Map of first higher education degrees of European country leaders
Look at this map and one color takes over most of the continent. Law is the first university degree for a striking number of Europe’s current leaders, which makes sense given how closely political systems and legal frameworks are built on top of each other.
Beyond that, the picture gets more varied. Germany and parts of Eastern Europe went into Physics. France leaned heavily toward Philosophy. Engineering is clustered across the southeast. And in smaller patches across the map, you find Medicine, Architecture, Economics, and International Relations each represented by at least one sitting leader.
The academic paths into European politics are wider than the Law-heavy overview first suggests.
The most popular first higher education among the leaders of European countries:
• Law – 16 countries (Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Czech Republic, Cyprus, Denmark, Hungary, Montenegro, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland, Iceland)
• Engineering – 3 (Finland, Greece, Turkey, Moldova)
• Economics – 3 countries (Estonia, Lithuania, Macedonia)
• Physics – 2 (Germany, Romania)
• Philosophy – 2 (France, Georgia)
• Architecture – 1 country (Andorra)
• Business – 1 (Serbia)
• Fine Arts – 1 (Albania)
• Firefighting – 1 (Bulgaria)
• Geography – 1 (United Kingdom)
• History – 1 (Netherlands)
• Journalism – (Austria)
• Management – Latvia
• Medicine – 1(Ireland)
• Political Science (Italy)
• Sociology – 1 (Norway)
• No Degree – 1 (Sweden)
