Alcohol use

ESPAD average Cigarette use (%) ^a
	Average	Min.	Max.
Lifetime	80	35	96
Last 30 days	48	9	76
Intoxication ^b	46	6	32

^a Percentage of students reporting use of alcohol.
^b Percentage of students having been intoxicated at least once in the last 30 days.

Lifetime

In all ESPAD countries except Iceland (35 %), over half of the students have drunk alcohol at least once during their lifetime (Table 6). The ESPAD average was 80 % (range: 35-96 %). The highest rates of lifetime alcohol prevalence (93 % or more) were found in the Czech Republic, Greece and Hungary. In addition to Iceland, countries with relatively low rates (60 % or less) were Albania, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Norway. Large differences between boys and girls were observed in Albania (71 % versus 51 %), the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (64 % versus 51 %) and Montenegro (83 % versus 72 %). A higher proportion for girls than boys was found in Belgium (Flanders) (83 % versus 77 %).

Last 30 days

Overall, 48 % of the students in the ESPAD countries had consumed alcohol during the 30 days prior to the survey. In Austria, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark and Greece, two thirds (66 %) or more had done so. A particularly low prevalence rate was reported from Iceland (9 %). All of the Nordic countries except Denmark reported relatively low rates (below 40 %). This was also the case for Albania, Estonia, the Faroes, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Ireland, Lithuania and Ukraine. On average, more boys than girls have drunk alcohol during the 30 days prior to the survey. Countries with particularly large gender differences in this direction (18-20 percentage points) were Albania, Georgia, Montenegro and Romania. In four countries, more girls than boys (5 percentage points and more) reported alcohol use during the last 30 days (Sweden, the Faroes, Monaco and Norway).

Intoxication

An average of 13 % of students reported having been intoxicated during the last 30 days. Denmark had the highest prevalence at almost one third of the students (32 %). Countries with levels of 10 % or less were Albania, Estonia, the Faroes, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Georgia, Greece, Iceland, Moldova, Montenegro, Norway, Portugal, Sweden and Ukraine. On average, slightly more boys (13 %) than girls (12 %) reported that they had been intoxicated during the 30 days prior to the survey, with the highest differences in Cyprus (19 % for boys and 10 % for girls), Romania (16 % versus 7 %) and Montenegro (12 % versus 4 %). In the Faroes and Malta, noticeably more girls than boys reported intoxication.

Table 6. Alcohol use: prevalence of lifetime use, 30-day use and intoxication (percentage)

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Country	Lifetime use	30-day use	Intoxication last 30 days	Lifetime use		30-day use		Intoxication
Country	Lifetime use	30-day use	Intoxication last 30 days	Boys	Girls	Boys	Girls	Boys	Girls
Albania	60	32	7	71	51	42	23	10	4
Austria	88	68	21	86	90	67	69	22	19
Belgium (Flanders)	80	56	12	77	83	55	58	11	12
Bulgaria	86	59	17	88	85	60	57	20	14
Croatia	92	55	16	94	91	60	49	17	14
Cyprus	88	68	14	90	87	72	63	19	10
Czech Republic	96	68	15	95	97	70	67	18	12
Denmark	92	73	32	93	92	74	73	31	32
Estonia	86	38	8	87	86	36	39	8	7
Faroes	81	38	10	84	78	35	41	7	13
Finland	74	32	13	75	72	32	32	13	13
FYR Macedonia ^a	57	38	8	64	51	45	32	10	6
France	84	53	13	85	83	56	51	14	12
Georgia	85	43	10	86	83	53	33	13	7
Greece	94	66	10	95	93	68	65	11	9
Hungary	93	55	20	94	92	59	52	21	19
Iceland	35	9	3	36	33	9	10	3	3
Ireland	74	35	13	72	75	34	36	14	13
Italy	84	57	13	85	84	60	53	14	13
Liechtenstein	89	59	17	93	86	60	59	19	16
Lithuania	87	34	11	85	89	32	36	10	11
Malta	86	54	14	84	88	52	56	12	17
Moldova	82	56	8	86	78	62	50	11	5
Monaco	89	54	17	88	90	52	57	15	18
Montenegro	78	40	8	83	72	50	31	12	4
Netherlands	73	49	14	73	73	50	49	13	16
Norway	57	22	8	56	58	20	25	8	9
Poland	83	47	11	84	83	49	46	12	11
Portugal	71	42	9	73	70	43	41	9	9
Romania	78	47	12	84	72	56	38	16	7
Slovakia	91	49	13	90	91	48	51	12	13
Slovenia	89	52	14	90	88	55	50	14	14
Sweden	65	26	9	64	66	22	29	7	11
Ukraine	84	39	9	82	86	38	40	9	8
AVERAGE	80	48	13	81	79	49	46	13	12
Latvia	89	44	12	88	90	42	45	14	11
Spain	78	65	21	76	80	63	68	20	21
United States	47	22	10	44	50	21	22	10	10

^a Official name former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.