Europe Drinking Age
Legal drinking age in Europe varies greatly with the country. The most varied ages spectrum is seen in the UK, where drinking is legal, even for a kid of 5 years, provided some rules are abided. Any one who is above 18 years of age can purchase alcohol in the UK, and people above 16 years of age can purchase alcohol chocolates. Kids, whose ages are 16-18 with special licenses, can consume wines and spirits at a pub with their main course meals, provided they are accompanied by an adult and the liquor is ordered by the adult. Children from 14-16 years of age can consume beer under adult supervision. Children below 14 years of age are not allowed into pubs, unless they are accompanied by their parents. For a kid above 5 years of age, drinking is legal in one’s home, provided it is supervised by parents.
For France as well, anyone under the age of 16 can consume alcohol within the boundaries of their homes under adult supervision. For purchase of beer and wine, you need to be at least 16 years old, and for purchasing harder liquor with more alcohol content, one should be more than 18 years of age. In Italy also, as well as in other parts of the continent, rules are almost similar. Anyone between 14-18 years of age can consume liquor in their homes and can purchase alcohol after having reached the age of 18.
Again, much like the legal drinking age, legal age for smoking and consuming cigarettes and tobacco products varies from country to country. In Europe, the legal age of purchase of cigarettes is 18 years in almost all the countries, with an exception to Netherlands, where this criterion is relaxed to 16 years of age. Similarly the legal age for smoking is also 18 years except in the UK and Ireland, where smoking is allowed after the age of 16. Netherlands and Isles of Man impose no such restrictions pertaining to smoking ages. Similarly, the legal ages for consent to sex are disparate, depending upon the country. In the Vatican, it is the lowest, set at 12 years of age, where as in places like Malta and turkey, it is as high as 18 years of age, which happens to be the highest in Europe. On an average, this age mostly revolves around 14-16 years of age.
Posted under Europe
Well most of this laws are there to protect us. Some of them are over-protective while others offer no protection at all. Depending on the country it is hard to think that the laws will be supported by everyone.
I agree with you Andrew but most of this laws are outdated and need urgent work done on them to keep track with the global changes in every society. But i guess most of the governments are concerned more about the financial crisis then this issue.
Giving the current situation that is quite understandable. However the young population is the root of every economy and every country. If the young people aren’t guided in the right direction that will surely bring devastating consequences later on.
Well you can’t expect much from a kid that starts drinking at the age of 5, now can you? So what if it’s supervised by the parents? What can they do if the kid starts to drink often at home. Send him to a rehab center? Come on!
What to say about Netherlands and Isles of Man that have no restrictions on smoking ages. But then Netherlands is also known for it’s coffee-shops. My guess is no limits there also. But somehow their economy is among the strongest in Europe.
The legal age for buying alcohol is somewhat the same through Europe thanks to the European Union. But the drinking age especially at home is very different because it is treated as an cultural issue for every country.
Parents are the main factor in raising the child in a proper way so it’s their responsibility to make sure that he or she doesn’t start drinking or smoking too early. That goes also for the proper age for giving consent to sex.
I agree. But they could use some help don’t you think? With their busy schedules is very hard for them to keep track of everything their child does. Therefore the legal ages and boundaries should be set to help the parents.
I am really concerned after reading this. My husband and I are thinking of having a child and this issue is really important to me. I didn’t know that the drinking age is only 5 in the UK. I am sure most parents don’t know either.
Am I the only one that is noticing a typo in the article? Just a little hint. Turkey is a country where most of the population are Muslims so i understand the high legal age for consent to sex. What I can not understand is Vatican’s law.
My opinion is that the drinking age and smoking age should be the same in the whole EU. Make it 16 and then strictly obey that law. Severe punishments for the youngsters and their parents that break this law.
My question is why in the US the drinking age is 21? I don’t know about the smoking age but this is confusing me. You are an adult if you are 18 but you still can’t drink until you are 21.
Yea that is something confusing. I mean you are able to go to war at 18 and get shot and wounded or something even worse but you are not allowed to go and buy yourself a drink. I mean c’mon.
First of all, alcohol and cigarettes are NOT for children. There’s a reason why you have to be at the legal age to buy them. In my opinion, they should restrict selling alcohol and cigarettes.
Ben, you can’t just restrict them. Everyone does what he wants. However, there are lots of places where the legal age of buying cigarettes or the legal drinking age is not respected.
All said and done. Legal limit to consume alcohol is good. But these things are better when the parent tell the kids rather than the government. It’s the parents who decide when to drink and when to stop, until the kid is 18 years. what do you think?
For a kid of age 5 drinking is legal!!?? What kind of law is that? It doesn’t matter if one is at home or in a pub, the legal age of drinking should be 18.
Adult supervision or not no kid under the age of 16 should be allowed to drink even if he is within the boundaries of his home. This is preposterous.
@Samantha I wholeheartedly agree with you. Being a mother I’m concerned for my child. No kid under the age of 16 should be allowed to buy alcohol. you are right it is very hard for us to keep track of everything our children does.
Rick maybe you are 18 that’s why you have such view, when you become a parent you’ll understand what the fuss is all about
The legal age for smoking and consuming cigarettes and tobacco products varies from country to country so you can’t be exactly sure what is the legal age for these stuff where.
Netherlands and Isles of Man impose no such restrictions pertaining to smoking ages. Similarly, the legal ages for consent to sex are disparate, depending upon the country. In the Vatican, it is the lowest, set at 12 years of age, where as in places like Malta and turkey, it is as high as 18 years of age, which happens to be the highest in Europe.
This is very bad, In our country, you have sex only after you marry and Drinking and smocking is considered as vary bad and is generally avoided by good people.
Интересеая содержательная заметка. Автору репект)))
questo articolo è tradotto con i piedi! un italiano non capisce niente!
I wosrk with small children and have found that the majority of parents and carer do care for their children and try to avoid causing them harm by exposure to alcohol, cigarettes, etc. However there are still those who lack the education or knowledge of what is safe and unfortunatley history repeats through generation to generation until someone breaks the cycle.
bad laws produce bad results we abolished alcohol and got proabition refer maddnes bad laws teenagers will find what they want laws made what they don’t want there children to do produces bad laws in this country these laws prduce more demand in countries that have resonable laws don’t have the problems we have here and the smoking laws we are doing here by political correctious run amock the real harm is overley protective parents and the nanny state
why is it that these commentors want bad laws that don’t work countries with lower drinking ages don’t have the teen drinking problems we do, age of consent for sex education is the best it is a natural thing to do the us has the highest teen pregancy and the worst laws, smoking laws have failed in most coutries teen age female smoking is on the rise laws made by what parents want prduces the worst laws the nanny state restrics freedom of choice
We will just leave it to the governance of the particular country. It is an anology of parent-child relationship. Like parents that set rules and anything happen to the child the parents are accountable and held responsible for the action made by their sons or daughter.
But in my point of view, it would be better if there is a set of rules that can be applied to the entire European communities. Age 18 would be an ideal!
i think thje majority of you are straight up retarded. Seriously the drikin age in the US should be lowered. we need atleast equilization of the legal age of rights,drinking,smoking, and sex. The driving age should reamin the same and the laws for DWI should be greatened and the threats of DWI should be more greatly promoted. There should be more classes on responsible drinking/smoking to provide awarness. and the classes shouldnt just spit on drinking and smoking because as we all truely know there is a good and bad to everything and drinking is truely not bad. also for sex we should have greater sex education so teenagers are more aware of the problems with unsafe sex, and again the classes shouldnt spit on sex cause sex is natural thing for every person religious views all set aside.
Now the laws in Europe have seemed to work just perfectly for them because in their culture the parents are responsible and seem to fully penetrate the duty of teaching smart drinking/ other risky habits. The US needs to take a look at the statistics of European accidents and how there drinking/other laws have worked. This is what needs to happen.
Hello. I am from Europe but live in the USA. First I would like to say, that anyone commenting here should be respectful and use proper language. I just stumbled upon this forum by accident while looking up info about the European Union. So I would like to add my own “2 cents” to the subject: Rules provide a guideline, some of us need them, some of us don’t.
As far as being allowed to “drink” at an early age, it just means that you can take a sip from your mom’s wine glass and it is not a crime. So it all depends on how responsible and mature the parents are.
Regardless of what country we live in, I think that as individuals we have the duty to keep ourselves and our loved ones safe. Not out of fear of prosecution, but because it is the right thing to do. And isn’t that the intention of most laws, to keep us safe from harm?
AHAHHAHAH just because a kid is 5 years old and can have a sip of wine doesn’t mean he’s going to be an alcoholic #9 Rosemary ahahhaha. In europe the laws are more relaxed because Europeans have more power to choose where the US government forces us to live a certain way. Just because the law is 16 doesn’t mean that every 16 year old is constantly drunk… USE YOUR HEADS PEOPLE!!