Girls Lead The Charts In Drinking, Gambling, Smoking And Vaping, EU-Wide Survey Shows
Girls are binge drinking, gambling, smoking and vaping more than boys, an EU-wide survey has found.
Data collected by the European School Survey Project on Alcohol and Other Drugs found that there is a rising trend of adolescent risky behaviours among girls, including in Malta.
It looked at 113,882 people students aged 15 to 16-years-old, across 37 European countries in 2024. This edition marks 30 years of monitoring this behaviour across Europe.
Cigarettes, cannabis and vapes
Despite long-term declines in substance abuse, emerging trends raise new concerns. Early initiation to cigarette smoking persists particularly among girls whose daily smoking rates at age 13 or younger have increased.
E-cigarette use has risen sharply among all adolescents with rising rates of early initiation and daily consumption.
10% of students in Malta reported using e-cigarettes in the past month – below the 22% European average.
Although the overall gender gap has decreased over time, boys continue to report higher cannabis use than girls on average (13% versus 11%). This trend is evident in most countries, however, Malta stands out as an exception, where cannabis use is more prevalent among girls (14%) than boys (8.6%).
Alcohol, drug use and gambling
Binge drinking and alcohol consumption have declined, particularly among boys yet girls are showing a more stable trend.
This applies in Malta too where 32.9% of boys reported current alcohol use compared to 41.79% of girls. A similar trend was found in heavy episodic drinking with 24.98% of boys partaking in this compared to 34.3%.
Meanwhile, an average of 13% of ESPAD students report having used any illicit drug at least once in their lifetime. Malta stood out in this category, where lifetime prevalence among girls exceeds that of boys by 6 percentage points (15% versus 9.3%).
Perceived availability of substances is generally higher among boys than girls, with the exception of cocaine, which is reported as more easily accessible by girls (13%) than boys (12%) on average.
However, in Cyprus, Slovakia, Bulgaria and Malta, girls report a higher perceived availability than boys.
Meanwhile, inhalant use is rising among girls, while non-medical pharmaceutical use is also increasing.
Gambling rates remain stable, but online participation has grown sharply, and harmful gambling behaviour has nearly doubled, with a more pronounced increase among girls. However, there was a similar increase of gaming between girls and boys in Malta over the last five years and overall 18.34% of boys reported gambling in the last 12 months compared to 13.74% of girls
A good state of mental well-being is reported by 59% of students on average. The findings highlight notable regional differences, as well as gender disparities, with girls consistently reporting lower well-being than boys. The lowest well-being scores are recorded in countries experiencing conflict and instability.
Are you surprised by these numbers?