Prevalence of Substance Use Among the General Population: Situation in Croatia and Comparison with Other European Countries

This paper has two primary aims: to present the data on the prevalence of licit and illicit substance use among the general population in the Republic of Croatia and to compare these prevalence rates with those from other European countries. The data on the prevalence in Croatia were gathered by empirical research on a nationally representative sample of Croatian adults aged 15-64 years (N = 4756). The data on the prevalence of licit drugs for other European countries were obtained through secondary analysis of raw data from the Special Eurobarometer 385 (tobacco) and 331 (alcohol), and the source of data on illicit drugs was the EMCDDA's Statistical Bulletin 2012. The results showed that, in Croatia, last month prevalence of smoking was 37.4%, which is among the highest in Europe and above the European average (32.4%). In the month prior to the research, 60.8% of adults in Croatia drank alcohol, which is among the lower prevalence rates compared to the other European countries and also lower than the European average (70.3%). Cannabis was the most widely used illicit drug in Croatia, 15.6% of adults used it at least once in their lifetime, which is below the European average (23.7%).