When and how did we historically land on 18 as the age of adulthood?

Question

Pretty much the title. It seems 18 is universally recognized as the age of adulthood and I’m wondering why such a specific number. Why not 20 for example?

I know there are tribes around the world where children step into adulthood at a younger age, but usually there is some sort of rite of passage involved.

In: 74

Answer 1

I don’t know that 18 is the historical age of adulthood.

In Ancient Rome, men weren’t considered full adults until 25. In Jewish law, a boy is an adult at 13 (12 for girls). In feudal Europe and the medieval era, the age of majority for men was 21 and for married women it was 14 (16 if they were single).