The Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) study is a cross-national research study conducted in collaboration with the World Health Organisation (WHO) Regional Office for Europe and runs on a four-year cycle. In 2018, Ireland participated for the sixth time in the HBSC study (www.nuigalway.ie/hbsc). The overall aims of the HBSC study are to gain new insight into, and increase our understanding of young people’s health and well-being, health behaviours and their social context. HBSC collects data on key indicators of health, health attitudes, and health behaviours, as well as the context of health for young people. The study is a school-based survey with information collected from students through self-completion questionnaires in classrooms. HBSC Ireland 2018 was funded by the Department of Health.

This short report presents a brief analysis of alcohol use, alcohol availability and location of alcohol consumption use and cannabis use among Irish school-children aged 13 to 17 years old, across the country, broken down by age and gender. Overall, data from 5,265 school-children aged 13-17 were analysed.