List of prime ministers of the United Kingdom by age


This is a list of prime ministers of the United Kingdom by age. This table can be sorted to display prime ministers of the United Kingdom by name, order of office, date of birth, age at appointment, length of retirement, or lifespan. Age at appointment is determined by the day a prime minister assumed office for the first time. Length of retirement is determined from the day a prime minister leaves office for the final time until their death.
Two measures of longevity are given; this is to allow for the differing number of leap days occurring within the life of each Prime Minister. The first figure is the number of days between date of birth and date of death, allowing for leap days; in parentheses the same period given in years and days, with the number of whole years that the Prime Minister had lived, and the days being the remaining number of days from their last birthday. Where the prime minister in question is still living, their longevity is measured up to.

Overview

The median age upon accession to the premiership is 53 years and 100 days, which falls between Edward Smith-Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby and Margaret Thatcher. The youngest Prime Minister to assume office was William Pitt the Younger. The youngest prime minister to leave office was Augustus FitzRoy, 3rd Duke of Grafton. The oldest prime minister to assume office for the first time was Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston. The oldest prime minister to be appointed overall was William Ewart Gladstone when he was appointed for the fourth and final time on 15 August 1892. Gladstone was also the oldest prime minister to leave office at his final retirement on 2 March 1894.
There are currently six living British prime ministers including incumbent Boris Johnson.
The oldest living former prime minister is John Major, born 29 March 1943. Gordon Brown is the second-oldest, 7 years and 328 days younger than Major. Brown was born on 20 February 1951.
The youngest living former prime minister is David Cameron, born 9 October 1966. Theresa May is the second-youngest, 10 years and 8 days older than Cameron. May was born on 1 October 1956.
The longest-lived prime minister, James Callaghan, died on the eve of his 93rd birthday on 26 March 2005. Harold Macmillan was the second-longest-lived, 42 days short of Callaghan. The shortest-lived prime minister, William Cavendish, 4th Duke of Devonshire, was 44 years and 147 days old when he died on 2 October 1764.
The prime minister with the longest retirement is Augustus FitzRoy, 3rd Duke of Grafton, at 41 years and 45 days. He achieved this record on 1 January 1799, surpassing John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute, who died 28 years, 337 days after leaving office. Bute held the record for nearly 22 years. The longest retirement any prime minister since Grafton has held is that of Henry Addington, who left office on 10 May 1804 and died 39 years and 281 days later on 15 February 1844. Of the five former prime ministers currently alive, John Major has been retired the longest, with a retirement of having left office on 2 May 1997. The prime minister with the shortest retirement is Henry Campbell-Bannerman, who died only 15 days after leaving office.
Four British prime ministers have lived into their nineties. They are :

List of prime ministers

No.
Name
Born
Date of appointment AgeEnd Service AgePost-Premiership
Death
Lifespan
1Robert Walpole
2Spencer Compton,
1st Earl of Wilmington		 1673 yearsN/AN/Aa years
3Henry PelhamN/AN/Aa
4
1st Duke of Newcastle
5William Cavendish,
4th Duke of Devonshire
6John Stuart,
3rd Earl of Bute
7George Grenville
8 2nd Marquess of RockinghamN/AN/Aa
9William Pitt the Elder
10Augustus FitzRoy,
3rd Duke of Grafton
11Frederick North, Lord North
12William Petty,
2nd Earl of Shelburne
13
3rd Duke of Portland
14William Pitt the YoungerN/AN/Aa
15Henry Addington
16William Grenville
17Spencer PercevalN/AN/Aa
18Robert Jenkinson,
2nd Earl of Liverpool
19George CanningN/AN/Aa
20
1st Viscount Goderich
21Arthur Wellesley,
1st Duke of Wellington
22Charles Grey,
2nd Earl Grey
23William Lamb,
2nd Viscount Melbourne
24Robert Peel
25Lord John Russell
26
14th Earl of Derby
27
4th Earl of Aberdeen
28
3rd Viscount Palmerston		N/AN/Aa
29Benjamin Disraeli
30
31
3rd Marquess of Salisbury
32Archibald Primrose,
5th Earl of Rosebery
33Arthur Balfour
34
35
36David Lloyd George
37Bonar Law
38Stanley Baldwin
39Ramsay MacDonald
40Neville Chamberlain
41Winston Churchill
42Clement Attlee
43Anthony Eden
44Harold Macmillan
45
46Harold Wilson
47Edward Heath
48James Callaghan
49Margaret Thatcher
50John Major
51Tony Blair
52Gordon Brown
53David Cameron
54Theresa May
55Boris JohnsonIncumbentIncumbentIncumbent
No.NameBornDate AgeEnd of ServiceAgePost-PremiershipDate of deathLifespan