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HRB National Drugs Library

Prevalence 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.

National Drug and Alcohol Survey publications

The National Drug and Alcohol Survey (NDAS) collects information on alcohol and tobacco consumption and drug use among the general population in Ireland. It 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 years and older across Ireland.
- 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
National population surveys have taken place in Ireland, every four to five years since 2002. Click this link for prevous national survey reports,

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 2019 wave of the ESPAD survey marked the 7th occasion that Ireland has participated in this collaborative international project. Findings were published in November 2020.
2019 ESPAD survey European results 
2019 ESPAD survey Irish results 
Online ESPAD explorer tool - explore, visualise and analyse data from past surveys
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.

(2024) The Irish Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) Study 2022. 

Trends in health behaviours, health outcomes and contextual factors between 1998-2018: findings from the Irish Health Behaviour in School-aged Children Study.

Irish Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) study 2018 
Cannabis use among Irish children: results from the 2018 Health Behaviour in School-aged Children Survey
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). 
Growing Up in Ireland: The lives of 20-year-olds: making the transition to adulthood. (2021) ESRI; Trinity College Dublin; Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth. Summary
All Growing Up in Ireland survey reports

Growing up in the West. Planet Youth county reports 2022, published May 2023 - Galway city, Galway, Mayo, Roscommon.

State of the Nation's children key findings 2023 and children's outcomes

Other prevalence sources

Irish annual national report chapter 2 - drugs
Factsheets on alcohol, cannabis, cocaine, opiates, sedatives and tranquilisers, tobacco, new psychoactive substances, gambling, and young people
Also, (2023) Regional alcohol-related harm - County level factsheet 
Alcohol: availability, affordability, related harm, and policy in Ireland. (2024) Health Research Board.
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.
View the most recent dashboard with Irish alcohol-related statistics.
Healthy Ireland survey 2023 summary of findings
Health in Ireland key trends 2023
My world survey 2: national study of youth mental health in Ireland. (2019) UCD and Jigsaw 
My world survey 1 (2012)
Problematic opioid use in Ireland, 2015–2019. Hanrahan, Michael T et al (2022) Health Research Board. 
HSE Performance assurance reports (data on social inclusion, opioid substitution)
National alcohol diary (2013) dataset
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.]

Growing up in Ireland. Key findings from the self-complete survey with cohort ’08 at 13 (2024)
Growing Up in Ireland. The lives of 20-year-olds making the transition to adulthood (2021) and Child cohort come of age: review of the literature pertaining to the 17/18 year wave (2020)

All Growing Up in Ireland study reports

National Drugs and Alcohol Survey data

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.

You can use these tables to create cross tabulations and answer your own specific research question.

View National Drugs and Alcohol Survey results

This page was last updated in July 2024