Notes: The Health Survey for England data was collected in participants' homes. Children aged 8 to 15 were asked about alcohol consumption in a self-completion questionnaire to ensure greater privacy and encourage honest answers. Previous studies have shown that children feel able to answer questions on risky behaviours more honestly when asked away from the home setting, and it is likely that the HSE underestimates the level of alcohol consumption among children. For further information, see the HSE 2015 report on Children's drinking here (pdf).

Year-on-year fluctuations may not indicate real changes and can be within the margins of sampling error. We comment only on the changes that are more likely to reflect a real change.