- Finland’s Sanna Marin is the youngest serving prime minister in the world.
- At just 34, she has risen through the ranks of Finnish politics rapidly.
- Formerly Finland’s Minister of Transport and Communications, Marin entered politics at age 27 and became an MP in 2015 at 30.
- On December 10, she was chosen by the Social Democratic Party to take over from former prime minister Antti Rinne, following criticism over the way he handled a postal strike.
- Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.
On December 10, Sanna Marin became the prime minister of Finland, making the 34-year-old the youngest prime minister the country has ever had, and the third woman to lead the country.
Marin is also the youngest serving prime minister in the world.
Formerly Finland’s Minister of Transport and Communications, Marin entered politics aged just 27 and became an MP in 2015 at 30.
She was chosen by the Social Democratic Party to take over from Antti Rinne, following criticism over the way he handled a postal strike, according to Reuters.
Take a look at the life of the woman who is the world's youngest serving prime minister.
Marin was born in Finland's capital city Helsinki in 1985 and lived in various cities around the country before her family settled in the southern city of Tampere.
Source: sannamarin.net
In Tampere, Marin was brought up in a same-sex family with her mother and her mother's female partner.
Marin describes herself as coming from a "rainbow family," and in 2015 she told Finnish media how growing up she felt "invisible" because her family members "weren't recognized as a real family."
Source: menaiset
Her upbringing had a profound effect on her politics. "For me, people have always been equal. It's not a matter of opinion. That's the foundation for everything," she said in a 2015 interview.
Source: menaiset
The first person in her family to go to university, Marin graduated from Prikkala High School in 2004 and went on to study Administrative Sciences at the University of Tampere.
Source: sannamarin.net, BBC
In 2012, at just 27 years old, Marin became head of the city administration in Tampere, which has a population of around 230,000 people.
Source: BBC
While still the head of the Tampere city council, Marin was elected as an MP for the Social Democrat Party in 2015, representing the region of Pirkanmaa.
Source: BBC
From June through December 2019, she held the position of Transport and Communications Minister. In the picture below, she can be seen on the far right in the second row.
Source: BBC
The former prime minister of Finland Antti Rinne resigned on December 3 after intense criticisms over the way he handled a postal strike.
Source: Reuters
The incident paved the way for Marin to take the top job. On December 8, the Social Democratic Party voted her in to take Rinne's place.
Source: Reuters
When she was sworn in two days later, she became the youngest serving prime minister in the world.
"We have a lot of work ahead to rebuild trust," Marin told reporters after she won the premiership.
"I have never thought about my age or gender, I think of the reasons I got into politics and those things for which we have won the trust of the electorate," she continued.
Source: Business Insider
Her achievement is no mean feat when you compare her age to other world leaders —Donald Trump was 70 when he became US president, and Britain has not had a prime minister under 40 since 1806.
Marin joined other young world leaders, including 39-year-old Jacinda Ardern, New Zealand's prime minister, and 38-year-old Nayib Bukele, president of El Salvador.
Marin's age and progressive politics, along with the fact that she is a new mom, have garnered comparisons to Arden.
Source: BBC; Business Insider
