Weird Age question?

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Ok if once you turn 18 you're considered an adult and no longer a Teenager(according to everyone where I live). If your an adult at 18(and no longer a teen) why is there a 19 afterwards?

Because "adult" (or "age of majority") refers to the change in a person's legal status and not their actual age - therefore they can be considered an adult at 19, and often younger than that.
In the UK a person was once considered an adult at age 21 - but now it's 16.

It also varies a lot between countries, and the age of consent (for drinking, driving, marriage etc) may still be different from the age of majority.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_of_majority
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_of_consent

But ive never heard of that.

You a teenager up through 19.
And you're not an adult until you're 21, though you can drink at 18 and join the military.

It's very different in the UK. There's a sort of staggered adulthood. We leave school at 16 and continuing with high school beyond that is considered 'staying on', although many people do and we're not kicked out at 16. Many people, especially in Scotland, go on to degree level education at 16 (my husband did and he wasn't fast tracked). We can get married at 16 (in England, Wales and NI you need consent of a parent, if you're under 18, no consent needed in Scotland). We can join the army at 16 and learn to drive at 17. We can vote at 18 (although we're having a referendum in Scotland in 2014 and it's hoped that the age will be dropped to 16, just for that). At 18, you can buy alcohol and tobacco (used to be 16 for tobacco until very recently).

In some countries you achieve legal adulthood even at 14 (American Samoa, Uzbekistan) or 15 (Iran).

In Poland we don't have preteens - you become a teenager at 11. The age of consent is 15, at 18 you are an adult but if at 16 a girl got married (demands court permission), she's a legal adult ever since, even if she got divorced or became a widow. At 16 you can also get a legal possibility to get a job.

Last edited by Irulan on 30 Oct 2012, 5:54 am, edited 1 time in total.

Which is why Gretna Green is so popular for English teenagers wanting to get married without the knowledge of their parents.

I know just a few cases of teenage marriages personally: one girl living once in our staircase got married at 16, for she got pregnant, but later got a divorce. My aunt at 18 left school to get married (because she wanted to, not because she was pregnant, but it was like a half a century ago and in a small village to boot). Also, when in 1996 I was spending my summer holiday with this aunt, in her village there was a wedding of some 16 year old girl who already had a child of 2 and was pregnant again. But I think she isn't with her husband any more, either.

That is kind of a strange distinction.

One age limit in the U.S. that always has intrigued me is that you are allowed to vote at 18, but cannot purchase alcohol/legally drink until 21.

If you are not mature enough to handle a little alcohol, then how should you be able to decide who is in office?

You left out fight in the military and die but not drink????? Don't bring us laws in to this it will get really fuzzy really quick as to when your an adult .

That was the arguement back in the sixties, during the Vietnam War, for lowering the drinking age to 18 from 21.

You could fight and die for your country, but you cant be allowed to drink.

The law makers bought into that arguemen- and lowered the drinking age. The result was a huge upward spike in the number of 18-20 years olds (and younger teens) dying on the highways from drunk driving.


So those lowered drinking ages all got repealed in the Seventies shortly after Vietnam. Legislators restored the 21 drinking age limit across the land. And teen highway deaths spiked downward.

So were back to 18 for miliary service (and voting), but 21 for drinking- for good it appears. even though it seems unfair.

Eighteen year olds make good soldiers, and they make lousy judges of how much alcohol they can consume. Its just a fact of life.