Proportion of schoolchildren drinking, smoking and taking drugs fell over the past decade, says new report

The proportion of 11- 15 year olds who drink alcohol has fallen markedly in the last ten years, as has the proportion of school children who report drinking frequently. There have also been significant declines in smoking and in drug use.

The findings come from a report published by the NHS Information Centre, Smoking, drinking and drug use among young people in England in 2011, which surveyed around 6,500 pupils between September and December 2011.

On alcohol, the survey found that 45% of pupils said they had drunk alcohol at least once - compared to 61% in 2001. The proportion of pupils drinking frequently also fell, with 7% of pupils saying they usually drank at least once a week, compared to 20% in 2001.

Smoking

One in four (25%) 11 to 15-year-olds had smoked at least once - the lowest proportion since the survey began in 1982. One in twenty pupils (5%) were classed as regular smokers (smoking at least one cigarette a week) - half the percentage compared to 2001 when one in ten smoked regularly (10%).

Other drugs

Drug-taking among secondary school children fell by 12 percentage points in the past ten years. Around one in six (17%) 11 to 15-year-olds surveyed in 2011 said they had ever taken drugs. This compares to 2001, when 29% of pupils in the same age range reported that they had.

There were falls in the percentage of children who said they had taken drugs in the last year at every age surveyed. For example, among 15-year-olds, the fall was by 16 percentage points over the decade (39% in 2001 to 23% in 2011). 12% of pupils reported having taken drugs in the last year – compared to 20% in 2001.

Pupils were more likely to have taken cannabis than any other type of drug, but levels of cannabis use were still down on 2001 levels with 7.6 % reporting they had taken the drug in the last year compared to 13.4% a decade earlier.

HSCIC Chief Executive Tim Straughan said: “The report shows that pupils appear to be leading an increasingly clean-living lifestyle and are less likely to take drugs as well as cigarettes and alcohol. All this material will be of immense interest to those who work with young people and aim to steer them towards a healthier way of life.”

Smoking, drinking and drug use among young people in England 2011 Edited by Elizabeth Fuller

A survey carried out for the Health and Social Care Information Centre by NatCen Social Research and the National Foundation for Educational Research

ISBN 978-1-84636-726-7 Report available online at: http://www.ic.nhs.uk/