Terms & Conditions of use of National Drug and Alcohol Survey (NDAS) data

About the NDAS

The data for these tables are provided by the Health Research Board's National Drug and Alcohol Survey (NDAS). The NDAS collects information on alcohol and tobacco, and drug use among the general population in Ireland.

The NDAS also surveys people’s attitudes and perceptions relating to tobacco, alcohol and other drug use and records the impact of drug use on people’s communities. The 2019/20 NDAS collected information from 5,762 people aged 15 and over across Ireland. This is the fifth such survey undertaken in Ireland, providing an opportunity to observe trends over time. Data from all five surveys are available. This survey was undertaken in the Republic of Ireland only.

Through these interactive tables you can search for prevalence data on all of the substances included in the survey. The results of your analysis can be organised by year, age group, drug type, gender, and other variables.

Use of any illegal drug and alcohol

The tables provide figures on reported use of an illegal drug (cannabis, ecstasy, cocaine powder, magic mushrooms, amphetamines, poppers, LSD, new psychoactive substances (NPS), crack, and heroin) and solvents and alcohol at some time in the respondents’ lives, in the last year, and recent use.

Factors associated with drug use

The survey recorded personal and demographic information such as level of education, employment status, and area of resident (which is coded according to levels of deprivation).

Perceptions and attitudes

Respondents were asked if they agreed with permitting cannabis for medical and recreational use and their perceptions of people who had an addiction.

Impact on local communities

Questions on the impact of drug use on local communities were included in the 2019/20 NDAS for the first time. Respondents were asked if they had had personal experience of drug-related intimidation.

By downloading data, you agree to the terms of use as set out below.

Any of the data published here may be freely used but remain the property of the Health Research Board (HRB). To safeguard the integrity and confidentiality of the data, all users must agree to the following conditions:

NDAS data are not to be presented in either written or oral form that could directly or indirectly identify an individual.
The NDAS must be clearly acknowledged as the source of the data in any publication or presentation in which the data are used.
The HRB National Drugs Library must be provided with a copy of any published paper in which NDAS data are used.

You, as the data user, are fully responsible for the accurate interpretation of the data.

Please reference the data as follows:

HRB National Drugs Library (2021) National Drug and Alcohol Survey (NDAS).

Available at: www.drugsandalcohol.ie/

Contact

If you have any queries, please contact the HRB National Drugs Library at drugslibrary@hrb.ie

Indicate acceptance by selecting the Accept button below. Then select ‘Proceed to reports’.

Cross Referenced Questions

Question	Responses	Delete

Remove All

Survey Categories

No years are selected. Please select a year before searching database.

NDAS Help Page

This is an interactive resource for analysing results from the Health Research Board’s National survey on drug and alcohol use. In these surveys, participants are asked about their use of substances, including alcohol, tobacco, cannabis, cocaine, prescription drugs and many others.

Basic Instructions

On the ‘Survey Charts’ page:

Select a category from the drop-down list of survey categories.
Click the 'plus' icon located to the right of ‘Filter’ if you wish to add limits to your search (such as years, gender or age).
Click a question to view the survey results for all the years that the survey question was asked
- [Or] To view one survey year only, click the 'plus' icon located to the right of the question and choose one option.
The system may take a moment to load your results. If you do more than one search, the results will be shown beneath each other.
To view results in more detail, click a pie chart. This will open a popup box showing a large version of the chart and data (numbers and percentages).
You can temporarily save a chart for the duration of your browsing session by clicking 'Save Chart' on the results section that chart. This will cause the chart to be loaded and shown if you refresh the page. You can remove a saved chart by clicking 'Delete Save'.

Basic Filtering

Filtering allows you narrow your survey search and narrow the field of survey responders. Basic filtering comes in two forms; question filtering and data filtering.

Question Filters allow you to search for specific terms and find relevant questions from your chosen category by entering one or more words of interest in the question title box; or limit your search to a specific set of years.

Data Filters allow you to filter the data by gender and age. The other filter, 'non applicable data’ removes values that are not relevant in certain situations (for example, if a person indicates that they don’t drink alcohol, further questions on alcohol for that person will be marked as ‘N/A’). By default, N/A responses are excluded.

To use survey filters:

Once you have selected a category, click the 'plus' located on the right hand side of the word 'Filter'
Enable or disable your chosen filters by clicking the switch icon (blue is on; grey is off).
You can also apply or change filters after you select a question. Click on ‘Edit filters’ to the right of your chart(s)

Cross Reference Question

Cross referencing allows you to compare data across different questions. For example, if you are interested in a particular variable (such as respondents under 18 years of age) you can find a question with that variable and use the cross reference option to select it. Results will now only show for the variable(s) you selected in that question, and other questions until you turn it off (scroll to the top of the webpage and delete).

To cross reference a question:

Select a question you wish to reference using the instructions given in 'Basic Instructions'.
Click 'Edit Filters'.
Click 'Cross Reference Question' and all the responses given to that question will appear.
Select the response(s) you wish to see in your results by clicking the switch icon (blue is on; grey is off).
Click 'Apply'.

Examples

For example, you can use cross reference to compare the percentage of respondents who smoke tobacco with those who started smoking at a young age. To do this:

In the tobacco category, select the question 'Do you smoke tobacco?' and look at the results.
Now select the question 'What age were you when you first smoked tobacco?' Click ‘Edit Filter’, click ‘Cross reference’ and select the switch icon beside the response '<18 years old'. Click ‘Apply’.
The results for 'Do you smoke tobacco?' will only show for those who answered '<18 years old' to 'What age were you when you first smoked tobacco?'

Cross referencing a question allows you to easily add up responses to a given question. For example, you can see the number of people who smoke 20 or more cigarettes a day. To do this:

Select the questions 'How many standard cigarettes do you smoke daily?'
Apply a cross reference filter by selecting all the response from 20 upwards.

Viewing & Removing Applied Filters:

Once a question reference filter is applied, a table will appear at the top of the webpage showing the reference questions with selected responses.
You can remove a specific question by clicking the 'bin' icon next to the question in the table.
Alternatively you can remove all referenced questions by clicking the 'Remove All' button below the table.

Abilities & Limitations:

You can apply a cross reference to multiple questions at a time.
You can apply a cross reference across different question categories.

You cannot apply a cross reference if the number of people is too low for your selected responses.
Cross referencing a response that is only present in a specific year will result in 'No Data Available' for all other years.
If you apply a reference filter to a question, you cannot apply additional responses to it afterwards. To do this you must delete the reference filter first and create it again with the additional responses included.

Interactive Help Messages

Interactive help messages are pop-up dialog boxes that guide you through specific processes. If any of the help messages are hidden by using the 'Do Not Show' link, you can restore them by clicking the button below.'

HRB National Drugs Library