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
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.
Changes to units of alcohol assigned to each type of alcoholic drink when estimating alcohol consumption (2023)
For the 2023 survey, the number of units of alcohol assigned for some types and quantities of drink when estimating units consumed by each pupil was updated. As such, measures of unit consumption in this report are not comparable to data from previous surveys.
Additionally, some of the types of alcoholic drinks that pupils were asked about changed for the 2023 survey.
Please see Appendix B for more information on the types of alcoholic drinks and the method for estimating units.
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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 2023, 37% (confidence interval 34-40%) of pupils said they had ever had an alcoholic drink, compared to 40% in 2021 (confidence interval 37-44%).
Prevalence has fallen from 44% in 2016 (confidence interval 41-47%).
Ever had an alcoholic drink, by gender
Prevalence of having ever had an alcoholic drink was 36% for boys and 38% for girls (not a statistically significant difference).
Pupils with another gender identity were most likely to have ever had an alcoholic drink (48%).
Ever had an alcoholic drink, by age
Prevalence increases with age, from 15% of 11 year olds to 62% of 15 year olds.
Usual frequency of drinking, by age
5% of all pupils said they usually drank alcohol at least once per week, similar to 2021 (6%). A further 11% of pupils said they usually drank between once a fortnight and once a month.
The proportion usually drinking once a week increased with age, from 1% of 11 and 12 year olds to 11% of 15 year olds.
For more data relating to this section:
Tables 5.1, 5.2, 5.6, 5.7, 5.24 and 5.26 Smoking, drinking and drug use among young people, 2023
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 2023, 7% (confidence interval 6-8%) of pupils said they had drunk in the last week, compared to 9% in 2021 (confidence interval 7-10%) .
Prevalence has fallen from 10% in 2016 (confidence interval 9-11%).
Had an alcoholic drink in the last week, by gender
Both 7% of boys and 7% of girls said they had an alcoholic drink in the last week.
11% of pupils with another gender identity had an alcoholic drink in the last week.
Had an alcoholic drink in the last week, by age
The proportion of pupils who drank alcohol in the last week increased with age, from 2% of 11 and 12 year olds to 16% of 15 year olds, with 15 year olds being more than twice as likely as 14 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 10% having done so. This compares to 6% for mixed ethnicity pupils, and 2% or less for Asian, Black and 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 6% to 11%.
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 (66%). 37% said they drank on Friday, and 34% drank on Sunday. The proportion was 12 to 13% for weekdays other than Friday.
59% of pupils who drank in the last week, did so on only one day (see table 5.9).
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 9 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 e-cigarette use had the highest association, followed by age and ethnicity.
For more data relating to this section:
Tables 5.5, 5.8 to 5.11, 5.23, 5.25 and 5.27 Smoking, drinking and drug use among young people, 2023
Alcohol consumption for pupils who drank in the last week
This section is based only on pupils who said they had an alcoholic drink in the last week (7% of all pupils).
Quantities of alcohol were converted into units of alcohol, using a standard method described in Appendix B.
How much pupils drink (estimated units), by age
For pupils who drank alcohol in the last week, the median number of units of alcohol consumed was 6.4 (see table 5.12b).
26% of pupils who drank in the last week were estimated to have drunk 15 or more units. This increased from 19% of 11-13 year olds, to 31% of 15 year olds.
What pupils drink
For this question, pupils were able to give more than one answer.
Pupils who drank in the last week were most likely to have drunk spirits (61%) or beer/lager (56%).
Boys were most likely to have drunk beer/lager than other drinks (75%), with girls most likely to have drunk spirits (75%).
Pupils with another gender identity are not shown due to the small sample base for this question.
What pupils drink as a proportion of total units
Beer/lager accounted for 46% of the alcohol units consumed by pupils in the last week, with cider accounting for the next most at 24%.
Beer/lager accounts for 55% of total units for boys, compared to 27% for girls. Cider accounts for 24% of total units for boys and 28% for girls.
Pupils with another gender identity are not shown due to the small sample base for this question.
For more data relating to this section:
Tables 5.12 to 5.17, Smoking, drinking and drug use among young people, 2023
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 table 6.15.
Pupils who were drunk in the last four weeks, by gender
7% of pupils said they had been drunk in the last four weeks, including 5% of pupils who had been drunk once or twice, and 2% more often. This is similar to 2021.
8% of girls, 8% of pupils of another gender identity, and 6% of boys said they had been drunk in the last four weeks (not statistically significant differences).
Pupils who were drunk in the last four weeks, by age
Older pupils were much more likely to have been drunk in the last four weeks.
1% of 11 and 12 year olds, and 3% of 13 year olds had been drunk in the last four weeks, compared to 19% of 15 year olds.
For more data relating to this section:
Tables 5.18 and 5.19 Smoking, drinking and drug use among young people, 2023
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 2022 Part 1
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 2022, 34% of 13 to 15 year olds had ever had an alcoholic drink (no figure available for 11 to 12 year olds as it is reported as part of the 8 to 12 year olds group). The SDD survey uses a different question to establish drinking prevalence than HSE, so is not directly comparable.
Latest estimates for Scotland are available from the Health and Wellbeing Census Scotland 2021-22:
Health and Wellbeing Census Scotland
Estimates from Wales are available from the Welsh government Student Health and Well-being Survey:
Last edited: 13 December 2024 11:31 am