Austria

Key results 2015

Compared to the ESPAD averages, Austrian students tended to report higher rates of substance use for the eight key variables that were studied, especially the variables regarding alcohol. Austria exceeds the ESPAD average by 20 percentage points on alcohol use in the last 30 days, and heavy episodic drinking during the last 30 days is also clearly more common. The proportion of students reporting cigarette use in the last 30 days amounts to 28 % in Austria, compared to 21 % for all countries. Other variables where the Austrian students report somewhat higher prevalence rates are lifetime use of cannabis and lifetime use of inhalants. For the remaining key variables, namely lifetime use of illicit drugs other than cannabis, lifetime use of tranquillisers or sedatives and lifetime use of NPS, the Austrian results were roughly the same as the averages for all countries. The overall impression is that Austrian students tend to report substance-use habits above the ESPAD average.