geographical Granularity:: Regions, Country, Government Office Regions

Correction to school lessons and guidance (part 12)

Following the initial publication it was discovered that teacher responses from volunteer schools had not been excluded from the analysis (see Appendix A8 for information about volunteer schools). This was corrected and the affected tables and commentary have been re-issued including only teacher responses from sampled schools.

Only Part 12: School lessons and guidance was affected, specifically tables 12.4, 12.5, 12.6, 12.7, 12.8, 12.9 and 12.10, and the associated charts and commentary in the sections 'Frequency of lessons about tobacco, alcohol and drugs' and 'Lesson contributors and sources of information used to prepare lessons'. Though some of the quoted figures changed by 0-5 percentage points, there was no effect to the order of the most common contributors and sources of information to lessons.

13 February 2025 17:00 PM

Introduction

About the 2023 survey

This is the most recent survey in a series that began in 1982.

The 2023 survey was conducted by Ipsos UK between September 2023 and March 2024. This report includes responses collected from 13,192 pupils in school years 7 to 11, mostly aged 11 to 15, at a sample of 185 schools in England that were randomly chosen to take part in the survey.

Administering the survey online

The 2023 survey is the first to be completed online rather than on paper.

The online survey allowed all pupils to complete the same questionnaire. Since the 2016 survey, all pupils completed a core section of questions on smoking, drinking and drug use, but then half the pupils were asked additional questions on smoking and drinking, and the other half were asked additional questions on drug use. The switch to an online survey, including the ability to automatically route students to the next relevant question based on their answers, meant all pupils could complete the full survey in a school period.

The 2023 survey was also the first to be administered wholly in teacher-led sessions. Prior to 2021, the survey was conducted by external interviewers, with a mixture in 2021 due to the Covid pandemic and visitor restrictions.

The online method allowed schools not selected for the sample to volunteer to take part. This report does not include data gathered from volunteer schools.

The change in survey delivery mode is described in more detail in the methodological change announcement. Full details of the survey design and data collection are given in Appendix A to this report.

Questions asked in the survey

The survey includes questions covering the following:

pupils' experience of smoking, using e-cigarettes, drinking and drug use
consumption of cigarettes and alcoholic drinks in the last week
types of drugs taken
where pupils get cigarettes, alcoholic drinks and drugs
attitudes of pupils and their families to smoking, drinking and drug taking
impact of school lessons about smoking, drinking and drug taking
dependence on smoking
exposure to second-hand smoke
where and with whom pupils drink
experience of drunkenness
wellbeing and family affluence

Question changes for 2023

Following a review of questions asked in the 2021 survey, questions were added, removed or altered for the 2023 survey. These changes affect the content of the report and multiple data tables. The most significant changes are summarised below. Further information is available in Appendix A.

Gender

Pupils were asked “Which of the following best describes your gender?” with the response options of “Boy”, “Girl”, “Non-binary”, “My gender is not listed” and “Prefer not to say”.

For this report and tables, the gender group "Another gender identity" includes the responses for pupils who selected “Non-binary” or “My gender is not listed”.

It is important to note that estimates for this group may have a higher degree of uncertainty than the estimates for boys and girls, as they are based on a smaller sample (under 3% of the total sample).

Measuring alcohol consumption

Pupils are asked if they have consumed different types of alcohol in the last week, and if so how much.

For 2023

cider consumption is asked about separately to beer and lager (previously these were a single category).
shandy is no longer asked about
pre-mixed alcoholic drinks is the new term for alcopops

The method used to convert quantities of the different types of alcohol to units has also been updated as set out in Appendix B, Section 5

The extent of these changes means that it is not possible to compare alcohol consumption for 2023 to previous surveys.

Use of drugs

Previously the survey asked pupils the following questions about drug use in general:

Had pupils ever used or taken any drugs
When did pupils last take drugs
On how many occasions had pupils taken drugs

These questions were asked in addition to the questions about use of named drugs. Pupils' answers to these questions could sometimes be inconsistent between the general questions and named drug questions.

Following the removal of these questions for 2023, all report commentary and tables about drug use will be based on the answers to the questions about named drugs.

The effects of these changes are discussed in more detail in the Data quality statement.

Loneliness

4 questions recommended by ONS to measure loneliness in children and young people were added to the survey:

How often do you feel that you have no one to talk to?
How often do you feel left out?
How often do you feel alone?
How often do you feel lonely?

These questions represent a harmonised standard for measuring loneliness and are used in many surveys across the UK.

Analysis of the new questions is included in Part 13: Wellbeing.

Estimates from surveys

This survey, in common with other surveys, collects information from a sample of the population. The sample is designed to represent the whole population as accurately as possible within practical constraints, such as time and cost. Consequently, statistics based on the survey are estimates, rather than precise figures, and are subject to a margin of error, also known as a 95% confidence interval. Appendix B, section 2 covers how sampling errors were calculated.

For example the survey estimate might be 24% with a 95% confidence interval of 22% to 26%. A different sample might have given a different estimate, but we expect that the true value of the statistic in the population would be within the range given by the 95% confidence interval in 95 cases out of 100. Confidence intervals are affected by the size of the sample on which the estimate is based. In general, the larger the sample, the smaller the confidence interval, and hence the more precise the estimate.

For key measures in this report, the confidence intervals have been quoted in brackets after the estimated prevalence. Confidence intervals for other key survey estimates are available in an Excel appendix table that accompanies this report.

Where differences are commented on, these reflect the same degree of certainty that these differences are real, and not just within the margins of sampling error. These differences can be described as statistically significant, implying no more than a 5% chance that any reported difference is not a real one but a consequence of sampling error. Some apparently large differences which are not statistically significant have been annotated in the report so users are aware of this.

Last edited: 13 February 2025 4:59 pm