When Did Legal Drinking Age Change To 21

The Congress passed the National Minimum Drinking Historic period Act in 1984, establishing 21 every bit the minimum legal buy age.

Since and then:

Drinking by loftier school seniors has fallen essentially — from 66% to 42% (see chart). During this same period, binge drinking by high school seniors — that is, having five or more drinks on an occasion — has fallen from 37% to 24%.

Despite these improvements, as well many teens still drink.

In 2012, 42% of 12th graders, 28% of tenth graders, and 11% of 8th graders, reported drinking alcohol in the past 30 days. That same year, near 24% of 12th graders, 16% of tenth graders, and 5% of 8th graders, reported binge drinking in the last two weeks.

Why did Congress pass the national drinking age act?

After Prohibition, nearly all states adopted a minimum legal drinking age (MLDA) of 21. Between 1970 and 1975, however, 29 states lowered the MLDA to 18, xix, or 20, largely in response to the change in the voting historic period. Studies conducted at the time showed that youth traffic crashes increased equally states lowered their MLDA. In addition, the "blood borders" between states with dissimilar MLDAs caught public attention later highly-publicized crashes in which youth below the legal drinking age would drive to an adjoining state with a lower MLDA, drink legally, and crash on their way home.

Advocacy groups urged states to enhance their MLDA to 21. Several did then in the tardily 1970s and early 1980s, but others did non. To encourage a national drinking age, Congress enacted the national MLDA. A review past the U.Due south. General Accounting Office, conducted in 1988, plant that raising the drinking age reduced youth drinking, youth driving after drinking, and alcohol-related traffic accidents among youth.