This report contains results from the latest 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 wellbeing. In 2023 the survey was administered online for the first time, instead of paper-based surveys as in previous years. This move online also meant that completion of the survey could be managed through teacher-led sessions, rather than being conducted by external interviewers. The 2023 survey also introduced additional questions relating to pupils wellbeing. These included how often the pupil felt lonely, felt left out and that they had no-one to talk to. Results of analysis covering these questions have been presented within parts of the report and associated data tables. The report 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 in early 2025 (see link below).

In 1989, the Health Education Authority (HEA) launched its Teenage Smoking Campaign, which aimed to discourage young people from taking up smoking and to encourage existing smokers to stop. The HEA commissioned eight tracking surveys of children's attitudes to smoking between 1989 and 1994 to evaluate their campaign. In 1996, the Department of Health launched a new campaign - Respect. The Respect campaign seeks to address the reasons why young people start to smoke and to destabilise the fashionable perceptions of smoking. It seeks to make non-smoking part of a positive lifestyle which is relevant for both smokers and non-smokers. The 1996 Teenage Smoking Attitudes (TSA) survey, the first in a series of three annual surveys, was designed to help evaluate the campaign and look more generally at children's attitudes and beliefs about smoking and their knowledge of health issues. Two further surveys were carried out in 1997 and 1998.
Since 1982, the Social Survey Division of ONS has also carried out a biennial series of surveys of smoking among secondary school children for the Department of Health (the 'Smoking, Drinking and Drug Use Among Young Teenagers' series (formerly 'Smoking Among Secondary Schoolchildren', held at the Archive under GN:33263). Since these surveys and the Teenage Smoking Attitudes surveys target the same population of 11-15 year olds in England, the HEA and the Department of Health decided to investigate whether it was possible to make the two surveys complementary to each other. Further to these investigations, the same sampling design was then used on both surveys, and they contained a group of the same core questions. The two surveys, however, have maintained different focuses. The Department of Health surveys remain the official source of smoking prevalence data for 11-15 year olds, whereas the emphasis of the HEA surveys was on finding out what people believe about smoking, their attitudes to smoking and their awareness of health education issues.
The 1997 Teenage Smoking Attitudes (TSA) survey was the second of three annual surveys. It focused in particular on cigarette dependency and children's awareness of smoking related articles, promotions and advertising in the media.
Respondents also gave saliva specimens which were later analysed for evidence of cotinine - a major metabolite of nicotine. This was carried out in order to estimate the prevalence of smoking. Pupils were made fully aware of the purpose of the procedure. The 1997 survey was the first in the series where saliva samples were collected. For further details, please see documentation.

In the period 2024/54, just over six percent of pregnant women in England smoked at the time of delivery. The share of pregnant women smoking has decreased since 2006, when almost sixteen percent of pregnant women did so. Smoking during pregnancy can lead to many birth complications, so it is advised that the expecting mother quit smoking for the health of the baby. Situation north of the borderAs in England, Scotland’s share of pregnant women smoking has been declining, although the prevalence remains higher than those in England. In 2023, 11 percent of pregnant women in Scotland smoked during pregnancy, in the year 2000 this share was at almost 29 percent. Younger mothers more likely to smokeIn both England and Scotland, the prevalence of pregnant smokers increases down the age groups. In England, 21 percent of mothers under 20 smoked while pregnant in 2023/24. While in Scotland in the same year, 27 percent of teenage mothers smoked when pregnant.

The last in a series of three surveys for the Health Education Authority looking at the attitudes and beliefs about smoking of children aged 11-15. Source agency: Office for National Statistics Designation: Official Statistics not designated as National Statistics Language: English Alternative title: Teenagers and smoking Data and Resources Young Teenagers and Smoking, 1998HTML

In 2025, ** percent of teenagers in Great Britain who were former smokers said they had tried vaping at least once or twice. Meanwhile, around ** percent of young people who were cigarette smokers also used e-cigarettes more than once a week.

Contains a set of data tables for each part of the Smoking, Drinking and Drug Use among Young People in England, 2021 report

This dataset contains a retrospective time-series analysis of seven key public health parameters related to smoking and vaping trends in England from 2011 to 2023. The data was sourced from publicly available records from the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities.The dataset includes time-series records for the following parameters: adult smoking prevalence, youth smoking rates, youth vaping rates, maternal smoking prevalence, smoking-attributable hospital admissions, smoking-attributable mortality, and quit success rates.The data is presented in a structured format suitable for time-series analysis and forecasting. Associated with this dataset are the Python scripts used to apply forecasting models, including Exponential Smoothing (ETS), Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average (ARIMA), and Prophet. These scripts detail the data preparation, model application, and calculation of accuracy metrics (MAPE and MAE), enabling reproducibility of the analysis. The data and code are provided to facilitate further public health research, trend analysis, and model validation by the broader scientific community.

Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.

The Smoking, Drinking and Drug Use among Young People surveys began in 1982, under the name Smoking among Secondary Schoolchildren. The series initially aimed to provide national estimates of the proportion of secondary schoolchildren aged 11-15 who smoked, and to describe their smoking behaviour. Similar surveys were carried out every two years until 1998 to monitor trends in the prevalence of cigarette smoking. The survey then moved to an annual cycle, and questions on alcohol consumption and drug use were included. The name of the series changed to Smoking, Drinking and Drug Use among Young Teenagers to reflect this widened focus. In 2000, the series title changed, to Smoking, Drinking and Drug Use among Young People. NHS Digital (formerly the Information Centre for Health and Social Care) took over from the Department of Health as sponsors and publishers of the survey series from 2005. From 2014 onwards, the series changed to a biennial one, with no survey taking place in 2015, 2017 or 2019.

In some years, the surveys have been carried out in Scotland and Wales as well as England, to provide separate national estimates for these countries. In 2002, following a review of Scotland's future information needs in relation to drug misuse among schoolchildren, a separate Scottish series, Scottish Schools Adolescent Lifestyle and Substance Use Survey (SALSUS) was established by the Scottish Executive.

Main Topics:

Topics covered in the questionnaire include: questions asked about awareness; availability and use of drugs as well as attitudes towards drug use; the first and last time drugs were used and drug education lessons at school.
There are also a number of questions about smoking and drinking behaviour and attitudes. However, unlike the smoking surveys the children were not asked to provide a saliva specimen or to complete a diary.

The Smoking, Drinking and Drug Use among Young People surveys began in 1982, under the name Smoking among Secondary Schoolchildren. The series initially aimed to provide national estimates of the proportion of secondary schoolchildren aged 11-15 who smoked, and to describe their smoking behaviour. Similar surveys were carried out every two years until 1998 to monitor trends in the prevalence of cigarette smoking. The survey then moved to an annual cycle, and questions on alcohol consumption and drug use were included. The name of the series changed to Smoking, Drinking and Drug Use among Young Teenagers to reflect this widened focus. In 2000, the series title changed, to Smoking, Drinking and Drug Use among Young People. NHS Digital (formerly the Information Centre for Health and Social Care) took over from the Department of Health as sponsors and publishers of the survey series from 2005. From 2014 onwards, the series changed to a biennial one, with no survey taking place in 2015, 2017 or 2019.

In some years, the surveys have been carried out in Scotland and Wales as well as England, to provide separate national estimates for these countries. In 2002, following a review of Scotland's future information needs in relation to drug misuse among schoolchildren, a separate Scottish series, Scottish Schools Adolescent Lifestyle and Substance Use Survey (SALSUS) was established by the Scottish Executive.

The 2023 Smoking, Drinking and Drug Use among Young People survey is the first in this series to be carried out using electronic data collection within the classroom setting, rather than paper and pencil.

The methods for constructing each derived variable are available in the Smoking, Drinking and Drug Use GitHub code repository (file derivations.py).

What About YOUth? 2014 (WAY 2014) is a newly-established survey designed to collect robust local authority (LA) level data on a range of health behaviours amongst 15 year-olds. Therefore, this is also the first report to be published from the survey, covering the smoking findings only in order to meet the PHOF release data requirements. The Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC) was commissioned by the Department of Health to run the survey in direct response to the Children and Young People's Health Outcomes Forum. This Forum identified gaps in the Public Health Outcomes Framework (PHOF) and other key health behaviour measures relating to young people. HSCIC contracted Ipsos MORI to carry out the survey. The PHOF included a placeholder indicator on smoking prevalence at age 15 and the data from this survey will now become the source for this PHOF indicator. This report covers all the information required for the PHOF on smoking prevalence plus other information on attitudes to smoking, e-cigarette use and use of other tobacco products (such as shisha) and will allow comparisons between LAs and against the national position. The smoking prevalence findings needed for the PHOF have also been published by Public Health England (PHE) on 4 August 2015 via their Fingertips tool on their website (see resource links). WAY 2014 is the first survey to be conducted of its kind and it is hoped that the survey will be repeated in order to form a time series of comparable data on a range of indicators for 15 year-olds across England. Other than smoking, data has been collected on other topics including general health, diet, use of free time, physical activity, drinking, emotional wellbeing, drugs and bullying. HSCIC plan to publish a main report covering all the key findings from the survey in December 2015. This is ground-breaking for LAs as new data will become available to better inform local policy making.

This statistic shows the results of a survey on whether parents are provided with enough information by the UK government on the health risks to children and teenagers of smoking. Of respondents, ** percent tend to agree that they were provided with enough information by the UK government on the health risks to children and teenagers of smoking.

As of 2023, ** percent of 16 to 24 year olds surveyed in Scotland reported they were currently smoking cigarettes regularly. Nearly a third of over ** year olds said they used to smoke cigarettes, but no longer do so.

The Smoking, Drinking and Drug Use among Young People surveys began in 1982, under the name Smoking among Secondary Schoolchildren. The series initially aimed to provide national estimates of the proportion of secondary schoolchildren aged 11-15 who smoked, and to describe their smoking behaviour. Similar surveys were carried out every two years until 1998 to monitor trends in the prevalence of cigarette smoking. The survey then moved to an annual cycle, and questions on alcohol consumption and drug use were included. The name of the series changed to Smoking, Drinking and Drug Use among Young Teenagers to reflect this widened focus. In 2000, the series title changed, to Smoking, Drinking and Drug Use among Young People. NHS Digital (formerly the Information Centre for Health and Social Care) took over from the Department of Health as sponsors and publishers of the survey series from 2005. From 2014 onwards, the series changed to a biennial one, with no survey taking place in 2015, 2017 or 2019.

In some years, the surveys have been carried out in Scotland and Wales as well as England, to provide separate national estimates for these countries. In 2002, following a review of Scotland's future information needs in relation to drug misuse among schoolchildren, a separate Scottish series, Scottish Schools Adolescent Lifestyle and Substance Use Survey (SALSUS) was established by the Scottish Executive.

The survey uses a two-stage probability sample of schools and pupils, designed to be representative of young people aged between 11 and 15. The sample of schools is stratified by sex of intake and school type. Within these strata, the sampling frame is sorted by local authority. This design does not guarantee a representative sample of schools within all regions and so reliable estimates by region cannot currently be derived from any one year’s data.

This dataset contains regional information as well as key survey variables from the three most recent survey years, 2006 to 2008, combined and weighted to be regionally representative.

The Smoking, Drinking and Drug Use among Young People surveys began in 1982, under the name Smoking among Secondary Schoolchildren. The series initially aimed to provide national estimates of the proportion of secondary schoolchildren aged 11-15 who smoked, and to describe their smoking behaviour. Similar surveys were carried out every two years until 1998 to monitor trends in the prevalence of cigarette smoking. The survey then moved to an annual cycle, and questions on alcohol consumption and drug use were included. The name of the series changed to Smoking, Drinking and Drug Use among Young Teenagers to reflect this widened focus. In 2000, the series title changed, to Smoking, Drinking and Drug Use among Young People. NHS Digital (formerly the Information Centre for Health and Social Care) took over from the Department of Health as sponsors and publishers of the survey series from 2005. From 2014 onwards, the series changed to a biennial one, with no survey taking place in 2015, 2017 or 2019.

In some years, the surveys have been carried out in Scotland and Wales as well as England, to provide separate national estimates for these countries. In 2002, following a review of Scotland's future information needs in relation to drug misuse among schoolchildren, a separate Scottish series, Scottish Schools Adolescent Lifestyle and Substance Use Survey (SALSUS) was established by the Scottish Executive.

The main aim of the 1994 survey, which covered England, Scotland and Wales, was to continue the series of estimates of the prevalence of cigarette smoking among secondary school children and to draw attention to any changes in behaviour. In England, the survey was also used to monitor progress towards the 1994 Health of the Nation target for children's smoking. As in previous surveys, saliva specimens were obtained from half of the sample. These were analysed for the presence of cotinine, which is a metabolite of nicotine, and is a measure of exposure to tobacco. The main purpose of this was to enable some validation of the self-reported smoking data.

The share of 11- to 17-year-olds in Great Britain who felt vapes were less harmful than cigarettes has fallen dramatically since 2013. In that year almost three-quarters of surveyed teenagers thought vapes were less harmful compared to cigarettes, but by 2025 this had dropped to 27 percent. At the same time, the share that thought vapes were at least as harmful or more harmful than cigarettes has increased greatly.

This proof of concept study harnesses novel transdisciplinary insights to contrast two school-based smoking prevention interventions among adolescents in the UK and Colombia. We compare schools in these locations because smoking rates and norms are different, in order to better understand social norms based mechanisms of action related to smoking. We aim to: (1) improve the measurement of social norms for smoking behaviors in adolescents and reveal how they spread in schools; (2) to better characterize the mechanisms of action of smoking prevention interventions in schools, learning lessons for future intervention research. The A Stop Smoking in Schools Trial (ASSIST) intervention harnesses peer influence, while the Dead Cool intervention uses classroom pedagogy. Both interventions were originally developed in the UK but culturally adapted for a Colombian setting. In a before and after design, we will obtain psychosocial, friendship, and behavioral data (e.g., attitudes and intentions toward smoking and vaping) from ~300 students in three schools for each intervention in the UK and the same number in Colombia (i.e., ~1,200 participants in total). Pre-intervention, participants take part in a Rule Following task, and in Coordination Games that allow us to assess their judgments about the social appropriateness of a range of smoking-related and unrelated behaviors, and elicit individual sensitivity to social norms. After the interventions, these behavioral economic experiments are repeated, so we can assess how social norms related to smoking have changed, how sensitivity to classroom and school year group norms have changed and how individual changes are related to changes among friends. This Game Theoretic approach allows us to estimate proxies for norms and norm sensitivity parameters and to test for the influence of individual student attributes and their social networks within a Markov Chain Monte Carlo modeling framework. We identify hypothesized mechanisms by triangulating results with qualitative data from participants. The MECHANISMS study is innovative in the interplay of Game Theory and longitudinal social network analytical approaches, and in its transdisciplinary research approach. This study will help us to better understand the mechanisms of smoking prevention interventions in high and middle income settings.

FOCUSONLONDON2010:HEALTH:CHILDRENANDYOUNGPEOPLE The health and wellbeing of London’s children and young people is fundamental to the health of the city. The recent Marmot Review of health inequalities noted that “What a child experiences during the early years lays down the foundation for the whole of their life.” The Mayor’s Health Inequality Strategy for London responds to this by challenging all partners in London to create “conditions that lead to better early years experiences”. This chapter, authored by colleagues at the London Health Observatory, provides recent evidence on the health experience of children and young people in London. The report includes data about the Local Index of Child Wellbeing, infant mortality, breastfeeding, immunisation, injury, childhood obesity, physical activity, diet, smoking, alcohol consumption, drug use, teenage conceptions and sexual health. It reveals many areas of inequality within the city, but also highlights the ways in which London’s children are doing well. PRESENTATION: This interactive presentation about children’s health in London looks into some of the factors that may have an effect on the high childhood obesity figures in London. Access the presentation at Prezi.com FACTS: Some interesting facts from the report… ● Five boroughs with highest teenage conception rates in 2008:

This statistic displays how often young people use e-cigarettes in Great Britain in 2024, by age. This year, ** percent of 18-year-olds surveyed said they were current smokers of e-cigarettes.

Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.

What About YOUth? 2014 (WAY 2014) is a newly-established survey designed to collect robust local authority (LA) level data on a range of health behaviours amongst 15-year-olds.

The Children and Young People’s Outcome Forum identified gaps relating to teenagers in the Public Health Outcomes Framework (PHOF). As part of a direct response to this, the Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC) was commissioned by the Department of Health (DH) to develop the What About YOUth 2014 (WAY 2014) survey.

This large-scale survey is designed to provide valuable information on the health and well-being of teenagers, and the findings are intended to help a range of agencies and professionals who work with young people to understand their needs better. The large sample size allows robust results to be produced at a Local Authority (LA) level. Ipsos MORI, assisted by the National Children's Bureau (NCB) conducted the development work for the study and the trial study was undertaken and was completed in early 2014. For queries about the What About YOUth? study, please contact the HSCIC contact centre; telephone 0300 303 5678 or email enquiries@hscic.gov.uk

Some of the questions used in the What About YOUth? survey were sourced from established surveys where they had already been proven to work well with young people. These include the Health Survey for England (HSE), the Scottish Schools Adolescent Lifestyle and Substance Use Survey (SALSUS), the Survey of Smoking, Drinking and Drug Use Among Young People (SDD) (see related studies links) and the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) (not currently held at the UK Data Archive). Using similar questions also enables a level of comparison between the different studies. Other additional questions were created specifically for the study to research new areas of interest.

For the second edition (April 2016) a new version of the data file was deposited, with one variable, DRKINT, which had been found to contain errors, removed. The variable list has been updated accordingly.


Main Topics:

Topics covered by What About YOUth? include: diet, free time, physical activity, smoking, e-cigarettes, drinking, cannabis and other drugs, emotional and mental well-being, and bullying.

As of 2023, Turkey had the highest share of adults who smoked daily in Europe, at almost ** percent. In Ukraine there was also a high prevalence of daily smokers reported at ** percent. On the other hand, smoking is less popular in Nordic countries, with Sweden, Norway, and Iceland having fewer than *** percent of their populations smoking daily. Attempts to quit smoking In a European survey addressed to smokers in 2020, Bulgaria and Romania had the largest share of smokers who reported never attempting to quit smoking, at around **************. Meanwhile, roughly ****** percent of smokers in the United Kingdom attempted to quit smoking in the past. In a separate survey, many smokers in Europe were aware of the cancer risks of smoking and had attempted to cut down on the habit as a result. Overall, young people across Europe were less likely to quit smoking, with ** percent of those aged 15 to 24 reporting never attempting to quit. Smoking among youth Roughly a third of school students in Lithuania had tried smoking cigarettes by the age of 13, out of whom *** percent were daily smokers. Among a slightly higher age group, by the age of ** years, Slovakia held the highest share of youth trying cigarettes in their lifetime at ** percent, with ** percent having smoked a cigarette within the past month. In almost every European country, more than half of school students surveyed said it easy to obtain cigarettes, with Denmark coming at the top of the list with ** percent of its students. Nevertheless, smoking has generally declined among European youths over the past decades; down from ** percent of ** year olds smoking in 1999 to ** percent by 2019.