Which Country Has the Highest Drinking Age?

As of May 2025update, the highest peaks on three of the mountains—Gangkhar Puensum, Labuche Kang III and Tongshanjiabu, all located in Bhutan or China—have not been ascended. The most recent peak to have its first ever ascent is Karjiang, in China, on 13 August 2024.

THE WORLD’S TOP 20 UNDRINKING COUNTRIES IN 2025

In Turkmenistan, for instance, men drink 5.26 liters/year, more than five times as much as women (1.03 liters/year). Children and young people are advised not to drink alcohol before the age of 18. Alcohol use during the teenage years is related to a wide range of health and social problems. In England, Scotland and Wales, it’s not illegal for someone between the ages of five and 17 to drink alcohol at home or on other private premises. The best advice for young people’s health and wellbeing is an alcohol-free childhood. The legal drinking age in a liquor sales licensed establishment in the province of Ontario is 19 years of age.

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• Increased their legal drinking age from 18 to 19 years; since this time there have been no further changes to the MLDA in Canada.
• It is outdone only by the 30 drinking-age limit in force in the state’s district of Wardha.
• The legal age for drinking varies significantly across the globe, and understanding these differences is key to avoiding legal troubles, especially when traveling internationally.
• The comparison of this map with the previous maps makes clear that heavy drinking is not necessarily most common in the same countries where alcohol consumption is most common.

Mount Logan is the largest non-volcanic mountain in base area (311 km2 or 120 sq mi). Still, heights or prominences may be revised, so that the order of the list may change and even new mountains could enter the list over time. To be safe, the list has been extended to include all 7,200 m (23,622 ft) peaks.

• Our experienced legal team works with victims of alcohol-related injuries to pursue compensation for medical bills, lost wages, and emotional suffering.
• Understanding the global landscape of age laws helps illuminate how culture, religion, and public health priorities shape national policy.
• The risk of an alcohol use disorder is highest in individuals with intermittent explosive disorder, dysthymia, ODD, bipolar disorder, and social phobia.
• Alcohol consumption – whilst a risk factor for a number of health outcomes – typically has the greatest negative impacts when consumed within heavy sessions.
• The legal drinking age in the United States, Kazakhstan, and Micronesia is 21.

For countries where alcohol consumption is legal, these are the highest minimum age limits. This interactive map shows the annual average alcohol consumption of alcohol, expressed per person aged 15 years or older. To account for the differences in alcohol content of different alcoholic drinks (e.g., beer, wine, spirits), this is reported in liters of pure alcohol per year. The change to a national minimum drinking age of 21 was a direct result of the 1984 Minimum Drinking Age Act.

We’ve see too many accidents and problems in our years of travel based on alcohol consumption and hope we can help you to avoid falling into these common traps. The majority of countries have set the drinking age at 18, while 50 countries the minimum age as lower than 18, and 12 countries have set the bar (pardon the pun) higher than 18. Most countries in Europe have set 18 as the minimum age to purchase alcohol. In 2005,144 2007145 and 2015146 harmonization at the European Union level toward a minimum purchase age of 18 was discussed, but not agreed. The charts show global consumption of wine, first in terms of wine as a share of total alcohol consumption, and then the estimated average consumption per person.

Share of adults who don’t drink alcohol

Whether bought as an over-the-counter drug or when prescribed or given by a doctor, pharmacist, dentist, nurse, hospital, or other healthcare facility. A « young person » is defined as anyone under the age of 17 by the Children and Young Persons Act, 1949 Section 2. All visualizations, data, and code produced by Our World in Data are completely open access under the Creative Commons BY license. You have the permission to use, distribute, and reproduce these in any medium, provided the source and authors are credited.

Alcohol consumption – whilst a risk factor for a number of health outcomes – typically has the greatest negative impacts when consumed within heavy sessions. In a related chart, you can see the share who drink alcohol by gender and age group in the UK. Law is the system of rules and regulations that govern human behavior and interactions within a society. This category includes metrics such as the rule of law, judicial independence, and access to justice.

Global consumption of spirits

Data on alcohol expenditure is typically limited to North America, Europe, and Oceania. Other substantial bounties include the FBI’s $20 million for Rafael Caro-Quintero, a Mexican drug trafficker. The Rewards for Justice program also lists individuals with bounties up to $25 million for terrorist activities.

Can a 15 year old drink alcohol in a restaurant?

The FBI’s “Ten Most Wanted Fugitives” list carries rewards starting at $250,000. For example, Ruja Ignatova, wanted for fraud, has a $5 million bounty, and Giovanni Serrano, a South American gang leader, has a $3 million reward. Currently, high bounties target individuals involved in international terrorism and major criminal enterprises. The U.S. State Department’s Rewards for Justice program offers significant sums for such targets. Ayman al-Zawahiri, al-Qaeda’s leader, has a $25 million bounty for information leading to his location or identification. Throughout history, substantial bounties have been placed on individuals posing significant threats.

These incentives are typically issued for serious crimes, from terrorism to organized criminal activities, leveraging public assistance to apprehend wanted persons. Tech/Business refers to the technology and business environment, including its innovation capacity, entrepreneurship, and competitiveness. This category includes metrics such as research and development spending, patent applications, ease of doing business, and access to finance. Infrastructure refers to the physical structures and facilities necessary for a society to function, including transportation, energy, water, and communication systems. This category includes metrics such as road quality, electricity access, internet penetration, and airport capacity.

Merriam-Webster’s Great Big List of Words You Love to Hate

If you allow an underage byob event to be held on your property, you may be held liable for injuries suffered or caused by a guest who what is the highest drinking age in the world is intoxicated. This is true whether the injuries occurred at the event or after the guest leaves. In some cases, the age of consent is higher (for example, when there is a relationship of trust, authority or dependency). In other words, a person must be at least 16 years old to be able to legally agree to sexual activity. According to the WHO, only five countries – Bangladesh, Kuwait, Libya, Mauritania and Somalia – do not drink alcohol at all.

Heavy drinking is defined as eight or more drinks per week for women and 15 or more drinks per week for men. Binge drinking is defined as consuming, during a single occasion, four or more drinks for women and five or more drinks for men. Indeed, the legal drinking age of 25 that prevails in some Indian states, including Maharashtra and Delhi, is by far the highest in the world. It is outdone only by the 30 drinking-age limit in force in the state’s district of Wardha.

Understanding these global differences helps highlight the importance of age-appropriate policies that protect young people and reduce alcohol-related harm, including alcohol addiction. The highest mountains above sea level are also not those with peaks farthest from the centre of the Earth, because the shape of the Earth is not spherical. Sea level closer to the equator is several kilometres farther from the centre of the Earth. It is very unlikely that all given heights are correct to the nearest metre; indeed, the sea level is often problematic to define when a mountain is remote from the sea. Different sources often differ by many metres, and the heights given below may well differ from those elsewhere in this encyclopedia.