Head of government

The head of government is the leader of the executive branch of a nation's government. This is not always the same person as the head of state. Common titles for heads of government include Premier or Prime Minister.

Executive heads of government:

• Narendra Modi, Prime Minister of India
• Fumio Kishida, Prime Minister of Japan
• Olaf Scholz, Chancellor of Germany
• Keir Starmer, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
• Giorgia Meloni, Prime Minister of Italy
• Karl Nehammer, Chancellor of Austria
• Anthony Albanese, Prime Minister of Australia
• Pedro Sánchez, Prime Minister of Spain
• Justin Trudeau, Prime Minister of Canada
• Anwar Ibrahim, Prime Minister of Malaysia
• Christopher Luxon, Prime Minister of New Zealand
• Abiy Ahmed, Prime Minister of Ethiopia

The heads of government of five members of the Commonwealth of Nations at the 1944 Commonwealth Prime Ministers' Conference.

In some countries such as the United States, the president is both the head of state and the head of government. In the Republic of Ireland the president is the head of state but the Taoiseach (Prime Minister) is the head of government.

In most modern monarchies the king (or queen) is the head of state but not the head of government, as is the case of Japan and the UK, for example. In this scenario, the monarch will perform ceremonial duties while the head of government takes care of the executive branch.

The head of state of some countries has no power over law and justice, for example, the Chancellor of Germany has those powers and not the Bundespresident.