HRB National Drugs Library

Key Irish data > Prevelance data

 How many people use alcohol and other drugs in Ireland?

Drug prevalence is the proportion of a population who have used drugs in a given time period.

This webpage provides links to key surveys and other studies that provide information on prevalence of use in Ireland, and on substance use behaviour and attitudes.

Click on the headings below to view some of the latest studies. 
For a summary, see also, Health Research Board. (2025) Drug use prevalence in Ireland: findings from recent population studies and estimates of problematic use. Drugnet Ireland, Issue 92, Autumn 2025, Supplement 

School and youth surveys

The main purpose of the European School Survey Project on Alcohol and Other Drugs (ESPAD) is to collect comparable data on substance use among European students aged 15 and 16 in order to monitor trends within, as well as between, countries. The 2024 wave of the ESPAD survey marked the 8th occasion that Ireland has participated in this collaborative international project. Findings were published in May 2025.
ESPAD Ireland 2024: results from the European School Survey Project on Alcohol and Other Drugs (Irish results)
ESPAD report 2024. Results from the European School Survey Project on Alcohol and Other Drugs (European results)
Key findings from the 2024 ESPAD, European results
See also, ESPAD data portal
The Irish Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) study 2022 is the seventh time that data of this kind have been collected from young people (school going children aged 9-18 years) across the Republic of Ireland. Substance use questions cover tobacco, alcohol and cannabis use.

(2025) Trends in health behaviours, outcomes and contexts: 1998-2022. The Irish Health Behaviour in School-aged Children Study.
(2024) The Irish Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) Study 2022. 

Growing Up in Ireland is the national longitudinal study of children and young people, a joint project of the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth (DCEDIY) and the Central Statistics Office (CSO). The study follows the progress of two groups of children: 8,000 9-year-olds (Cohort ’98) and 10,000 9-month-olds (Cohort ’08). 
Department of Children, Disability and Equality (2025) What we know from Growing Up in Ireland (GUI) 2008-2024: key well-being factors for children and young people. 
Health Research Board (2025) Webinar recording: Growing up in Ireland: substance use and childhood adversity.
Central Statistics Office. (2025) Growing Up in Ireland: Cohort '98 at age 25 main results.
Brennan M et al (2025) Polysubstance use in early adulthood and associated factors in the Republic of Ireland: an analysis of a nationally representative cohort.
Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth. (2024) Growing up in Ireland. Key findings from the self-complete survey with cohort ’08 at 13.

Growing up in the West. Planet Youth county reports 2025, published June 2025 - Galway city, Galway, Mayo, Roscommon.

State of the Nation's children key findings published 2025 

Key prevalence sources

(2025) Irish annual national report chapter 2 - drugs
(2025) Factsheets on alcohol, cannabis, cocaine, opiates, sedatives and tranquilisers, tobacco, new psychoactive substances, gambling, and young people
(2024) Alcohol and drugs data factsheet: HSE health regions.
(2023) Regional alcohol-related harm - County level factsheet 
(2024) Alcohol: availability, affordability, related harm, and policy in Ireland. Health Research Board.
(2022) Alcohol and other drug use among children and young people in Ireland: prevalence, risk and protective factors, consequences, responses, and policies. (2022) Health Research Board.
(2025) View the most recent dashboard with Irish alcohol-related statistics.
(2025) CSO Irish Health Survey 2024
(2025) Healthy Ireland survey 2025 summary of findings.
(2025) Drug use in Ireland 2023: findings from the Healthy Ireland survey. Article by Mongan and others
(2025) Health in Ireland key trends 2024
(2025) Trends in cocaine use and cocaine-related harms in Ireland: a retrospective, multi-source database study. Article by Mongan and others
(2025) Prevalence of problematic opioid use in Ireland, 2020–2022. Dublin: Health Research Board.
(2025) HSE Performance assurance reports (data on social inclusion, opioid substitution)
(2025) Hexahydrocannabinol (HHC) use and harms in Ireland: new findings from the 2024 European Web Survey on Drugs. Article by Mongan and others
(2022) European web survey on drugs 2021: Irish results. [Note: this isurvey was conducted to determine patterns of drug use among a convenience sample of people aged 18 years and over who had used drugs in the last year.]
(2013) National alcohol diary dataset.

Growing Up in Ireland is the national longitudinal study of children and young people, a joint project of the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth (DCEDIY) and the Central Statistics Office (CSO). The study follows the progress of two groups of children: 8,000 9-year-olds (Cohort ’98) and 10,000 9-month-olds (Cohort ’08). 
Department of Children, Disability and Equality (2025) What we know from Growing Up in Ireland (GUI) 2008-2024: key well-being factors for children and young people. 
Health Research Board (2025) Webinar recording: Growing up in Ireland: substance use and childhood adversity.
Central Statistics Office (2025) Growing Up in Ireland: Cohort '98 at age 25 main results.
Brennan M et al (2025) Polysubstance use in early adulthood and associated factors in the Republic of Ireland: an analysis of a nationally representative cohort.
Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth. (2024) Growing up in Ireland. Key findings from the self-complete survey with cohort ’08 at 13.

National Drug and Alcohol Survey

The Health Research Board's National Drug and Alcohol Survey (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.

- The 2019–20 Irish National Drug and Alcohol Survey: main findings report
- Regional data from the NDAS is available in our CHO factsheets
- Gambling in the Republic of Ireland. Results from the 2019–20 NDAS

You can use these tables to create cross tabulations and answer your own specific research question. View National Drugs and Alcohol Survey results

National surveys have taken place since 2002, Click this link for prevous national survey reports,

This page was last updated in November 2025