Gerard Hendrik Hofstede is born in Haarlem, The Netherlands on October 2nd 1928, as third and youngest child to Evertine Veenhoven and Gerrit Hofstede.

Being a highly intelligent child, he skips two grades at school and is intellectually always ahead of his classmates, but struggles emotionally and socially. He is twelve years old when World War II hits, a determining event in his life. Following the family tradition, he becomes a Delft-engineer, only to evolve into a social psychologist after he decides to follow his heart. In 1955 he marries Maaike van den Hoek. They have five children: two boys, a girl, and two more boys. The little girl succumbs to an illness at the age of one. The globe trotting family lives in Switzerland and Belgium.  Geert and Maaike also live in the USA and Hong Kong.

Geert Hofstede dies in Ede on February 12th 2020 at the age of 91, surrounded by his loved ones.