Scottish Schools Adolescent Lifestyle and Substance Use Survey (SALSUS): national overview 2018

Survey Background

SALSUS is a continuation of a long-established series of national surveys on smoking, drinking and drug use. These were carried out jointly in Scotland and England between 1982 and 2000, to provide a national picture of young peoples' smoking (from 1982), drinking (from 1990), and drug use (from 1998) behaviours within the context of other lifestyle, health and social factors. Since 2002, Scotland has developed its own, more tailored survey, known as SALSUS. The survey runs approximately every two years.

SALSUS informs progress towards Scottish Government policies to reduce the harms from smoking, drinking and drug use among children and young people. 

This survey series also provides local prevalence rates for smoking, drinking and drug use every four years across Alcohol and Drug Partnerships (ADPs), local authorities and NHS Boards. 

Throughout the report the colour red is used for information, charts and graphics on alcohol, green for drugs and blue for smoking.