Trends across 25 countries

In this section, overall trends measured across countryspecific means of 25 countries are reported between 1995 and 2015. The 25 countries included are Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, the Faroes, Finland, France, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, Malta, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden and Ukraine (Figure 10). Trends for 15 key variables are shown in Table 14 and trends by gender are graphically depicted in Figures 11-25.

Figure 10. Countries included in the 25-country average (marked in blue)

Table 13. Overview of ESPAD surveys conducted between 1995 and 2015 by country: sample size and participation rate

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Country	1995		1999		2003		2007		2011		2015
Country	n	% ^a	n	% ^a	n	% ^a	n	% ^a	n	%	n ^a	% ^a
Albania	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	3189	100	2553	100
Austria	.	.	.	.	2402	73	2571	63	.	.	3684	17 ^b
Belgium (Flanders)	.	.	.	.	2320 ^c	88	1889 ^d	54 ^e	1798 ^f	58 ^e	1771^f	56 ^e
Bosnia and Herzegovina (FBiH)	.	.	.	.	.	.	2973 ^g	100	3813 ^d	99	.	.
Bosnia and Herzegovina (RS)	.	.	.	.	.	.	2609 ^g	97	3132	98	.	.
Bulgaria	.	.	5391	100	2740	100	2353	100	2217	100	2922	98
Croatia	2815	100	3602	100	2884	99	3008	99	3002	90	2558	98
Cyprus	632	100	2095	100	2152	98 ^e	6340	100	4243	76	2098	85
Czech Republic	2962	100	3579	99	3195	100	3901	100	3913	98	2738	96 ^e
Denmark	2439	78	1790	56	2978	65	877	46	2181	42^e	1670	26 ^e
Estonia	3118	94	3254	89	2463	80	2372	90	2460	95	2452	90
Faroes	543	100	463	100	640	97	552	100	557	100	511	100
Finland	2300	100	3286	99 ^e	3543	97	4988	99	3744	81	4049	85
FYR Macedonia ^k	.	.	5199	100	.	.	2452 ^g	97	.	.	2428	98
France	.	.	2284	97	2199	86	2916	98	2572	95	2714	93
Germany^h	.	.	.	.	5110	91	5011	90	2796	40	.	.
Greece	.	.	2259	94	1906	97	3060	88	5908	87	3202	95
Greenland	.	.	421	76 ^e	555	n.a.	.	.	.	.	.	.
Hungary	2571	99	6421	92	2677	98	2817	94	3063	85	2735	93
Iceland	3814	90	3524	99^e	3348	98	3510	97	3333	95	2663	79
Ireland	1849	81	2277	100	2407	91	2221	76	2207	72	1470	18 ^b
Isle of Man	.	.	.	.	721	100^e	740	100	. ⁱ	.	.	.
Italy	1555	99	4106	100	4871	97	9981	99	4837	88	4059	85
Latvia	2179	49	2284	90	2841	97	2275	93	2622	95	1119	42
Liechtenstein	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	366	100	316	100
Lithuania	3196	100	5039	100	5036	100	2411	99	2476	99	2573	99
Malta	2832	100	4321	100	3500	99	3668	99	3377	100	3326	98
Moldova	.	.	.	.	.	.	3176 ^g	99	2162	100	2586	100
Monaco	.	.	.	.	.	.	393	100	401	100	397	100
Montenegro	.	.	.	.	.	.	5823 ^g	100	3387	100	3844	100
Netherlands	.	.	2615	n.a.	2095	97	2091	98	2044 ^d	50 ^e	1684 ^d	43 ^e
Norway	3910	90	3918	86	3833	77	3482	58 ^e	2938	28	2584	53
Poland	8940	96	3330	n.a.	5964	98	2120	93	5933	94	11822	94
Portugal	2033	100	3609	100	2946	98	3141	95	1965	90	3456	96
Romania	.	.	2393	94	4371	100	2289	98	2770	100	3500	100
Russia (Moscow)	.	.	2937	95	1925	92	3939^j	96 ^e	1757	77	.	.
Serbia	.	.	.	.	.	.	6156 ^g	94^e	6084	97	.	.
Slovakia	2376	99	2442	100	2276	98	2468	100	2009	100	2208	100
Slovenia	3306	100	3184	100	2785	100	3085	100	3186	100	3484	99
Sweden	3472	94	3445	89	3232	87	3179	87	2569	80	2551	83
Switzerland	.	.	.	.	2613	86	2499	88	.	.	.	.
Ukraine	7193	99	2994	97 ^e	4173	98	2447	98	2210	99	2350	98
United Kingdom	7722	46 ^e	2641	74 ^e	2068	55 ^e	2179	40	1712	5	.	.

^a Class participation rate: proportion of selected classes participating in the survey.
^b Estimated from the maximum number of classes that could participate.
^c Flanders and Wallonia.
^d Data collected in autumn.
^e School participation rate (class participation rates not available).
^f Data collected in previous autumn.
^g Data collected in spring 2008.
^h Five federal states: Bavaria, Berlin, Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Thuringia.
ⁱ Data collected but not delivered.
^j Russia.
^k Official name former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.
Red typeface: countries included in the 25-country average.
n.a. = not available.

Table 14. ESPAD average for selected indicators based on 25 countries: 1995-2015

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Measure	1995	1999	2003	2007	2011	2015
Perceived availability of cannabis	22	30	33	33	32	32
Early onset of daily cigarette use ^a	10	9	10	7	7	4
Early onset of daily cannabis use ^a	2	2	3	3	3	3
Lifetime use of cigarettes	67	68	66	59	56	47
Current cigarette use ^b	32	36	33	29	29	22
Daily cigarette use ^b	20	24	23	18	18	13
Lifetime alcohol use	89	90	90	88	86	81
Current alcohol use ^b	56	61	63	60	58	47
Heavy episodic drinking ^c	36	39	40	42	41	35
Lifetime illicit drug use	11	17	20	18	19	18
Lifetime cannabis use	11	16	19	17	18	17
Lifetime use of illicit drugs other than cannabis	3	6	5	7	6	5
Current cannabis use ^b	4	6	8	7	7	7
Lifetime inhalant use	8	9	9	9	9	8
Lifetime use of tranquillisers or sedatives without a doctor’s prescription	8	7	7	7	7	6

^a At age 13 or younger.
^b Last 30 days.
^c More than five drinks on one occasion at least once in the last 30 days.

Availability of cannabis

The average proportion of students who answered that they would find it easy (combined positive responses on ‘very easy’ and ‘fairly easy’) to obtain cannabis, if they wanted to, increased from 1995 to 2003 in both genders and levelled off thereafter (Figure 11). Rates among boys are slightly higher than among girls. Overall, the perceived availability of cannabis among boys increased from 23 % to 33 % and among girls from 21 % to 30 %.

Early onset of substance use

Daily smoking

On average, between 1995 and 2003 rates of early onset of daily smoking (that is, at the age of 13 or younger) were rather stable at about 10 %, but rates dropped thereafter to 4 % in 2015, indicating a strong decrease in early onset daily smoking over the last 10 years (Table 14). Genderspecific trends are almost parallel, with slightly lower rates in girls than boys (1-2 percentage points difference in recent surveys; Figure 12).

Cannabis use

Rates of cannabis use at the age of 13 years or younger increased slightly until 2003 among girls and until 2007 among boys and stabilised thereafter (Figure 13). Trends by gender are almost parallel, with girls’ rates being slightly lower than boys’ rates.

Cigarette use

On average, lifetime prevalence rates of smoking showed a stable trend between 1995 and 2003 and decreased thereafter (Table 14). Rates of lifetime smoking among boys and girls follow this general trend. However, the gender gap in lifetime smoking rates, still visible in 1995, closed in 2015 (Figure 14). Similar trends can be observed for current smoking and daily smoking (Table 14). Rates of current (last- 30-day) use decreased by 10 percentage points between 1995 and 2015 (Table 14; Figure 15); reductions in daily use amounted to 7 percentage points (Figure 16).

Alcohol use

The prevalence of lifetime as well as current (last-30-day) use of alcohol decreased between 2003 and 2015 (Table 14; Figures 17 and 18). No gender differences in trends can be observed, with the exception of constantly higher rates among boys.

The prevalence of heavy episodic drinking, although showing the same level in 2015 as 20 years before, peaked in the middle of the 2000s and has decreased since then. However, as shown in Figure 19, rates of heavy episodic drinking generally increased among girls, resulting in a narrowing of the gender differences over time.

Illicit drug use

Generally, between 1995 and 2003, an increase can be seen in the prevalence of illicit drug use, most of which occurred between the first two surveys. Since then, the prevalence has remained largely unchanged. Trends in illicit drug use experience among boys and girls follow the general trend, with girls’ rates being about 6 percentage points lower than boys’ rates (Figure 20). Trends for lifetime cannabis use are similar to the trends for any illicit drug use, with rates being only slightly lower (Table 14 and Figure 21). Prevalence rates of lifetime cannabis use as well as current (last-30-day) use for both genders peaked in 2003 and stabilised thereafter (Figures 21 and 22).

Lifetime use of illicit drugs other than cannabis rose to a peak in 2007 (Table 14; Figure 23). Since 2007, the rates appear to have slightly decreased. This trend is also seen for boys and girls, with a consistent gender gap of 1-2 percentage points.

Inhalant use

The use of other psychoactive substances such as inhalants shows generally stable lifetime prevalence rates over the observed period. The gender-specific curves reveal a narrowing and, by the end, closure of the gender gap, with rates among boys slightly decreasing but rather unchanged rates among girls (Figure 24).

Pharmaceutical use

The lifetime prevalence rates for the use of tranquillisers or sedatives without a doctor’s prescription show a slightly downward trend, with similar trends for boys and girls. Tranquillisers or sedatives are the only psychoactive substances that were taken more frequently by girls than boys (Figure 25).

Figure 11. Perceived availability of cannabis by gender; students responding cannabis ‘fairly easy’ or ‘very easy’ to obtain: 25-country trend 1995- 2015 (percentage)

Figure 12. Daily cigarette use at the age of 13 or younger by gender: 25-country trend 1995-2015 (percentage)

Figure 13. Cannabis use at the age of 13 or younger by gender: 25-country trend 1995-2015 (percentage)

Figure 14. Lifetime use of cigarettes by gender: 25-country trend 1995-2015 (percentage)

Figure 15. Cigarette use in the last 30 days by gender: 25-country trend 1995-2015 (percentage)

Figure 16. Daily cigarette use by gender: 25-country trend 1995-2015 (percentage)

Figure 17. Lifetime alcohol use by gender: 25-country trend 1995-2015 (percentage)

Figure 18. Alcohol use in the last 30 days by gender: 25-country trend 1995-2015 (percentage)

Figure 19. Heavy episodic drinking (five or more drinks on one occasion) during the last 30 days by gender: 25-country trend 1995-2015 (percentage)

Figure 20. Lifetime use of illicit drugs by gender: 25-country trend 1995-2015 (percentage)

Figure 21. Lifetime use of cannabis by gender: 25-country trend 1995-2015 (percentage)

Figure 22. Cannabis use in the last 30 days by gender: 25-country trend 1995-2015 (percentage)

Figure 23. Lifetime use of illicit drugs other than cannabis by gender: 25-country trend 1995-2015 (percentage)

Figure 24. Lifetime use of inhalants by gender: 25-country trend 1995-2015 (percentage)

Figure 25. Lifetime use of tranquillisers or sedatives without a doctor’s prescription by gender: 25-country trend 1995-2015 (percentage)