US Pew Research Statistics on 187 Countries
Over Half Are 60s at 35% and 50s at 22%
A U.S. research institute surveyed the ages of leaders from 187 UN member countries and found that the median age of world leaders is 62 years old.
On the 26th (local time), the U.S.-based research organization Pew Research Center released age statistics of world leaders, excluding six countries?Afghanistan, Burkina Faso, Iraq, Mali, Somalia, and Vanuatu?due to lack of accurate age information among the 193 UN member states.
According to the survey, the median age of current world leaders is 62 years. The age group with the highest proportion among world leaders is those in their 60s, accounting for 35%, followed by those in their 50s at 22%. Combined, leaders in their 50s and 60s make up 57%, more than half of the total. Leaders in their 40s and 70s each accounted for 18%, while leaders in their 80s, including U.S. President Joe Biden, made up only 5%.
According to this data, the oldest leader in the world is Paul Biya, President of Cameroon, born in 1933. President Biya, who celebrated his 90th birthday last month, is the world's only leader in their 90s and has held power for over 40 years. On the other hand, the youngest leader is Gabriel Boric, President of Chile, who is 37 years old. Sanna Marin (born November 16, 1985), Prime Minister of Finland, and Dritan Abazovi? (born December 25, 1985), Prime Minister of Montenegro, are also 37 years old but were born a few months earlier than Boric (born February 11, 1986), thus losing the 'youngest' title. Ibrahim Traor?, head of the military regime in Burkina Faso, is reported to be 34 or 35 years old, but due to lack of precise age information, he was excluded from this survey.
The youngest leader in the world currently, Gabriel Boric, President of Chile. [Photo by AP Yonhap News]
The Pew Research Center also presented an analysis showing that countries classified as 'not free' tend to have older leaders. The median age of leaders in countries classified as 'not free' by the international human rights organization Freedom House is 69 years, 61 years in 'partly free' countries, and 58 years in 'free' countries.
The median age of female leaders is 57 years
Additionally, female leaders were somewhat younger than their male counterparts. The median age of female leaders in 13 countries is 57 years, five years younger than the median age of male leaders (62 years). The youngest female leader is 37-year-old Sanna Marin, Prime Minister of Finland, and the oldest is 75-year-old Sheikh Hasina, Prime Minister of Bangladesh. Among female leaders, the prominence of those in their 40s stood out, including Mette Frederiksen (45), Prime Minister of Denmark; Kaja Kallas (45), Prime Minister of Estonia; Katr?n Jakobsd?ttir (47), Prime Minister of Iceland; Giorgia Meloni (46), Prime Minister of Italy; and Ana Brnabi? (47), Prime Minister of Serbia.
Meanwhile, U.S. President Joe Biden, who is 80 years old and expected to announce his re-election bid next year, ranks as the 9th oldest leader among the leaders of 187 UN member countries.
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