List of G7 leaders

This is a list of the heads of state and heads of government of the Group of Seven nations at each G6, G7, G8 summit since the organisation's inception in 1975. The Group consists of the 6-7-8 largest industrialized democracies, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States. The European Union is also a member since 1977, represented by the President of the European Commission and the President of the European Council, which before 2009 was the leader of the state holding the rotating Presidency of the Council of the European Union, also sometimes coinciding with a G7/8 nation, and is since 2009 a permanent position. The G7 holds an annual summit, which each nation's head of government attends. Each year the heads of government take turns assuming the presidency, whose job it is to set the agenda for and host the annual summit. The leader who has been in office the longest of the seven leaders is considered the Senior G7 leader; currently Justin Trudeau since December 2021.

While the current G7 consists of seven nations, it didn't always. The group was formed as the Group of Six, G6, including all of today's members minus Canada. Under the leadership of Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, Canada joined in the second year of the group's existence, 1976, forming the Group of Seven, G7. Russia joined the Group of Eight, G8, in 1997, under the leadership of President Boris Yeltsin. Russia was suspended in March 2014 after the Russian annexation of Crimea, the group being thereafter again referred to as the Group of Seven.^[1]

Summit (Host)	State
	Canada	France	Germany	Italy	Japan	Russia	United Kingdom	United States	European Union
	Canada	France	Germany	Italy	Japan	Russia	United Kingdom	United States	Commission	Council
1st — 1975 France	Had not joined	Valéry Giscard d'Estaing	Helmut Schmidt	Aldo Moro	Takeo Miki	Had not joined	Harold Wilson	Gerald Ford	Had not joined
2nd — 1976 United States	Pierre Trudeau			Aldo Moro	Takeo Miki		James Callaghan	Gerald Ford	Had not joined
3rd — 1977 United Kingdom				Giulio Andreotti	Takeo Fukuda			Jimmy Carter	Roy Jenkins	James Callaghan
4th — 1978 West Germany					Takeo Fukuda					Helmut Schmidt
5th — 1979 Japan	Joe Clark				Masayoshi Ōhira		Margaret Thatcher			Valéry Giscard d'Estaing
6th — 1980 Italy	Pierre Trudeau			Francesco Cossiga	Saburo Okita^[2]					Francesco Cossiga
7th — 1981 Canada		François Mitterrand		Giovanni Spadolini	Zenkō Suzuki			Ronald Reagan	Gaston Thorn	Margaret Thatcher
8th — 1982 France				Giovanni Spadolini	Zenkō Suzuki					Wilfried Martens
9th — 1983 United States			Helmut Kohl	Amintore Fanfani	Yasuhiro Nakasone					Helmut Kohl
10th — 1984 United Kingdom				Bettino Craxi						François Mitterrand
11th — 1985 West Germany	Brian Mulroney								Jacques Delors	Bettino Craxi
12th — 1986 Japan										Ruud Lubbers
13th — 1987 Italy				Amintore Fanfani						Wilfried Martens
14th — 1988 Canada				Ciriaco De Mita	Noboru Takeshita					Helmut Kohl
15th — 1989 France				Ciriaco De Mita	Sōsuke Uno			George H. W. Bush		François Mitterrand
16th — 1990 United States				Giulio Andreotti	Toshiki Kaifu					Giulio Andreotti
17th — 1991 United Kingdom				Giulio Andreotti	Toshiki Kaifu		John Major			Ruud Lubbers
18th — 1992 Germany				Giuliano Amato	Kiichi Miyazawa					John Major
19th — 1993 Japan	Kim Campbell			Carlo Azeglio Ciampi	Kiichi Miyazawa			Bill Clinton	Henning Christophersen^[3]	Jean-Luc Dehaene
20th — 1994 Italy	Jean Chrétien			Silvio Berlusconi	Tomiichi Murayama				Jacques Delors	Helmut Kohl
21st — 1995 Canada		Jacques Chirac		Lamberto Dini	Tomiichi Murayama				Jacques Santer	Jacques Chirac
22nd — 1996 France				Romano Prodi	Ryutaro Hashimoto					Romano Prodi
23rd — 1997 United States						Boris Yeltsin	Tony Blair			Wim Kok
24th — 1998 United Kingdom										Tony Blair
25th — 1999 Germany			Gerhard Schröder	Massimo D'Alema	Keizō Obuchi				Manuel Marín^[4]	Gerhard Schröder
26th — 2000 Japan				Giuliano Amato	Yoshirō Mori	Vladimir Putin			Romano Prodi	Jacques Chirac
27th — 2001 Italy				Silvio Berlusconi	Junichirō Koizumi			George W. Bush		Guy Verhofstadt
28th — 2002 Canada										José María Aznar
29th — 2003 France										Costas Simitis
30th — 2004 United States	Paul Martin									Bertie Ahern
31st — 2005 United Kingdom	Paul Martin								José Manuel Barroso	Tony Blair
32nd — 2006 Russia	Stephen Harper		Angela Merkel	Romano Prodi						Matti Vanhanen
33rd — 2007 Germany		Nicolas Sarkozy		Romano Prodi	Shinzō Abe					Angela Merkel
34th — 2008 Japan				Silvio Berlusconi	Yasuo Fukuda	Dmitry Medvedev	Gordon Brown			Nicolas Sarkozy
35th — 2009 Italy					Tarō Asō		Gordon Brown	Barack Obama		Fredrik Reinfeldt
36th — 2010 Canada					Naoto Kan		David Cameron		José Manuel Barroso	Herman Van Rompuy
37th — 2011 France					Naoto Kan
38th — 2012 United States		François Hollande		Mario Monti	Yoshihiko Noda
39th — 2013 United Kingdom				Enrico Letta	Shinzō Abe	Vladimir Putin
40th — 2014 European Union				Matteo Renzi		Suspended
41st — 2015 Germany									Jean-Claude Juncker	Donald Tusk
42nd — 2016 Japan	Justin Trudeau
43rd — 2017 Italy		Emmanuel Macron		Paolo Gentiloni			Theresa May	Donald Trump
44th — 2018 Canada				Giuseppe Conte			Theresa May
45th — 2019 France							Boris Johnson
46th — 2020 United States^[5]									Ursula von der Leyen	Charles Michel
47th — 2021 United Kingdom				Mario Draghi	Yoshihide Suga			Joe Biden
48th — 2022 Germany		TBD	Olaf Scholz	Mario Draghi	Fumio Kishida			Joe Biden

List of Senior G7 Leaders[]

The following is a chronology of senior G7 leaders from the founding of the G6 (a precursor organization to the G8) to the present.^[6]

Entered office as Head of State or Government	Began time as senior G8 leader	Ended time as senior G8 leader	Term Length	Person	Office
16 October 1964^[7]	15 November 1975	5 April 1976	142 days	Harold Wilson	Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
16 May 1974	5 April 1976	27 June 1976	83 days	Helmut Schmidt	Chancellor of West Germany
20 April 1968	27 June 1976^[8]	4 June 1979	2 years, 342 days	Pierre Trudeau	Prime Minister of Canada
16 May 1974	4 June 1979	3 March 1980	273 days	Helmut Schmidt	Chancellor of West Germany
20 April 1968^[9]	3 March 1980	30 June 1984	4 years, 119 days	Pierre Trudeau	Prime Minister of Canada
4 May 1979	30 June 1984	28 November 1990	6 years, 151 days	Margaret Thatcher	Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
10 May 1981	28 November 1990	17 May 1995	4 years, 170 days	François Mitterrand	President of France
1 October 1982	17 May 1995	27 October 1998	3 years, 163 days	Helmut Kohl	Chancellor of Germany
10 July 1991	27 October 1998	31 December 1999	1 year, 65 days	Boris Yeltsin	President of Russia
20 January 1993	31 December 1999	20 January 2001	1 year, 20 days	Bill Clinton	President of the United States
4 November 1993	20 January 2001	12 December 2003	2 years, 326 days	Jean Chrétien	Prime Minister of Canada
17 May 1995	12 December 2003	16 May 2007	3 years, 155 days	Jacques Chirac	President of France
2 May 1997	16 May 2007	27 June 2007	42 days	Tony Blair	Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
7 May 2000	27 June 2007	7 May 2008	315 days	Vladimir Putin	President of Russia
20 January 2001	7 May 2008	20 January 2009	258 days	George W. Bush	President of the United States
10 May 1994^[10]	20 January 2009	16 November 2011	2 years, 300 days	Silvio Berlusconi	Prime Minister of Italy
22 November 2005	16 November 2011	7 May 2012	173 days	Angela Merkel	Chancellor of Germany
7 May 2000^[11]	7 May 2012	24 March 2014	1 year, 321 days	Vladimir Putin	President of Russia
22 November 2005	24 March 2014	8 December 2021	7 years, 259 days	Angela Merkel	Chancellor of Germany
4 November 2015	8 December 2021	Incumbent	102 days	Justin Trudeau	Prime Minister of Canada

List of seniority of current G7 leaders[]

Person	Office	In Office Since	Term Length
Justin Trudeau	Prime Minister of Canada	4 November 2015	6 years, 136 days
Emmanuel Macron	President of France	14 May 2017	4 years, 310 days
Boris Johnson	Prime Minister of the United Kingdom	24 July 2019	2 years, 239 days
Joe Biden	President of the United States	20 January 2021	1 year, 59 days
Mario Draghi	Prime Minister of Italy	13 February 2021	1 year, 35 days
Fumio Kishida	Prime Minister of Japan	4 October 2021	167 days
Olaf Scholz	Chancellor of Germany	8 December 2021	102 days

G7 tenure[]

The longest period anyone has been the senior G7 leader is the 7 years, 259 days of Chancellor of Germany Angela Merkel, who was Chancellor for sixteen years.
The shortest period any past G7 leader has been the senior G7 leader is the 42 days of Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Tony Blair in 2007.
Despite the fact that Japan was a founding member of the G6 (which later became the G7, and then the G8), no Japanese Prime Minister has ever become the Senior G7 Leader.
Except for Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Harold Wilson, the first person to be Senior G7 Leader, no past Senior G7 Leader has held office for less than eight years.
Silvio Berlusconi currently holds the record of G8 Summit hosting, having hosted it in Italy three times.

Notes[]

^ Myers, Steven Lee; Barry, Ellen (2014-03-18). "Putin Reclaims Crimea for Russia and Bitterly Denounces the West". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2022-02-20.
^ Okita was actually Foreign Minister at the time, filling in for Prime Minister Ōhira, who died 10 days before the conference began.
^ Vice-President of the European Commission
^ Acting Commission President following the March 1999 resignation of the Santer Commission
^ Due to the global coronavirus pandemic, the 2020 summit was cancelled.
^ Canada did not join the organization until 1976 while Russia did not join until 1997. Therefore, Canadian leaders prior to 1976 and Russian leaders before 1997 are not included in this list.
^ Wilson first served as Prime Minister from 16 October 1964 to 19 June 1970, and then again from 4 March 1974 to 5 April 1976.
^ Canada joined the organization on this date. Trudeau had been in office longer than any of the other leaders and so took the title of senior G8 leader from Schmidt.
^ Trudeau first served as Prime Minister from 20 April 1968 to 4 June 1979, and then again from 3 March 1980 to 30 June 1984.
^ Berlusconi first served as Prime Minister from 10 May 1994 to 17 January 1995, then again from 11 June 2001 to 17 May 2006, and then again from 8 May 2008 to 16 November 2011.
^ Putin first served as President of Russia from 2000 to 2008.

[1] Myers, Steven Lee; Barry, Ellen (2014-03-18). "Putin Reclaims Crimea for Russia and Bitterly Denounces the West". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2022-02-20.

[2] Okita was actually Foreign Minister at the time, filling in for Prime Minister Ōhira, who died 10 days before the conference began.

[3] Vice-President of the European Commission

[4] Acting Commission President following the March 1999 resignation of the Santer Commission

[5] Due to the global coronavirus pandemic, the 2020 summit was cancelled.

[6] Canada did not join the organization until 1976 while Russia did not join until 1997. Therefore, Canadian leaders prior to 1976 and Russian leaders before 1997 are not included in this list.

[7] Wilson first served as Prime Minister from 16 October 1964 to 19 June 1970, and then again from 4 March 1974 to 5 April 1976.

[8] Canada joined the organization on this date. Trudeau had been in office longer than any of the other leaders and so took the title of senior G8 leader from Schmidt.

[9] Trudeau first served as Prime Minister from 20 April 1968 to 4 June 1979, and then again from 3 March 1980 to 30 June 1984.

[10] Berlusconi first served as Prime Minister from 10 May 1994 to 17 January 1995, then again from 11 June 2001 to 17 May 2006, and then again from 8 May 2008 to 16 November 2011.

[11] Putin first served as President of Russia from 2000 to 2008.

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