According to data compiled by Scottish data scientist Hannah Ritchie, supplemented by the review, for the 146 countries for which the age of current leaders is available, only three are governed by someone younger than the median age of their population: Rob Jetten in the Netherlands (two years younger), Milojko Spajić in Montenegro (one year younger) and Mindaugas Sinkevičius in Lithuania (a few months younger).
In nearly 98% of countries, leaders are older than their populations.
- The most extreme example of this asymmetry is Cameroon, one of the countries with the youngest populations in the world, with a median age of 18.
- It has been led for nearly 44 years by Paul Biya, who came to power in 1982 and is now 93 years old – a gap of 75 years with the population.
- Among the ten countries with the largest gap, nine are in Africa (Cameroon, Malawi, Côte d’Ivoire, Zimbabwe, Uganda, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Liberia and Eritrea), and one in the Middle East (Palestine).
Europe is, alongside South America, the region where leaders are the youngest: a median age of 56.7 years (and 56 years in South America), compared with 65.4 in North America, 67.3 in Asia and 69.5 in Africa.
- The region currently has three leaders under 40: Kristrún Frostadóttir in Iceland, aged 38; Milojko Spajić in Montenegro and Rob Jetten in the Netherlands, both 39.
- That is as many as in the rest of the world: Daniel Noboa in Ecuador, 38; Ibrahim Traoré in Burkina Faso, 38; and Balendra Shah in Nepal, 36.
The age of leaders varies depending on the regime type in place: in liberal democracies, the median age of leaders is 60.7 years, about eight years younger than in electoral autocracies (per the V-Dem classification), such as Russia and Turkey, and about six years younger than in closed autocracies, such as China, Belarus or Vietnam.
For France, the 2027 presidential election could significantly modify the gap between the age of the country’s future leader and that of its population.
- With a median age of 42.5 years, France is the ninth youngest country in the European Union.
- In the event of a victory by Jean-Luc Mélenchon (75), the country would have the oldest leader in the bloc. The gap with the median age would quintuple compared to today, placing France on par with Russia.
- In the event of Marine Le Pen’s election (58) or Édouard Philippe (who would be 56 at inauguration), the gap would more than double to align with the European average.
- The election of Gabriel Attal would, for its part, make France the fourth European country whose leader is younger than the median age of its population (4.4 years younger).