Age is something that does not matter, the Spanish movie director Luis Buñuel once remarked. Unless, he added, you are a cheese.
But what about being sharp and spry and in your prime if you’re a world leader or key lawmaker?
Globally, presidents and prime ministers range in age from 35 (Ibrahim Traoré, Burkina Faso) to 90 (Paul Biya, Cameroon), according to the Washington-based Pew Research Center, which describes itself as a “fact tank.”
However, most world leaders are in their 50s and 60s. And women leaders tend to be younger than their male counterparts. Finland’s recently departed prime minister, Sanna Marin, was just 34 when she took office.
But outside of the U.S., older leaders tend to be a feature of countries less free politically, according to Freedom House, a Washington research organization. This is a characterization that applies chiefly to despots and authoritarian types; dictators who engineer their systems to stay in power for far longer than democracy typically allows. Russian President Vladimir Putin is 70, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan of Turkey, 69. China’s Xi Jinping, is 70.
At 80, President Joe Biden is not only the first octogenarian in the Oval Office, his relative seniority puts him among the 5% of world leaders who are in their 80s, according to Pew. Donald Trump, his main presumed challenger for the presidency in 2024, is not far behind, at 77. Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader of the Senate, whose apparent health problems have been on public display in recent weeks, is 81.
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In the 118th Congress, the median age of House lawmakers, according to Pew, dipped slightly to 57.9 years, down from 58.9 years in the 117th. But the Senate’s median age continues to rise. It’s now at 65.3 years. Four years ago, it was 62.4 years. Throughout the 1980s, most U.S. lawmakers in Washington were in their 50s.
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The U.S. is one of only two countries that Freedom House classifies as “free” with a leader in their 80s or older.
Freedom House rates people’s access to things such as political rights and civil liberties. In its most recent “Global Freedom Scores,” the U.S. pulled in a respectable 83 out of 100. Not as good as Canada and the Scandinavian countries, which were in touching distance of a perfect score. Not as bad as Afghanistan.
Steven Webster, a professor at Indiana University who studies U.S. political behavior and public opinion, said that it’s clear that there is a “mismatch” between the median age of the U.S. population, which is 39, and the politicians who represent them. He said this could be explained in different ways.
One of these explanations is that members of Congress are staying in office for longer than ever before. Another is that Americans seem to favor incumbents. Once someone gets elected, they tend to stay elected. Another is that older adults tend to vote more than younger ones and in doing so vote for people closer to their age.
“Americans by and large are dissatisfied with Congress, but reelection rates are astronomically high. Yet we tend to vote for who we know, and who we know is older politicians,” he said.
Physically and mentally fit
Biden has no major medical problems. He doesn’t drink or smoke. He appears to exercise regularly.However, occasionally he does appear to forget names or words when he is speaking.
Trump’s doctors have repeatedly said he is in good health, though some physicians have noted if he has a Body Mass Index in excess of 30 he would be considered clinically obese.
McConnell’s doctors have said he is not suffering from a “seizure disorder,” stroke or a “movement disorder such as Parkinson’s disease” despite two recent “freezes” in front of reporters.
Still, it’s one of the FBI and CIA’s biggest nightmares, now that those entrusted with the nation’s most sensitive secrets are getting older or could have medical conditions that could result in them blurting out classified information that could be used against America by its adversaries.
Larry Pfeiffer, a former senior CIA, National Security Agency and White House intelligence official, said he did not want to discuss specific individuals.
But generally speaking, he said, “For employees of the U.S. intelligence Community, mental fitness is one of the key components used in adjudicating whether someone should have access to our most sensitive information.”
“If an employee were suspected of suffering from dementia or other diminishment of mental faculties, depending on the severity their access would be suspended until a medical professional could reevaluate their fitness,” Pfeiffer said. “In some cases, remediation may be possible,” Pfeiffer added, “but in others…