Joe Biden, at 81, is the oldest American president, a distinction he has held since taking office at age 78. As Biden runs for re-election in 2024, he is the world’s ninth-oldest national leader, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of incumbent leaders in 187 United Nations member states.
Former President Donald Trump, who is running again for the White House this year, is younger than Biden. But at 77, Trump is also among the 20 oldest world leaders when compared to those currently in power.
With current U.S. President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump running for reelection to the nation’s highest office, Pew Research Center examined the ages of current national leaders to put Biden and Trump’s ages in a global context. .
This analysis examines the ages of current heads of government in 187 countries that are member states of the United Nations, based on government biographies and regional news articles. Reflects the ages of national leaders – and in some cases, acting or acting leaders – as of May 1, 2024. Excludes six UN member states for which an exact date of birth of the leader could not be found: Afghanistan, Haiti, Iraq, Mali, Niger and Somalia. For each of these countries, we contacted embassy officials in the United States, but did not receive further information.
This analysis focuses primarily on heads of government as defined by a country’s political system or constitution. In some cases, we determine the national leader based on which executive has the power to appoint/fire the nominal head of government. In San Marino, where there are two captains regent who share power, we include data from Alessandro Rossi, who took office more recently.
This analysis also relies on Freedom House’s country classifications to determine whether countries are free, partially free, or not free. These rankings are based on two numerical scores given to each country regarding its political rights and civil liberties.
The average age of each country’s general population is a projection for 2024 from the UN’s World Population Prospects for 2022 report. The projections are based on “all available data sources on population size and levels of fertility, mortality and international migration”.
American voters are skeptical about both candidates’ fitness for office, according to a recent Center poll. Only about four in ten registered US voters are extremely or very confident that Trump has the mental fitness to be president (38%), while a similar percentage are confident in his physical fitness (36%). Even fewer express this degree of confidence in Biden’s mental (21%) and physical (15%) fitness for the role.
Below are five important facts about the ages of current national leaders.
National leaders range in age from 30 to 91 years old. The youngest leader is Ibrahim Traoré, from Burkina Faso, aged 36. He only slightly outperforms two 36-year-old colleagues, Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa and Montenegrin Prime Minister Milojko Spajić. Only two other world leaders are in their 30s: Irish Taoiseach Simon Harris and Chilean President Gabriel Boric.
The longest-serving national leader is President Paul Biya of Cameroon, who was born in 1933 and took office more than 40 years ago. Biya is the only current national leader in his 90s.
The average age of current national leaders is 62 years old, starting May 1, 2024. The largest share of global leaders today (34%) are in their 60s. Approximately a quarter (22%) are in their 50s; 19% are in their 70s; and 16% are in their 40s. Biden is among the 5% of leaders over 80 years old.
Less free countries tend to have older leaders. In countries that Freedom House classifies as “not free,” the average age of the national leader is 68. This compares with 62 years in countries classified as “partly free” and 60 years in countries classified as “free”.
The United States is one of three countries classified as free and has a leader who is 80 years of age or older; the other two are Ghana and Namibia. In Ghana, President Nana Akufo-Addo recently completed 80 years in office. And in Namibia, Nangolo Mbumba, 82, assumed the presidency at the beginning of this year, after the death of the previous leader in office, at the age of 82.
The average age for female leaders and male leaders is the same. Among men who are world leaders, 3% are in their 30s, while no female leaders are in this age group. However, of the 14 female leaders currently in power, 29% are in their 40s, compared to 14% of leaders who are men.
Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen of Denmark is the youngest female leader at 46, followed closely by her colleague Kaja Kallas, 46, the prime minister of Estonia. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina of Bangladesh is the oldest female leader, at 76 years old.
In most countries, the leader is significantly older than the average member of the population. For example, the average American is 38 years old, according to UN population projections for 2024, while Biden is more than twice that age. In fact, the only countries that have a leader who is younger than the median of the country’s residents are Montenegro, Ireland and Italy. Andorra’s Prime Minister Xavier Espot Zamora, 44, is the same age as the average Andorra resident.
In general, countries that Freedom House classifies as free are more likely than those classified as partially free or not free to have leaders closer in age to the average age of the country’s residents.
Note: This is an update to a post originally published on March 24, 2023.
