Living Prime Ministers of New Zealand

This is a chronological list of all the living people who have served as Prime Minister of New Zealand at each moment in New Zealand history.

There have been four time periods when there was only one living Prime Minister, first with the appointment of Henry Sewell in 1856 and most recently during the second term of Keith Holyoake following the 1968 death of Walter Nash.

There have been two time periods when 12 living current or former prime ministers co-existed, with the longest being a three-year period beginning with the first appointment of Robert Stout in 1884. The most recent period was from the January 1891 appointment of John Ballance to the July 1891 death of Frederick Weld.

If one includes future Prime Ministers as well as past and current Prime Ministers, there has been only one time period when 24 different Prime Ministers co-existed. (See § Statistics, below.)

Timeline of living prime ministers

Statistics

• There have been four men who have been the only living Prime Minister: Henry Sewell (as the first, from 7 May 1856 to 20 May 1856), Peter Fraser (from Forbes' death on 17 May 1947 to 13 December 1949), Sidney Holland (from Fraser's death on 12 December 1950 to 20 September 1957) and Keith Holyoake (from Nash's death on 4 June 1968 to 7 February 1972).
• During two periods in the History of New Zealand, have there been 12 persons alive to have been Prime Minister. The first such period was from 16 August 1884 to 2 November 1887 (when William Fox, Edward Stafford, Alfred Domett, Frederick Whitaker, Frederick Weld, George Waterhouse, Julius Vogel, Daniel Pollen, Harry Atkinson, George Grey, John Hall, and Robert Stout were alive. The second and most recent period was from 24 January 1891 to 20 July 1891 (when William Fox, Edward Stafford, Frederick Whitaker, Frederick Weld, George Waterhouse, Julius Vogel, Daniel Pollen, Harry Atkinson, George Grey, John Hall, Robert Stout, and John Ballance were alive). The earliest of these periods consisted of each Prime Minister appointed consecutively. The longest period where there have been 12 living prime ministers was 3 years and 78 days, ending with the death of Alfred Domett in November 1887.
• Henry Sewell was the only person to be both an only living Prime Minister (from 7 May 1856 to 20 May 1856) and one of five or more living prime ministers (from 30 October 1863 to 14 May 1879).
• There have been 23 administrations during which a Prime Minister has not died, the most recent being the administration of Bill English. This does not include the administrations of William Massey and Norman Kirk (who were themselves the only prime ministers to die during their administrations), nor the administration of incumbent Jacinda Ardern (as no Prime Minister has died since David Lange, who died during the administration of Helen Clark).
  • Conversely, only during the administration of Richard Seddon has there been as many as five deaths during an administration (Seddon in addition died in office in 1906). Only twice (during the administrations of John Ballance and Joseph Ward) has there been as many as three deaths during an administration (This does not include the administration of Michael Joseph Savage, whose own death was the third during his term).
• Although William Massey died in office in 1925, he holds the distinction of serving for the longest period without the death of a former Prime Minister during his term (12 years and 303 days). Edward Stafford who served for a total period of 8 years and 326 days holds the distinction of serving for the longest period during which no Prime Ministers died without dying in office himself. In recent years, the Prime Minister who served the longest without a death in his term was John Key, who served for 8 years and 23 days.
• The longest period between deaths of Prime Ministers was the 17 years and 319 days between the deaths of John Hall on 25 June 1907 and William Massey on 10 May 1925. The shortest was the 11 days between the deaths of Joseph Ward on 8 July 1930 and Robert Stout on 19 July 1930.
  • If the longest period between deaths is to be exceeded, no Prime Minister must die before 28 June 2023 (the current oldest and second oldest surviving prime ministers, Jim Bolger and Geoffrey Palmer, would then be 88 and 81 years old respectively).
  • The second longest period is now the 13 years, 61 days since the death of David Lange on 13 August 2005.
• Only five times (in 1891, 1893, 1906, 1930, and 1936) have multiple Prime Ministers died in the same year.
• Following his administration's end in 1863, Alfred Domett lived to see a record 19 administrations prior to his death in November 1887. George Waterhouse follows with 17 administrations after his own administration ended in 1873, prior to his death in August 1906. In modern times, the Prime Minister to have lived to see the most administrations following their own was Geoffrey Palmer, with seven so far following the end of his administration in 1990.
• If one includes future as well as past and current prime ministers, the record sits at 24:
  • Between Peter Fraser's birth on 28 August 1884 and Alfred Domett's death on 2 November 1887, the following prime ministers were alive: William Fox, Edward Stafford, Alfred Domett, Frederick Whitaker, Frederick Weld, George Waterhouse, Julius Vogel, Daniel Pollen, Harry Atkinson, George Grey, John Hall, Robert Stout, John Ballance, Richard Seddon, William Hall-Jones, Joseph Ward, Thomas Mackenzie, William Massey, Francis Bell, Gordon Coates, George Forbes, Michael Joseph Savage, Peter Fraser, and Walter Nash.
• Since the appointment of Norman Kirk on 8 December 1972 (a period of 45 years, 309 days), there have been at least three Prime Ministers living.

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Prime ministers of New Zealand.

• List of Prime Ministers of New Zealand by age
• List of Prime Ministers of New Zealand by date of birth
• List of Prime Ministers of New Zealand by place of birth
• List of Prime Ministers of New Zealand by time in office