We could note that President Biden (age 79) has already reached the average life expectancy in the US (78.9 years).
If Biden had died at 75, he wouldn’t have become president, and you wouldn’t be considering him.
How much of what you’re noticing is explained by people generally getting pretty old before they become a head of state? You say “monarchs are not explicitly selected at all”, but they are selected for age: you have to outlive the other claimants.
True, but Biden is the oldest President in US history and you generally don’t have to be that old to become head of state. Half of the current heads of state I’ve mentioned are younger than 60.
Anyway, it’s true that many countries have legal restrictions on the minimum age of the President; the highest I’ve found is Italy (at least age 50). Considering that young people don’t get elected President very often no matter the requirements, I think that age 50 should be a decent threshold for a fairer comparison (that’s why I’ve compared the heads of state with the general population older than 50).
If Biden had died at 75, he wouldn’t have become president, and you wouldn’t be considering him.
How much of what you’re noticing is explained by people generally getting pretty old before they become a head of state? You say “monarchs are not explicitly selected at all”, but they are selected for age: you have to outlive the other claimants.
True, but Biden is the oldest President in US history and you generally don’t have to be that old to become head of state. Half of the current heads of state I’ve mentioned are younger than 60.
Anyway, it’s true that many countries have legal restrictions on the minimum age of the President; the highest I’ve found is Italy (at least age 50). Considering that young people don’t get elected President very often no matter the requirements, I think that age 50 should be a decent threshold for a fairer comparison (that’s why I’ve compared the heads of state with the general population older than 50).