Teenage smoking and alcohol consumption is down while ice use among Australians has risen, a new report shows.

The first data to be released from the 2016 national drug strategy household survey also shows the proportion of Australians who have never smoked continues to rise – from 60% in 2013 to 62% in 2016.

In particular, fewer teenagers are taking up smoking. The proportion who have never smoked rose from 95% in 2013 to 98% in 2016.

The rate of daily alcohol consumption has fallen and more people are choosing to drink less frequently.

“As with smoking, a smaller proportion of teenagers are drinking alcohol, down from 28% in 2013 to 18% in 2016,” said an Australian Institute of Health and Welfare spokesman, Matthew James.

The report says older people are more likely to use illicit drugs. Between 2013 and 2016, the proportion of people in their 40s who had used illicit drugs in the last 12 months rose from 14% to 16%.

Overall, the most common recently used drugs were cannabis (10%), cocaine (3%), and ecstasy (2%).

While methamphetamine use fell, more people are choosing to use ice – a crystalline form of the illicit and highly addictive drug also known as crystal meth – rather than other forms such as powder.

In 2016 57% of methamphetamine users were mainly using ice, up from 22% in 2010. Ice is also of most concern to Australians (40%), overtaking the excessive consumption of alcohol.