The legal drinking age is the minimum age at which a person can legally consume alcoholic beverages. The minimum age alcohol can be legally consumed can be different from the age when it can be purchased in some countries. These laws vary between countries and many laws have exemptions or special circumstances, up to no laws about consumption at all. Most laws apply only to drinking alcohol in public places with alcohol consumption in the home being mostly unregulated (one of the exceptions being England and Wales, which have a minimum legal age of five for supervised consumption in private places). Some countries also have different age limits for different types of alcohol drinks.
The majority of countries have a minimum legal drinking age of 18. The most commonly known reason for the law behind the legal drinking age is the effect on the brain in adolescents. Since the brain is still maturing, alcohol can have a negative effect on the memory and long-term thinking. Alongside that, it can cause liver failure, and create a hormone imbalance in teens due to the constant changes and maturing of hormones during puberty. Some countries have a minimum legal drinking age of 19 to prevent the flow of alcoholic beverages in high schools, while others like the United States have a minimum legal purchasing age of 21 (except in P.R. and USVI, where the drinking age is 18) in an effort to reduce the amount of drunk driving rates among teenagers and young adults. There are underage clubs, where people below the legal drinking age are catered for and are served non-alcoholic beverages.
Africa The most common minimum age to purchase alcohol in Africa is 18. However, Angola (except Luanda Province), Central African Republic, Comoros, Equatorial Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, and Mali have no laws on the books restricting the sale of alcohol to minors. In Libya, Somalia and Sudan the sale, production and consumption of alcohol is completely prohibited.
Americas In Central America, the Caribbean, and South America the legal drinking age and legal purchase age varies from 0 to 20 years (see table below). In South America in particular, the legal purchase age is 18 years, with two exceptions:
In Paraguay, the legal drinking age and purchase age is 20 years. In Guyana, minors aged 16 or 17 may consume a glass of beer or wine in a restaurant provided they buy a meal. In North America the legal drinking age and legal purchase age varies from 18 to 21 years:
In Mexico, the drinking age is 18 in all states. In the United States, the minimum legal age to purchase alcoholic beverages is mainly 21 years of age; the two exceptions are Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands where the age is 18. The legal drinking age varies by state, and many states have no age requirements for supervised drinking with one's parents or legal guardians. In Canada, most provinces have a minimum age of 19 years to buy or consume alcohol, while in Alberta, Manitoba, and Quebec, the minimum age is 18 years. Several provinces permit minors to consume alcohol if it was served to them by their parents/guardians, and it is consumed under their supervision in their home. For further information see Alcoholic drinks in Canada § Age. In the late 20th century, much of North America changed its minimum legal drinking ages (MLDAs) as follows: In the 1970s, provincial and state policy makers in Canada and the United States moved to lower MLDAs (which were set at 21 years in most provinces/territories and states) to coincide with the jurisdictional age of majority — typically 18 years of age.... As a result, MLDAs were reduced in all Canadian provinces [and] in more than half of US states. In Canada, however, two provinces, Ontario [in 1979] and Saskatchewan [in 1976], quickly raised their subsequent MLDAs from 18 to 19 years in response to a few studies demonstrating an association between the lowered drinking age and increases in alcohol-related harms to youth and young adults, including increases in motor vehicle accidents (MVAs) and alcohol intoxication among high school students. Following MLDA reductions in the US, research in several states provided persuasive evidence of sharp increases in rates of fatal and nonfatal MVAs appearing immediately after the implementation of lower drinking ages. These scientific findings galvanized public pressure on lawmakers to raise MLDAs and, in response, the federal government introduced the National Minimum Drinking Age Act of 1984, which imposed a reduction of highway funds for states if they did not increase their MLDA to 21 years. All states complied and implemented an MLDA of 21 years by 1988.
United States
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