New survey highlights encouraging declines in narcotics and nitrous oxide use among Stockholm’s teenagers, but raises alarms over increasing alcohol consumption in girls and ongoing mental health struggles.
Stockholm County’s latest youth survey points to a mixed picture: fewer teenagers are using narcotics and nitrous oxide, but alcohol consumption has edged upwards and many girls continue to report poor mental health. The Stockholmsenkäten, a long-running survey commissioned by Stockholm city, collected responses from 37,744 pupils in ninth grade and second-year upper secondary school across the county.
Officials described the fall in drug use as encouraging. Jonas Melinder, who works on alcohol, narcotics, doping, tobacco and gambling issues at the Stockholm County Administrative Board, said the survey does not reflect claims that drugs are becoming cheaper or easier to obtain in everyday life. He also said nitrous oxide use has almost disappeared among the students surveyed.
The more troubling change is alcohol. Melinder said the rise appears to be driven mainly by girls in upper secondary school, who are reporting more frequent drunkenness than before. He added that drinking and drug use vary sharply between municipalities, with higher levels tending to appear in areas with stronger socio-economic conditions.
The survey also reinforces a pattern that has persisted for years: girls are more likely than boys to say they feel unwell. Kajsa Lönn Rhodin, who works on social development at the county board, said many girls report anxiety and low mood, and more than half say schoolwork causes them extreme or very high stress, compared with about a quarter of boys. She said screen use may be part of the explanation, pointing to pressure from social media and unrealistic ideals, while also noting that boys may express distress in different ways. Separate research from the Stockholm Centre for Psychiatry Research has linked heavier screen time among Stockholm high school students with higher depression levels and weaker coping strategies, while earlier Stockholmsenkäten reporting has also found that girls consistently fare worse than boys on mental and psychosomatic health. Recent reporting, however, suggests there may now be some tentative improvement in girls’ wellbeing.
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