Percent of high school seniors reporting use in the past month, by gender and race, 1975-2019

Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP), Serving Children, Families, and Communities

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Self-report Behaviors

Q:	Do trends in past month use of cigarettes, alcohol, and marijuana among high school seniors vary by gender and race?
A:	Self-reported use of alcohol, cigarettes, and marijuana/hashish followed similar patterns across gender and race.

Year	Alcohol All seniors	Alcohol Male	Alcohol Female	Alcohol White*	Alcohol Black*	Alcohol Hispanic*
1975	68.2%	75.0%	62.2%
1976	68.3%	74.5%	61.8%
1977	71.2%	77.8%	65.0%	72.8%	49.5%	63.0%
1978	72.1%	77.5%	67.1%	75.0%	48.7%	64.5%
1979	71.8%	76.7%	67.0%	75.3%	47.2%	63.8%
1980	72.0%	77.4%	66.8%	75.4%	47.6%	63.6%
1981	70.7%	75.7%	65.7%	75.4%	46.7%	62.0%
1982	69.7%	74.1%	65.4%	74.6%	46.0%	60.3%
1983	69.4%	74.4%	64.3%	73.9%	47.7%	59.1%
1984	67.2%	71.4%	62.8%	72.8%	45.5%	59.7%
1985	65.9%	69.8%	62.1%	71.2%	42.8%	59.1%
1986	65.3%	69.0%	61.9%	70.2%	42.1%	56.3%
1987	66.4%	69.9%	63.1%	71.0%	39.4%	57.2%
1988	63.9%	68.0%	59.9%	70.6%	39.8%	57.8%
1989	60.0%	65.1%	54.9%	67.3%	39.5%	52.9%
1990	57.1%	61.3%	52.3%	63.8%	35.8%	49.1%
1991	54.0%	58.4%	49.3%	60.0%	33.7%	51.5%
1992	51.3%	55.8%	46.8%	56.8%	31.7%	53.8%
1993	48.6%	54.2%	43.4%	55.6%	32.4%	50.5%
1994	50.1%	55.5%	45.2%	54.0%	33.8%	45.9%
1995	51.3%	55.7%	47.0%	54.5%	35.2%	48.7%
1996	50.8%	54.8%	46.9%	54.8%	36.5%	47.5%
1997	52.7%	56.2%	48.9%	56.4%	34.3%	48.2%
1998	52.0%	57.3%	46.9%	57.7%	33.3%	49.8%
1999	51.0%	55.3%	46.8%	56.3%	32.2%	50.2%
2000	50.0%	54.0%	46.1%	55.1%	30.0%	51.2%
2001	49.8%	54.7%	45.1%	55.3%	29.4%	48.9%
2002	48.6%	52.3%	45.1%	54.0%	30.1%	47.5%
2003	47.5%	51.7%	43.8%	52.3%	29.9%	46.4%
2004	48.0%	51.1%	45.1%	52.2%	29.2%	45.4%
2005	47.0%	50.7%	43.3%	52.3%	29.0%	43.3%
2006	45.3%	47.3%	43.0%	50.7%	29.2%	43.4%
2007	44.4%	47.1%	41.4%	49.3%	28.7%	41.4%
2008	43.1%	45.8%	40.9%	48.6%	28.6%	38.9%
2009	43.5%	47.8%	38.9%	47.2%	30.5%	40.1%
2010	41.2%	44.2%	37.9%	45.4%	31.4%	40.1%
2011	40.0%	42.1%	37.5%	43.8%	30.1%	39.7%
2012	41.5%	43.8%	38.8%	43.8%	29.6%	39.8%
2013	39.2%	41.8%	36.3%	43.6%	28.4%	39.0%
2014	37.4%	37.4%	37.1%	42.5%	25.9%	37.0%
2015	35.3%	36.0%	35.0%	40.9%	24.0%	36.3%
2016	33.2%	34.5%	32.0%	39.0%	21.8%	34.9%
2017	33.2%	34.1%	32.3%	39.0%	20.3%	30.9%
2018	30.2%	30.4%	30.1%	38.0%	21.2%	26.4%
2019	29.3%	29.8%	28.5%	34.9%	19.4%	24.4%

Notes: * To derive percentages for each racial subgroup, data for the specified year and the previous year have been combined to increase subgroup sample sizes and thus provide more stable estimates.

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Past month use of alcohol and marijuana was higher for males than females each year since 1975.
Since 1975, self report use of alcohol and cigarettes was higher for white students than their black and Hispanic peers. While this pattern was true for marijuana use for most of the 1976-2019 period, in recent years, past month use of marijuana was higher for black and Hispanic students than that of white students.

Internet citation: OJJDP Statistical Briefing Book. Online. Available: https://www.ojjdp.gov/ojstatbb/offenders/qa03512.asp?qaDate=2019. Released on May 15, 2020.

Data Source: Adapted from Johnston, L. D., Miech, R. A., O'Malley, P. M., Bachman, J. G., Schulenberg, J. E., & Patrick, M. E. (2020). Demographic subgroup trends among adolescents in the use of various licit and illicit drugs, 1975-2019 (Monitoring the Future Occasional Paper No. 94). Ann Arbor, MI: Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan.