Teenage drinking in Scotland has declined dramatically over the past decade, according to new research led by St Andrews University.
A World Health Organisation (WHO) report published today reveals since 2002 weekly drinking among 15-year-olds in Scotland has declined from 41% to 11% in girls and from 41% to 14% among boys.
The drop is the second largest for girls and fourth largest for boys out of the 36 European countries included in the report.
However, despite the reductions the report concludes levels of alcohol consumption remain dangerously high across Europe and continue to be a major public health concern.
The report identifies a number of possible reasons for the recent declines in alcohol consumption including changes in household income, marketing and prevention approaches, as well as shifts in adult norms and teen culture.
Dr Jo Inchley, senior research fellow in the school of medicine at St Andrews and lead editor of the report, said: “Overall reductions in harmful drinking have been greatest in countries that traditionally have had higher prevalence, such as Great Britain and the Nordic region.
“This makes it clear that change is possible; however, more should be done to ensure that adolescents are effectively protected from the harms caused by alcohol.”
Dr Inchley added: “Studies have shown than young people who are exposed to alcohol marketing are more likely to start drinking at an earlier age and to drink more.
“We therefore need to implement stricter policies to restrict advertising to young people, alongside other measures which have been shown to be effective, such as taxation, minimum pricing and enforcing age restrictions on the sale of alcohol.”
The report found boys in Scotland were most likely to report drinking beer (on a weekly basis) at 9%, while girls were most likely to drink spirits at 7% of those surveyed.
Consumption of spirits by girls in Scotland also dropped significantly from 37% in 2002 to 7% in 2014 and in boys from 26% to 5%.
The report, conducted by a team of European researchers, also showed that a third of Scottish girls and boys have been drunk twice or more in their lifetime – down from around 50% in 2002 but still placing Scotland in the top ten in Europe.
More than a quarter of girls in Scotland (27%) and almost a third of boys (30%) started drinking alcohol at age 13 or younger.
The number of girls drinking one particular kind of alcoholic drink weekly has dropped from 34% to six% from 2002, with the number of boys falling from 23% to 8%.
The numbers drinking a variety of alcoholic drinks every week has dropped from 7% to 4% among girls, and from 17% to 5% among boys.
Across Europe, Great Britain and Ireland have seen the largest drops in teenage drinking since the study began in 2002.
The highest prevalence of regular teenage drinking is found in Southern Mediterranean countries and Central Eastern Europe.
Across the 36 European countries studied in the report, more than one in ten adolescents in the WHO European Regions were regular weekly drinkers by the age of 15.
