State education officials say a new survey of North Carolina high school students shows many risky behaviors such as substance use have fallen to their lowest levels in two decades, while mental health concerns have eased from pandemic-era highs.
The Youth Risk Behavior Survey found that the percentages of public high school students who drink alcohol, use marijuana and misuse prescription pain medication all dropped to their lowest levels since 2005. Alcohol has seen the most steady decline, falling from 42.3% to 16% between 2005 and 2025.
Tobacco use is down, too, but vape use remains more stubborn than cigarettes, with 13% of high schoolers using a vapor product — down from 21% in 2023.
Student mental health remains a concern, however. About 30% of high school students reported feeling sad or hopeless. While that figure remains elevated, it has declined from a pandemic-era spike of 43% recorded in 2021, and is more in line with numbers from 2019.
The survey also found that the percentage of students who reported seriously considering suicide fell to a 20-year low. Still, about 1 in 10 students said they had seriously considered suicide.
Speaking at a State Board of Education meeting Wednesday, board member Jill Camnitz said the results were encouraging, but added “There’s still a lot of heartbreak in them as well.”
“We’ve got so much more work to do,” Camnitz said. “But I also put a lot of hope in the fact that we're seeing a decrease in the use of social media because we know those are very deeply connected.”
The survey found high schoolers reporting slightly less frequent social media use than in 2023.
State officials also pointed to several notable gaps: Low-performing students were more likely to say they felt unsafe at school, felt sad or hopeless or that they didn’t belong at school. The same was true for students in the LGBTQ community.
Other indicators of school safety also improved. The percentages of students who reported bringing a weapon to school, getting into fights or missing school because they felt unsafe all declined.
