42% of adults in treatmentPeople reporting problems with opiates, mainly heroin; some also reported crack cocaine.
Population surveys and treatment statistics · four-nation context
Drug prevalence and use patterns
The latest CSEW shows past-year drug use in England and Wales, while OHID data show adult drug and alcohol treatment activity in England. Separate national-survey coverage is shown below.
Any drug8.7%Around 2.9 million people
Any Class A3.3%Around 1.1 million people
Frequent use2.0%More than once a month
Cannabis daily10.4%Of past-year cannabis users
Ordered prevalence
Individual drugs · age 16–59
Percentage reporting use during the previous 12 months
02
Adult treatment in England
Latest OHID service-contact data · 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025
Adults in treatment329,646Up 6% · highest since reporting began
Starting treatment169,542New treatment journeys during 2024–25
Treatment exits152,06746% completed treatment successfully
Timely access99%Started treatment within three weeks of referral
30% of adults in treatmentAlcohol problems recorded without another problem substance.
15% of adults in treatmentProblems involving both non-opiate drugs and alcohol.
13% of adults in treatmentProblems involving non-opiate drugs without alcohol.
Treatment is not prevalence
These figures describe adults in contact with services in England. The four reporting groups are mutually exclusive and should not be used to estimate drug use in the wider population.
OHID report ↗03
Four nations
Any past-year drug use among people aged 16–59; 15.1% among those aged 16–24.
Adults reporting use of any listed drug in the previous 12 months. Cannabis was 9%; prevalence was 26–27% among people aged 16–34.
People aged 15–64 reporting illegal drug use in the previous 12 months. A separate 2022 school survey found 4% of Year 8–12 pupils had ever used drugs, rising to 10% in Year 12.
Scotland, Northern Ireland and the combined England-and-Wales series use different ages, questions, sampling methods and publication cycles.
04
Change signals
Each comparison shows its starting and ending period clearly.
The long-term decline continued; the 2014–15 estimate was 19.4%.
Statistically significant annual decrease.
Magic-mushroom use fell from 2.3% to 0.9%.
Statistically significant annual decrease.
Lower than the estimate ten years earlier.
Higher than the estimate ten years earlier.
05
Frequency and access
Use intensity is separate from population prevalence
Frequency
How often people report use
Any drug · CSEW year ending March 2025
Repeated use
More-than-monthly use by drug
Share of people who used each drug in the previous year
43.5%obtained drugs from a friend, neighbour or colleague
13.5%obtained drugs from a known dealer
36.4%said drugs would be easy to obtain within 24 hours
How to read this
CSEW is the strongest household-population estimate for England and Wales, but it excludes prisons, most institutions and people without stable accommodation, and self-reporting can understate use. OHID treatment statistics measure service contact in England. Prevalence, treatment demand, seizures and wastewater answer different questions and should be read together.
Download the ONS dataset ↗