The Age of World Leaders: A Comprehensive Discussion

ABSTRACT This article comprehensively retraces the age of heads of government from 1945 to 2023. In line with the growing literature on youth representation, we find that world leaders are significantly older than the world population. The average president or prime minister in the 2020s is slightly above 60 years, which not only is older than the average Member of Parliament or minister, it is also unrepresentative of countries populations. We also explain some variation in the age of heads of government. For instance, we find that leaders accessing power after a coup are, on average, 7 years younger throughout their tenure than leaders accessing the highest office through other means. Finally, we detect that family connections can help younger politicians to become the head of the government.