TABLE 1.

General characteristics of the University of Witwatersrand undergraduate students (N = 930) who participated in the survey February–May 2021.

Characteristic	Categoriesa	N	%
Age	18–19 years	244	26.2
	20 years and above	686	73.8
	Total	930	100.0
Race	Black African	479	52.4
	Colored	30	3.3
	Indian/Asian	161	17.6
	White	231	25.3
	Other	13	1.4
	Total	914	100.0
Residential area	Informal settlements	18	2.0
	Rural	116	12.7
	Urban	359	39.4
	Suburban	385	42.3
	other	33	3.6
	Total	911	100.0
Type of home	Shack	22	2.4
	Wendy house or backyard dwelling	17	1.9
	Brick house or flat	843	92.5
	Other	29	3.2
	Total	911	100.0
Income	We don’t have enough money for food	15	1.7
	We have enough money for food but not for other basic items such as clothes	73	8.2
	We have enough money for food and clothes, but we are short of many other things	114	12.7
	We have the most important things, but few luxury goods	372	41.6
	We have money for luxury goods and extra things	321	35.9
	Total	895	100.0
Highest qualification	High school diploma or equivalent	643	71.5
	Bachelor’s degree	188	20.9
	Honors degree	68	7.6
	Total	899	100.0
Year of study	1	181	19.8
	2	162	17.8
	3	226	24.8
	4	223	24.5
	5	64	7.0
	6	56	6.1
	Total	912	100.0
Religion	Christianity	590	64.9
	Judaism	23	2.5
	Islam	98	10.8
	Hinduism	31	3.4
	Buddhism	1	0.1
	Atheism	60	6.6
	Other	106	11.7
	Total	909	100.0
Marital status	Single	630	69.2
	Single in relationship	262	28.8
	Married	18	2.0
	Total	910	100.0
Alcohol use	Never	255	28.0
	In the past week	275	30.2
	In the past month	162	17.8
	In the past 6 months	138	15.1
	In the past 12 months	20	2.2
	Longer than 12 months ago	62	6.8
	Total	912	100.0
Tobacco use	Yes	100	11.0
	No	809	89.0
	Total	909	100.0
Cannabis use	Yes	167	18.4
	No	742	81.6
	Total	909	100.0
Other substance use	Yes	39	4.3
	No	867	95.7
	Total	906	100.0

^aVarying total denominator due to missing values.