Age of Consent by State: The Complete 2026 List

Type “age of consent by state” into any search engine and you will get a wall of maps, charts, and short articles, most of them repeating the same three numbers: 16, 17, and 18. That number is real, and it is the right starting point. But after reviewing dozens of these guides alongside the actual statutes, the gap between the map and the law is significant. The map tells you the baseline. It rarely tells you what changes that baseline, what federal law actually does and does not touch, or why two states with the identical number on the map can produce very different outcomes for the same facts.

This guide gives you the accurate baseline, corrects a few claims that circulate widely but do not hold up against the actual statutes, and points you to where the real detail lives: our full state-by-state guides, researched individually against each state’s official statute.

The short answer: 16, 17, or 18, depending on the state

Every U.S. state sets its own age of consent, and every state’s number falls somewhere between 16 and 18. There is no federal statute that overrides this and sets one number for the entire country. Congress has never passed, and the Supreme Court has never required, a single national age of consent for ordinary state-level sexual offenses. This single fact is the most important thing to understand before looking at any list of numbers, because it explains why the list exists in the first place: each of the 50 states, plus the District of Columbia, made this decision independently.

The full breakdown by age group

Most states cluster around age 16, a smaller group sits at 17, and the rest sit at 18. Roughly thirty states and the District of Columbia use 16 as the general age of consent. A smaller group of about seven states use 17. The remaining states, a little over a dozen, use 18. These groupings describe only the general baseline age. They do not describe close-in-age exceptions, offender-age thresholds, position-of-authority rules, or any of the other mechanisms that can change the practical outcome in a specific state. For the confirmed number and mechanism in any individual state, see that state’s page in our state-by-state guides, each researched against the actual statute rather than a secondhand list.

Why a single number never tells the whole story

Two states can list the same headline age and still handle an identical set of facts completely differently. One state’s “16” might come with a close-in-age exemption that removes an offense entirely for a small age gap. Another state’s “16” might have no such exemption at all, meaning the age gap only affects how severely the conduct is charged, not whether it is charged. A third state’s “16” might depend heavily on whether the older person holds a position of authority, such as a teacher or coach, which can remove any close-in-age protection regardless of the numbers involved. The number on the map is the entry point to the analysis. It is not the analysis itself. Our close-in-age exemptions guide walks through the three different mechanisms states actually use once you get past the headline number.

The federal role is narrower than most articles suggest

A recurring claim across guides on this topic is some version of “the federal age of consent is 16” or “federal law sets 18 as the age of consent.” Neither claim accurately describes how federal law actually works here. There is no general federal age-of-consent statute that applies to ordinary in-state sexual conduct between two people. Federal law becomes relevant in narrower, specific circumstances: conduct that crosses state lines, involves federal property, involves human trafficking, or involves the production of sexually explicit material. Outside of those specific federal triggers, the applicable age of consent is set by the state where the conduct occurred, not by a general federal rule. See our federal law page for how federal and state law actually interact.

One federal rule that genuinely is fixed at 18

There is one place where a fixed federal age of 18 does apply consistently, and it is worth separating clearly from the general age-of-consent discussion above: the production of sexually explicit visual depictions. Federal law sets the age for lawfully appearing in this kind of material at 18, regardless of what a given state’s general age of consent happens to be. This means a specific state could permit certain sexual conduct between two 16- or 17-year-olds under its own age-of-consent and close-in-age rules, while creating or possessing a visual depiction of that same conduct remains a separate federal offense, because the visual-depiction threshold does not move with the state’s general age of consent. This is a frequently overlooked distinction, and it matters because the two questions, is the conduct itself permitted, and is documenting it permitted, are governed by different rules entirely.

The terminology problem: most states do not say “statutory rape”

“Statutory rape” is the term most people search for and most articles use as a header, but it is largely a colloquial label rather than the actual name used in most state statutes. States use a wide range of official terms for this category of offense, including sexual assault, sexual abuse of a minor, unlawful sexual conduct, indecency with a child, and various degrees of what a state simply calls rape. The label does not change the underlying analysis, but it explains why searching a state’s actual criminal code for the literal phrase “statutory rape” often turns up nothing, even though the state clearly has this type of law on the books under a different name. Each of our state guides identifies the actual statute and its official name for that state, rather than relying on the “statutory rape” label alone.

Common myths worth correcting

A few claims show up repeatedly across search results on this topic and are worth addressing directly, because getting them wrong can lead to a false sense of security:

• “If the parents approve, there’s no crime.” Parental consent does not authorize conduct that the law otherwise prohibits, and a prosecutor is not required to have the parents’ cooperation to bring charges.
• “If they lied about their age, it’s not a crime.” In most states, a mistaken belief about the other person’s age is not a defense to these offenses, regardless of how convincing the misrepresentation was.
• “Every state has a Romeo and Juliet law.” Some states have no close-in-age exception of any kind, meaning the general age of consent applies with no gap-based adjustment at all.
• “The federal age of consent is 16 (or 18).” As covered above, there is no general federal age-of-consent statute; the one clearly fixed federal age of 18 applies specifically to visual depictions, not to sexual conduct generally.

Compare any two states directly

Because the same headline number can mean different things depending on the mechanisms layered on top of it, side-by-side comparison is often more useful than reading two separate state pages in isolation. Our state comparison tool lets you select any two states and see the age of consent, governing statute, and close-in-age summary for both at once.

How to find your state’s actual rule

The single most reliable way to understand this topic for a specific situation is to read the guide for the specific state involved, rather than relying on a general list like this one. See our complete state-by-state guides, covering all 50 states and the District of Columbia, each researched individually against the state’s own statute.