When Can I Vote, Drive and Drink?

By the Age-Finder team · Last updated 7 November 2026

Enter your date of birth and pick one of 16 countries in the calculator to see the exact date you can vote, drive and buy alcohol there, with a countdown to each.

How to Use the When Can I Calculator

Enter your date of birth and choose one of 16 countries. The calculator shows three milestones: the date you can vote in national elections, the date you can drive a car, and the date you can buy alcohol.

Each one is marked Reached or In a number of days, with the tool’s note beside it where the rule varies.

The big line names the next milestone: “Next: buy alcohol in 800 days”, for example, with the date and the country under it. When all three are behind you, it reads “All three milestones reached”.

Three quick chips sit under the form: Born 2010, United States; Born 2009, France; and Born 2011, Germany. One tap fills the date of birth and the country in and calculates at once.

If the date of birth is missing, the calculator answers: “Enter the date of birth.” A date that does not exist gets “That date of birth is not valid.

Please check it.”, and a future date is rejected, with a message asking you to check the year. Every result carries the same note: “These are general national minimums. Local rules can differ, so check the official rules where you live.”

What ‘Legal Age’ Actually Means

There is no single legal age. Most countries set an age of majority (usually 18) at which a person becomes a legal adult who can sign contracts, marry without parental consent, and be tried as an adult. But individual activities get their own thresholds, set by separate laws and often for separate reasons.

Voting ages reflect ideas about civic maturity. Driving ages reflect road-safety data. Drinking ages reflect public-health policy. That is why the three numbers rarely match, and why comparing the legal age by country really means comparing three different policy debates, not one.

Voting Age by Country

Eighteen is the global standard for voting in national elections, but the exceptions are notable. Austria became the first European Union country to lower its voting age to 16, in 2007.

Brazil and Argentina let 16- and 17-year-olds vote voluntarily, while voting becomes compulsory at 18. Scotland and Wales allow 16-year-olds to vote in devolved elections, and Japan lowered its voting age from 20 to 18 in 2016.

Beyond the sixteen, the pattern holds with a few outliers. About 85% of the world’s countries set the voting age at 18, and more than 180 nations use it.

Sixteen is the lowest voting age anywhere for national elections: Austria, Brazil, Cuba, Ecuador, Nicaragua and Malta all allow it, and Wales allows it for Senedd elections. Greece sets the bar at 17.

At the other end, the voting age is 21 in Cameroon, Kuwait, Oman, Samoa, Singapore, Tokelau and Tonga, and 25 in the United Arab Emirates, the highest in the world. The voting age has only ever been lowered in modern history; no country has raised it.

The UK Is Changing Its Voting Age

The United Kingdom row in the table above is about to change, and the change is already law in motion.

On 17 July 2025 the UK government announced that 16- and 17-year-olds will be given the right to vote in all UK elections, as part of its strategy paper “Restoring trust in our democracy: Our strategy for modern and secure elections”.

On 12 February 2026 the Representation of the People Bill was introduced in the House of Commons, with Part 1 lowering the voting age for reserved elections to 16.

The bill passed its second reading on 2 March 2026, completed its Commons stages on 2 September 2026, and received its second reading in the House of Lords on 14 September 2026, where it now awaits committee stage.

As of 7 November 2026 it is not yet law. The voting age for UK parliamentary elections and other reserved elections is still 18, and the calculator’s note still reads “16 in Scottish and Welsh devolved elections”.

When the bill passes, 16- and 17-year-olds are expected to vote for the first time in England in 2028 and in Northern Ireland in 2029. About 1.7 million people become eligible, registration opens from age 14, and the age to stand as a candidate stays 18.

Scotland has allowed 16-year-olds to vote in Scottish Parliament and local elections since 2015, and Wales in Senedd and local elections since 2021, so the change brings UK-wide elections in line with the devolved nations.

Driving Age by Country

Driving ages vary more than voting ages because they are tied to graduated licensing systems and road-safety records. The United States is the most permissive large country: most states issue restricted licenses at 16, and some allow learner’s permits as early as 14 or 15.

Much of Europe sets 18 as the standard for a full car license, but supervised driving starts earlier: at 17 in Germany (the BF17 program) and Austria (L17 training), and at 15 in France (conduite accompagnée).

The United Kingdom is the odd one out in Europe: the provisional licence is available from 15 years 9 months, and the full licence from 17, a year earlier than most of the continent.

In Canada the learner stage can start at 14 in Alberta, and in Australia the full licence age runs from 17 to 18 depending on the state. Japan is the strictest of the sixteen: a flat 18 with no learner stage and no exceptions.

Drinking Age by Country

The drinking age shows the widest cultural split of the three thresholds. The United States stands nearly alone at 21, a legacy of the 1984 National Minimum Drinking Age Act. Most of the world sets 18.

Germany and Austria take a middle path, allowing beer and wine at 16 while reserving spirits for 18-year-olds. Japan sets the bar at 20, and India leaves the decision to individual states, with limits ranging from 18 to 25.

Beyond the sixteen, Iceland sets the drinking age at 20, one of the highest in Europe. In India, alcohol is banned outright in Gujarat, Bihar, Nagaland, Mizoram and Lakshadweep, so there is no legal drinking age there at all.

Saudi Arabia and Iran prohibit alcohol regardless of age: threshold tables mark these as “prohibited”, not zero, because no age ever makes it legal.

Legal Ages at a Glance: 16 Countries Compared

This combined table puts all three thresholds side by side so you can compare the legal age by country in one view.

The United States is the only country in the sixteen where the drinking age sits above the voting age, and by three years. Austria is the mirror image: the lowest voting age in the group and the lowest drinking age for beer and wine.

Japan is the only country where all three numbers differ in a different direction: 18 to vote, 18 to drive, 20 to drink.

Beyond Vote, Drive and Drink

Voting, driving and drinking are the three thresholds the calculator covers, but they are not the only ones tied to your birth date. The age of majority is the umbrella term for full legal adulthood: 18 in most countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, India, China, Japan and Brazil.

The exceptions are 16 in Scotland and Cuba, 19 in South Korea and several Canadian provinces and in the US states of Alabama and Nebraska, 20 in Thailand, and 21 in Singapore, Mississippi and Puerto Rico.

Japan is the clearest example of how the numbers split. On 1 April 2022 Japan lowered its age of majority from 20 to 18, after about 140 years at 20. At 18 you can now vote, marry and sign contracts.

But lawmakers deliberately kept the drinking and smoking age at 20, and gambling at 20 as well. The voting age had already dropped from 20 to 18 in 2016, adding about 2.4 million voters aged 18 and 19.

Coming of Age Day, the national holiday on the second Monday of January, still celebrates people turning 20. So two statements can both be true: adults in Japan are 18, and drinking in Japan starts at 20.

Marriage follows the same pattern: 16 with parental consent in many countries, 18 as the standard, 21 in some Asian nations. The United States sets the tobacco purchase age at 21 by federal law since December 2019, and the military age at 17 with parental consent and 18 without.

In Canada the age of majority is 18 in Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, Saskatchewan and Prince Edward Island, and 19 in British Columbia, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, the Northwest Territories, Nunavut and Yukon.

Your Legal Milestones: One Person, Every Threshold

The calculator gives you the three thresholds for your own date of birth. Here is one person worked through in full. Born 15 January 2008, in the United States, here is every threshold with its exact arrival date:

The calculator shows the first three rows. The retirement row is worked out by hand from the full retirement age of 67 for anyone born in 1960 or later. For this person the calculator’s big line reads “Next: buy alcohol in 800 days.

On 15 January 2029 in United States.” One table turns a reference page into a personal planner: the same birth date gives a different set of dates in every country, and the calculator works them all out in one run.

How to Calculate When You Reach a Legal Age Threshold

The tables tell you the age; your date of birth tells you the date. To find the day you cross a threshold, add the threshold age to your birth date: someone born on 10 March 2008 turns 16 on 10 March 2024, 18 on 10 March 2026, and 21 on 10 March 2029.

It is simple calendar addition: your nth birthday is always the anniversary of your birth date.

For an exact answer verified down to the day, use our age on a specific date calculator to find out exactly when you turn 18: enter your date of birth and any target date to see your completed years, months and days on that date.

You can also work backwards: pick an election date, a road-trip date or a holiday and check whether you will already have crossed the threshold by then. For a simpler look at a future birthday, see our guide on how old you will be on any date.

Why Legal Ages Differ So Much

Three forces shape these numbers. First, history: many voting ages were lowered during the 20th century as the franchise expanded. The United States moved from 21 to 18 in 1971, and the United Kingdom did the same in 1969.

Second, evidence: driving ages track crash statistics, which is why graduated licensing (learner stage, restricted stage, full licence) has spread even where the headline age stayed the same.

Third, culture and federalism: countries where states or provinces set their own rules (the United States, Canada, Australia, India and Germany) naturally produce a patchwork, while unitary states tend toward one national number.

Laws Change: Always Check Locally

Legal ages are legislation, not constants.

Japan lowered its voting age from 20 to 18 in 2016 and its age of majority from 20 to 18 in 2022, the United Kingdom is lowering its voting age to 16 through a bill now in the House of Lords, and debates about lowering the voting age to 16 continue in many democracies.

The United States set the tobacco purchase age at 21 by federal law in 2019. Treat every table (including this one) as a snapshot of the rules as commonly reported, and check the current law in the specific country, state or province before making plans.

How This Calculator Compares

The three guides below rank for the same query, and each one covers more ground than this page: more countries, more categories, or deeper detail on four countries. The comparison that follows lists what each one has that this page does not.

The shortfalls in the calculator: only 16 countries, only vote, drive and drink, no marriage or consent ages, no retirement age, and no state-level detail beyond one-line notes.

The guide covers the missing categories by hand where it can: the age-of-majority, consent and retirement table, the voting-age outliers beyond the sixteen, and the UK and Japan case studies. More countries and more categories wait on the tool itself.

Frequently Asked Questions

Keep Exploring

Retirement Age Calculator: find your full retirement age and the date you reach it, with the countdown to it.

Age on a Specific Date Calculator: check your exact age on any future date, down to the day.

Birthstone and Birth Flower Finder: find your birthstone and birth flower by your birth month.

What Age Is Senior Citizen?: see what age counts as senior citizen in the United States and elsewhere.

Sources

U.S. Social Security Administration: Actuarial Life Table (retirement-age context)

House of Commons Library: Representation of the People Bill 2024-26, Research Briefing CBP-10506 (8 June 2026) (the UK voting-age change and the bill’s status)

World Atlas: Legal Voting Age by Country (voting ages around the world)

LegalClarity: Legal Ages in Japan (Japan’s age of majority, voting age and drinking age)