Drug and alcohol use by students in Canada: Dashboard
Explore data from the Canadian Student Alcohol and Drugs Survey.
- Last updated: 2025-03-03
Context
Every two years, Health Canada runs the Canadian Student Alcohol and Drugs Survey (CSADS) to learn about substance use by students in grades 7 to 12 across the country. Since 1994, results from the survey have helped shape Canadian policies and programs to better address substance use and its impacts on youth.
In the 2023–24 school year, 51,844 students completed the survey, representing 1.8 million students in the Canadian provinces.
Explore the data
Data source: Canadian Student Alcohol and Drugs Survey, 2008-2024
Figure: Notes
Figure: Text description
Technical notes
Data source
This dashboard features data from the Canadian Student Alcohol and Drugs Survey (CSADS), covering the 2008–09 cycle to the most recent 2023–24 cycle. The table below shows the overall sample size for each cycle, including both unweighted and weighted numbers.
An older blog on student alcohol use has been archived.
Table 1: Overall sample sizes of each cycle of the Canadian Student Alcohol and Drugs Survey (CSADS)
| School year | Sample size (unweighted) | Sample size (weighted) | Participating provinces |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008-2009 | 45,425 | 2,468,623 | All |
| 2010-2011 | 44,852 | 2,437,598 | 9 (New Brunswick did not) |
| 2012-2013 | 41,057 | 2,215,804 | 9 (Manitoba did not) |
| 2014-2015 | 36,665 | 2,218,070 | All |
| 2016-2017 | 52,103 | 2,088,381 | 9 (New Brunswick did not) |
| 2018-2019 | 62,850 | 2,128,044 | All |
| 2021-2022 | 61,096 | 2,159,977 | 9 (New Brunswick did not) |
| 2023-2024 | 51,844 | 1,790,743 | 9 (Quebec did not) |
Data notes
- CSADS was known as the Canadian Student Tobacco, Alcohol, and Drugs Survey (CSTADS) between 2014-2022 and the Youth Smoking Survey (YSS) before 2014.
- Data were suppressed if the denominators were ≤ 70 at the national level or ≤ 50 at the provincial level, based on Statistics Canada guidelines using survey design effects.
- The confidence intervals shown in the text descriptions were calculated using the modified Wilson method. Previous reports used the Wald method, which may produce narrower intervals and lead to undercoverage, especially for small sample sizes or extreme proportions.
More information
Health Canada conducts the Canadian Student Alcohol and Drugs Survey (CSADS). For more information about the survey and/or its results, please contact the Office of Drug Research and Surveillance within Health Canada by e-mail at odrs-brsd@hc-sc.gc.ca.
Additional resources
You might also be interested in
Canadian Substance Use Survey (CSUS)
Data on alcohol and drug use in Canada by those aged 15+.
Canadian Postsecondary Education Alcohol and Drug Use Survey (CPADS)
Patterns and consequences of substance use among postsecondary students in Canada.
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