This year’s Indiana Youth Survey shows a continual decline in nearly every major category of substance use, including data reaching its lowest levels since current survey methods were adopted in 2015.
The survey is conducted by Prevention Insights, a center in Indiana University’s School of Public Health in Bloomington. The 2026 survey collected usable responses from 53,879 students in grades six through 12, representing 183 schools statewide. It provides assessments of youth alcohol, tobacco and other drug use, and risk and protective factors.
Jon Agley, an associate professor at the IU School of Public Health and the executive director of Prevention Insights, said the data mirror broader trends that are happening nationally.
“They are good news from the perspective of if your orientation is you want to reduce youth adolescent substance use,” Agley said.
For students in seventh, eighth and 10th through 12th grades, the survey marked the fourth significant biennial decrease in reported use of electronic vapor products in the 30 days prior to taking the survey.
For example, use among 12th grade students declined to 8.2% this year, compared to 9.6% in 2024 and down from 28.6% in 2018. Sixth grade and ninth grade students had a 0.1% decrease from 2024 to now. Only 2.4% of sixth graders reported vaping, while 5.8% of ninth graders said they had vaped in the previous 30 days. The ninth grade number is well down from the 16.7% reported in 2018.
There was a significant decrease in past-month alcohol use in all grades, with rates reaching their lowest since 2015.
Similar results were also true for binge drinking in the past two weeks, which only includes seventh to 12th graders. For example, in 2015, 16.7% of 12th grade students reported binge-drinking. But that number dropped to 4.4% in 2026.
The use of marijuana/cannabis significantly declined among most grade levels as well.
Among seventh to 12th graders who did report past-month marijuana/cannabis use, vaping was the most common method. Electronic vapor products remained the most used tobacco-related product among Indiana youth.
Use of heroin, methamphetamine, cocaine and other illicit drugs remain uncommon among Indiana youth.
Students who perceived stronger parental disapproval and stronger peer disapproval of substance use, and those who thought it was difficult to access substances, were less likely to report using cigarettes, alcohol, tobacco or marijuana/cannabis.
Students overestimated how many of their peers used cigarettes, alcohol, marijuana/cannabis and prescription drugs. For seventh through 12th grade students combined, students thought about a quarter of their peers used such substances. However, the past-month prevalence rate for cigarettes was just 1.1%.
“There's really strong perceptions that a lot of kids are using these substances, and that's not true anymore,” Agley said. “And the reason that matters is there's an association between peer perception and substance use.”
The survey looks at substance use rates among three race/ethnicity categories: non-Hispanic white, non-Hispanic Black or African-American, and Hispanic. It also compares substance use rates between males and females and between rural and urban areas.
This year’s survey also included questions on bullying, cyberbullying, social media use, sources of electronic vapor products and the consequences associated with substance use. Agley said this is a way to help schools and parents understand the context of their kids’ substance use.
He said there’s value in moving forward and studying what factors let to these decreases and how to support continued decreases.
“We still want to have a focus on substance use prevention. You know the numbers are not zero, and so there's always room for improvement,” he said.