Abstract Introduction: Adolescence is a point in the life course when young people are at risk of poor health outcomes and developing detrimental health behaviours that will affect their adult health. Aim: To identify the prevalence of health risk behaviours (HRB), comparing young people (12-18yrs) who are vulnerable (looked after children, SEND, young carers and military dependents) to those who are not vulnerable, and whether these behaviours are associated with protective factors. Method: A secondary analysis of survey data (n=4129) compared 900 vulnerable young people and 3229 non-vulnerable young people. Differences between the two groups were assessed using Chi-square tests, and associations with possible protective factors were assessed using logistic regression (adjusting for confounding). Findings: Vulnerable young people have a higher prevalence of smoking tobacco (15% vs 9%, p.0.00),monthly or more compared to the rest of Wiltshire adolescent population. Health protecting factors each had a statistically significant relationship with at least one HRB, several had more than one association. There are shared protective factors between vulnerable young people and those in the rest of Wiltshire, there are also differences between the two groups. Conclusion: Shared protective factors across risk behaviours can build on the resilience of a young person, impacting on their current and future health. Therefore, we should focus our attention on promoting general health and wellbeing, not solely delivering interventions targeted at specific risks. Consideration should be given to identifying and promoting protective factors for vulnerable people as they have higher levels of HRB, and experience protective factors differently.