Countries That Have a Legal Drinking Age of 21 and Under
It’s universal knowledge that the legal drinking age in the United States is 21. But it’s also widely known that many young people, particularly college-aged Americans, tend to drink well before they actually turn 21 years old. But America isn’t the only country with a drinking age of 21. In fact, the legal drinking age in many countries is much lower. Let’s take a look at the various drinking ages around the globe…
What Countries Have a Drinking Age of 21?
- Cambodia
- Cameroon
- Egypt
- Indonesia
- Iraq
- Kazakhstan
- Marshall Islands
- Mauritania
- Nauru
- Oman
- Palau
- Samoa
- Solomon Islands
- Sri Lanka
- United States
What Countries Have a Drinking Age Under 21?
20 years old
- Benin
- Iceland
- Japan
- Paraguay
- Thailand
- Uzbekistan
18-19 years old
- Australia
- Argentina
- Bangladesh
- Belize
- Brazil
- Bulgaria
- Canada
- Chile
- China
- Colombia
- Costa Rica
- Finland
- France
- Greece
- Hungary
- Ireland
- Israel
- Italy
- Jamaica
- Jordan
- Macedonia
- Madagascar
- Mexico
- Monaco
- Norway
- Panama
- Portugal
- Poland
- Russia
- Spain
- Sweden
- Turkey
- Ukraine
The list goes on and on, as the majority of countries around the world set their minimum drinking age between 18-19 years old.
15-16 years old
- Antigua
- Austria
- Barbados
- Belgium
- Central African Republic
- Chad
- Congo
- Cuba
- Denmark
- Germany
- Haiti
- Switzerland
7 Countries with No Minimum Age Requirement
- Burkina Faso
- Djibouti
- Guinea-Bissau
- Timor-Leste
- Togo
- Vanuatu
- Western Sahara
10 Countries That Totally Ban Alcohol
- Afghanistan
- Brunei
- Iran
- Kuwait
- Libya
- Maldives
- Saudi Arabia
- Somalia
- Sudan
- Yemen
Does The Drinking Age Affect Behavior?
According to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, adolescents are more likely to binge drink and take risks than adults. Many people think that making the legal drinking age higher doesn’t stop teens from drinking. However, research has shown that raising the drinking age in the United States from 18 to 21 has reduced heavy drinking and its associated risks among high school and college students. This has led to an overall reduction in drunk driving accidents since the legal drinking age was raised.
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Images used under creative common license – commercial use (12/5/24). Photo by Yutacar on Unsplash