Illegal drug use

Europe’s teenagers are increasingly picking up e-cigarettes and turning down drugs and alcohol, according to a new analysis on students’ habits across the continent.

The new report, known as the European School Survey Project on Alcohol and Other Drugs (ESPAD), included nearly 114,000 students aged 15 and 16 across 37 European countries.

It has tracked trends in European teens’ drug use, smoking habits, alcohol consumption, and more for 30 years. Here’s how teenagers stacked up in 2024.

Cigarettes and alcohol

While smoking rates have fallen since the 1990s, the likelihood that preteen girls smoke on a daily basis has risen in recent years, the analysis found

E-cigarette use is also continuing to climb, with 44 per cent of students having tried e‑cigarettes at least once and 22 per cent saying they vape regularly, up from 14 per cent five years earlier.

Most teens say vapes are easy to get, and the trend is “fuelling concerns over the dual use of traditional and electronic cigarettes and reflecting a broader shift toward alternative nicotine products,” the report said.

Notably, alcohol seems to be getting less popular, with both overall consumption and binge drinking falling over the past two decade

However, heavy drinking among teens remains a problem in some regions, with the highest rates in Denmark (55 per cent), Germany (49 per cent), and Austria (48 per cent).

Adolescents are also drinking at younger ages, the report found. About three in four students have tried alcohol, and one in three had their first drink at age 13 or younger.

Illegal drug use

In 2024, 12 per cent of students had tried cannabis – making it the most commonly used illegal drug in Europe, despite the fact that this is the lowest level recorded since 1995.

Teen boys are generally more likely to use cannabis than girls, but that gap is narrowing.

Cocaine and ecstasy (also known as MDMA) are the next-most popular illegal drugs, with about 2 per cent of students ever having tried them, followed by LSD or other hallucinogens and amphetamines.

Overall, 13 per cent of teenagers have tried illegal drugs at least once, and that prevalence has slowly fallen since around 2015. However, there are big differences between countries, with rates ranging from 3.9 per cent in Georgia and Moldova to 25 per cent in Liechtenstein

Notably, European students are increasingly taking prescription drugs for non-medical reasons; 8.5 per cent have tried tranquillisers and sedatives, while 6.9 per cent have taken painkillers to get high, the analysis shows.

Gaming, social media, and gambling

Four in five teens play video games at least once per month – but gaming is no longer dominated by teen boys, the report found.

While boys are still more likely to be gamers, girls’ gaming prevalence has more than tripled since 2015, rising from 22 per cent to 71 per cent last year.

On the flip side, girls are also more likely to use social media in a way they view as problematic – but boys have seen a bigger increase in harmful social media use over the past decade.

Overall, nearly half of students reported problematic social media use in 2024.

Nearly one in four teens has gambled for money in the past year, including playing slot machines, lotteries, card or dice games, or placing bets on sports or animal races

Most of this gambling takes place in person, though 65 per cent of teen gamblers do it online

Boys are more likely to gamble than girls, though there is also wide variation among countries. Gambling rates range from 9.5 per cent in Georgia to 45 per cent in Italy.

“Although many European countries have adopted stricter gambling regulations in recent years, with a heightened focus on protecting minors, gambling among European adolescents has remained stable,” the report said.