by Magda D. Healey

Created on: August 22, 2008   Last Updated: December 01, 2010

Drinking age, which is defined as the specific age from which it is legal to drink alcohol, varies from country to country. It can also vary within countries, from state to state and depending on a type of alcohol and place of purchase or consumption. Crucially, many countries have no legal "drinking age" at all, but they have a legally defined age of alcohol purchase. Drinking is not illegal under such age, but it's illegal to purchase alcohol or to have it purchased for you.

Most countries that define legal drinking age or legal alcohol purchase age place it at the same point as other markers of legal adulthood (ability to vote, being treated as an adult in the courts and penal system, and generally removal of most or all restrictions placed on minors).

== Europe ==

Most European countries (and countries with a fundamentally European treat 18 years old as the age of legal adulthood. And thus the drinking and/or alcohol purchase age is also set at 18. However, there are with frequent exceptions that allow younger people to drink at home, drink when supervised by adults or drink/purchase lower-alcohol products (beer and/or wine).

UK has one of the most complex systems, with 18 being the minimum age to purchase alcohol, but 16 year olds are allowed to drink wine or beer with a meal in a pub or a restaurant if purchased by an adult (in Scotland the adult is not necessary). In private homes drinking alcohol is explicitly forbidden only to children under 5 (which doesn't mean that 6 year olds are commonly given booze by parents, of course) and above that age up to the age of 16, drinking by children is left to the discretion of parents.

Even Sweden, known for its restrictive alcohol laws has a bar/restaurant drinking age set at 18, although you do have to be 20 to purchase alcohol stronger than beer from the state-run Systembolaget liquor stores. The same rule applies in Norway, where you have to be over 20 to buy beverages stronger than 22 %ABV and in Iceland, where you need to be 20 to buy booze, although possession and consumption is not an offense even if under that age.

Many countries with wine-drinking culture (Austria, Belgium, France) allow 16 year olds to buy, drink and be served lower-alcohol products (the cut off points vary from 14 %ABV to 22% ABV, but would normally allow younger people to either buy or drink beer and wine) and many make distinctions similar to the UK's between public and private consumption.

== Outside Europe ==

Australia, New Zealand

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