Flemish Teens Drink Less, but Binge Drinking Persists

Flemish secondary-school pupils are drinking and using drugs significantly less than they were a decade ago, according to a new survey from VAD, the Flemish Expertise Centre on Alcohol and Other Drugs. But the same data, published on 23 September, show that binge drinking remains entrenched among a core group of young people — and that those who do drink are now more likely to run into police, hospital or emergency services than ten years ago.

The findings come from the VAD-leerlingenbevraging 2024-2025, an annual survey that has tracked substance use among Flemish youth for more than 20 years. This year’s edition drew responses from 36,731 pupils across 65 schools, with results based on a representative sample of roughly 7,500 students in secondary education.

A decade of decline

The headline trend is clearly positive. According to VAD’s press release, the share of pupils who have ever drunk alcohol fell from 65% in 2013-2014 to 46% in 2024-2025. Those who drank in the past year dropped from 58% to 40%, and regular weekly drinking halved from 14% to 9%. For the second year running, fewer than half of Flemish secondary pupils have ever touched alcohol.

The picture is even sharper for cannabis. Lifetime use more than halved over the decade, from 18% to 9%, while past-year use fell from 14% to 5% and regular use from 3% to just 1%. Other illegal drugs — ecstasy, cocaine, amphetamines and hallucinogens — are used by between 0.1% and 0.6% of pupils in the past year, with regular use below 0.1%. Laughing gas, despite its prominence in public debate, was used by only 0.8% of pupils over the past year.

“These developments clearly show that prevention works,” Katleen Peleman, director of VAD, said in the release. “Young people drink less and postpone alcohol use longer than before.”

The binge-drinking problem that persists

Yet the survey’s most striking message is that lower overall consumption has not translated into safer drinking for everyone. As VRT NWS reported, 23% of all pupils binge-drank at least once in the past year — defined as four or more drinks for girls, or six or more for boys, within two hours. Among 17- and 18-year-olds, that figure rises to nearly half, at 46%.

More concerning still, the share of pupils who binge-drink frequently — at least once a month — has barely budged over the past three school years, holding steady at around 11%. “We notice that we do not reach a core group of young people with prevention, so they continue to drink heavily,” Peleman said.

The consequences are real. Six in ten pupils who drank in the past year experienced at least one negative outcome, from nausea and shame to fights, vandalism, school problems or trouble with the police. Some 31% felt ashamed of their behaviour the day after drinking, and 10% said they regretted a sexual encounter while intoxicated.

Fewer drinkers, more harms

Perhaps the survey’s most counterintuitive finding is that alcohol-related harms appear to be rising even as consumption falls. Among pupils who drank in the past year, 7.2% reported problems with the police — roughly double the 3.6% recorded in 2013-2014. Hospital admissions or emergency-room visits rose from 2.5% to 4.4% over the same period.

“Ten years ago that was still 2.5 percent, now already 4.4,” Peleman told VRT NWS. “They may be small numbers, but it is a serious increase.”

VAD offers two explanations, while acknowledging that neither has been scientifically proven. The first is heightened societal alertness: bystanders, schools and young people themselves now treat warning signs such as loss of consciousness far more seriously and escalate faster — calling the Red Cross or an ambulance. “Things that were swept under the carpet 10 years ago, or looked at with a shrug, are now taken seriously,” Peleman said.

The second is clearer boundaries. Schools and social groups increasingly state explicitly what they will not accept, meaning incidents that were once ignored are now recorded. In other words, the rise in recorded harms may partly reflect a society that watches more closely — not necessarily a generation drinking more dangerously.

What’s next

The decline in early drinking has also shown signs of stalling. The average age of first alcohol use rose from 14.0 in 2013-2014 to a peak of 14.9 in 2022-2023, then slipped back to 14.7 in 2024-2025. And 28% of 15- and 16-year-olds have already drunk spirits, despite the legal ban for that age group. Four in ten pupils under 16 believe they can easily obtain beer or wine — a share that, unlike for older pupils, has not declined in three years.

VAD argues the data strengthen the case for broader policy action. The Belgian Superior Health Council has recommended banning alcohol marketing, mandating warning labels, raising the minimum age to 18 for all alcohol including beer and wine, and introducing a minimum unit price — measures that VAD supports. “The ubiquity of alcohol in our society is a brake on the results we can achieve with young people,” Peleman said.

The contrast with illegal drugs is stark. Fewer pupils now believe illegal drugs are easy to obtain, down from 26% to 17% over the decade. “These figures give a rather reassuring picture,” Peleman said. “Cannabis is the exception, and for it both availability and use have declined.”

The survey also found that 37% of pupils would talk to no one — not parents, friends or professionals — about substance-use problems, underscoring the challenge of reaching those most at risk. A parallel VAD survey of higher-education students, published in March, found the same dual pattern: less drinking overall, but rising risky behaviour such as pre-drinking and drinking games.

Smoking and vaping results, along with the full synthesis report, are due to be published by Gezond Leven on 6 October. For now, the message from VAD is one of cautious progress: prevention is working, but it is not reaching everyone — and the teens who need it most are the hardest to convince.