Berkley Center

At Georgetown turning 21 is milestone. A world of bars and nightclubs opens up, and no longer must fear the consequences of underage drinking. Yet in Copenhagen, and Europe in general, the twenty-first birthday is irrelevant. In fact, in most of the places I have been “underage drinking” is a foreign concept.

In Denmark kids often begin drinking around 15 or 16 years old, often even younger. Denmark is a highly developed country with high standards for mental and physical health, much like the United States, so the issue is surely not a lack of knowledge about the dangers of alcohol. Not surprisingly, I’ve spent a good deal of time pondering how Europe and the United States developed such differing perceptions on the consumption of alcohol.

When I first met my visiting family, a Danish family I spend time with every couple weeks, I brought my wonderment about the lax Danish attitude towards alcohol consumption up with them. They confirmed that teenage alcohol consumption is hardly stigmatized the way it is in the United States and offered me an illuminating anecdote on the issue. My visiting parents told me that when their son reached ninth grade that parents at the school were going to discuss how much and in what forms to let their kids drink.

In addition to the obvious—that the teenage drinking is acceptable at a much younger age than in the United States—I also found it interesting that the parents played a major role in their kids’ introduction to alcohol. In my experiences in high school, the parents’ expected role was to keep their kid away from alcohol. Thus, American underage drinking usually either occurred in (attempted) secret or under the “blind eye” of a parent. The way I see it is that for teenagers in the United States, alcohol is often a kind of forbidden fruit, whereas in Denmark alcohol is a standard part of life.

Both the Danish laws and drinking statistics reflect this. A 2010 University of Southern Denmark study showed that 57 percent of boys and 50 percent of girls aged 15 had been drunk before. This percentage was down from 1998 when the figures were at 70 percent and 63 percent respectively. To buy alcohol below 16.5 percent in stores the age limit is 16, whereas to be served in bars and restaurants or to buy alcohol above 16.5 percent one must be 18. It is legal for an adult to purchase alcohol for a minor. The University of Southern Denmark study found that most parents follow the 16 age limit guidelines for allowing their child to drink.

While I could not find a directly comparable study in the states, the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism found that by age 15 about half of American teens have had at least one drink.

In my own interactions with Danish students, professors, and even parents, I have found that many Danes are almost proud of their drinking culture. At the same time, I have yet to encounter that awareness campaigns against underage drinking that I frequently see in the United States. Even searching the Internet it is hard to find information from Danish sources on the negative effects of alcohol.