Legal Drinking Age

July 16, 2009

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Profile America — Thursday, July 16th. Twenty-five years ago this week, President Reagan signed a bill known as the minimum legal drinking age law. Backed by Mothers Against Drunk Driving, the law standardized a patchwork of local laws across the country and made it illegal for anyone under 21 to purchase or publicly possess alcohol. It has been estimated that a thousand lives a year are saved as a result. Each year, nearly 43,000 Americans die on the nation’s highways. In more than a third of fatal accidents, at least one person involved has a high blood alcohol reading. In the U.S., Americans annually drink an average of some 22 gallons of beer, nearly 2½ gallons of wine and close to a gallon and a half of distilled liquor. Profile America is a public service of the U.S. Census Bureau, now preparing for the 2010 Census.

Sources: Chase's Calendar of Events 2009, p. 365
Statistical Abstract of the United States 2009, t. 1070, 207
http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/2009edition.html