24 per cent of young people had smoked, with only five per cent considering themselves regular smokers. Girls were more likely than boys to have smoked (28 per cent and 21 per cent respectively). The region with the lowest prevalence of ever having smoked was London (21 per cent compared with 28 per cent in the North East).
Over half of 15-year-olds appear to be healthy eaters: 52 per cent said they’d consumed five or more portions of fruit and vegetables the previous day, although only 14 per cent do at least one hour of daily exercise. 52 per cent of the teenagers thought their body was ‘about the right size’ with 28 per cent believing themselves to be too fat.
26 per cent of young people had been offered cannabis with 11 per cent having tried it. The majority (87 per cent) had never been offered any other drugs and 98 per cent of young people had not tried other drugs. Just over three-fifths of young people (62 per cent) had drunk a whole alcoholic drink (as opposed to just having a sip) with six per cent identifying as regular drinkers (drinking alcohol at least once a week).
Over half of young people in England (55 per cent) said that they had been experienced some form of bullying in the past two months. 15 per cent had experienced cyber-bullying within the past two months, with nearly twice as many girls (19 per cent) as boys (10 per cent) being victims of cyber-bullying.
