You are here: Stats bulletin home > Online (complete) version > General population surveys of drug use
Overview of the data | Tables | Graphics | Supplementary downloadable tables | Methods and definitions
The links above give access to the tables and graphics in the bulletin, the supplementary downloadable tables and the associated graphics in the section dealing with general population surveys, as well as to a description of the methods and definitions used in compiling this data. A brief overview is provided below. See also the side navigation bar for links to all chapters.
Drug use in the general population is assessed through surveys, which provide estimates of the proportion of the population that has used different drugs over standard periods of time; lifetime use (or ‘ever-use’), last twelve months use (‘recent use’) or last 30 days use (‘current use’). The general population survey data give information by Member States, by geographic region within states and by year of survey, according to availability. The information covers self-reported use of cannabis, cocaine, amphetamines, ecstasy, hallucinogens and specifically LSD. A summary of the survey structure is given (Table GPS-14) and also a bibliographic reference to the published source (Table GPS-0).
Tables GPS-1 to GPS-6 give prevalence estimates of individual drug types for reported lifetime (ever-) use, use in the past year and use in the past month, each for the general population aged 15 to 64 and for the younger part of the population, aged 15 to 34. In Table GPS-1 part (ii) some survey structure details are given that are the same for each of tables GPS-1 to GPS-6.
Similarly, tables GPS-8 to GPS-13 give parallel information on prevalence for the last survey available for each Member State, and Table GPS-8 part (ii) gives some survey structure details that are the same for each of tables GPS-8 to GPS-13.
Summary points
Cannabis is by far the illegal substance most commonly used in Europe. Recent population surveys indicate that between 3 % to 31 % of adults (aged 15 to 64 years) have tried the substance at least once. A rough European average would be around 20 % of adults having ever tried cannabis (Table GPS-1 part (i), Table GPS-8 part (i)).
Cannabis use is concentrated among young adults, as other illegal drugs. Between 11 % and 44 % of young Europeans aged 15 to 34 years declared that they had tried cannabis. Among 15 to 24 year old Europeans, 9 % to 45 % declared having tried cannabis, with most countries falling in the range 20 to 35 % (Table GPS-2, Table GPS-9).
The fact that recent or current use is substantially lower than lifetime experience indicates that cannabis use may tend to be occasional, or to be discontinued after some time (Table GPS-3, Table GPS-4, Table GPS-5, Table GPS-10, Table GPS-11, Table GPS-12, Table GPS-13, Figure GPS-2, Figure GPS-3, Figure GPS-4).
As with other illegal drugs, rates of cannabis use are notably higher among males than among females (Table GPS-7 part (i), Table GPS-7 part (ii)).
Data on frequency of cannabis use in the last 30 days showing that approximately a quarter (19 to 33 %) of those who had used cannabis in the last month were doing so on a daily or almost daily basis, most of them young males (Table GPS-7 part (i), Table GPS-7 part (ii)). Table GPS-7 gives where available, for cannabis only, the self-reported prevalence of use in the last 30 days (i) in the population aged 15 to 64 and the population aged 15 to 34 separately by gender, and (ii) by frequency of use in the past 30 days among all users.
Despite methodological differences, different types of surveys (national or local household surveys, conscript and school surveys) have shown that cannabis use increased markedly during the 1990s in almost all EU countries, particularly among young people (Figure GPS-4).
Traditionally, population surveys showed that after cannabis, amphetamines were the illegal substance most commonly used, albeit their overall prevalence is clearly lower than that of cannabis. But this pattern seems to be now changing with ecstasy taking second place after cannabis (Figure GPS-6, Figure GPS-8, Figure GPS-20).
According to recent surveys, among all adults (15 to 64 years), lifetime experience with amphetamine ranged from 0.1 % to 6 % in EU Member States, except in the United Kingdom, where it was 12.2 % (Table GPS-1 part (i), Table GPS-8 part (i)). Among young adults (15 to 34 years), lifetime experience with amphetamines ranges from 0.1 to 10 %, with the United Kingdom reporting 18.4 % (Table GPS-2, Table GPS-9).
Ecstasy has been tried by about 0.2 to 6.5 % of the adult population, with most countries in the range 1 to 4 % (Table GPS-1 part (i), Table GPS-8 part (i)). Among young adults (15 to 34 years), 0.6 % to 13 % reported experience with ecstasy (Table GPS-2, Table GPS-9).
As ecstasy use is a predominantly youth phenomenon, it is worth focussing on prevalence in the 15 to 24 years age group. Here, lifetime experience ranges from 0.4-13 %, while recent use (last year) ranges from 0.3-11 % (Figure GPS-7). Furthermore, among males of this age group, most countries reported prevalences of any experience in the range of 4-16%, and recent use (last year) in the range of 2-8 % (Figure GPS-18).
There have been frequent reports indicating an increase in ecstasy use during the 1990s in many EU countries, in particular in recreational setting. This is confirmed by surveys, which show an increase of recent use (last year) among young adults in most countries with consecutive surveys (Figure GPS-8, Figure GPS-19, Figure GPS-20).
National population surveys show that between 0.5 % and 6 % of the general adult population report have tried cocaine at least once (Table GPS-1 part (i), Table GPS-8 part (i)
As with other drugs, younger adults present higher rates of cocaine use, with lifetime experience reported by between 1 % and 10 % of young people, and recent use (last year) by between 0.2 % to 4.9 % (Table GPS-2, Table GPS-9).
There has been warning about increases in cocaine use in Europe, prompted by local reports, focused studies conducted in dance settings, increases in seizures indicators and some increases in indicators related to problems. Identification of clear-cut European trends based on population studies is still difficult due to few consistent series of surveys (Figure GPS-10).