Jan Peter Balkenende (pronounced listen (help·info)) (born 7 May 1956) is a Christian Democratic Politician who has been the Prime Minister of the Netherlands since 22 July 2002, currently leading his Fourth cabinet, which is scheduled to be in office until 2011.

Jan Peter Balkenende, legally Jan Pieter Balkenende, was born on May 7 1956 in the village Biezelinge near the town Kapelle in the Netherlands. His father Jan Pieter Balkenende was a cereal grains merchant and his mother Thona Johanna Sandee was a teacher. Balkenende currently resides with his wife, Bianca Hoogendijk, and his daughter Amelia in Capelle aan den IJssel. He rents an apartment in The Hague rather than inhabit the Catshuis formal residency of the Prime Minister. He is a devout member of the Calvinist Protestant Church in the Netherlands.

Balkenende went to a Protestant primary school in Kapelle. He attended secondary school at the "Christian Lyceum for Zeeland" in Goes, graduating in 1974.