Macapagal-Arroyo was born on April 5, 1947, in San Juan in the Philippine province of Rizal. She is the daughter of former Philippine president Diosdado Macapagal and his second wife, Evangelina (Macaraeg) Macapagal, the daughter of prominent parents who worked as a doctor until the outbreak of war in 1941. Diosdado was born a peasant and became an actor and then a lawyer and professor of economics. He worked for the Foreign Service and served in the Philippine Congress before being elected vice-president of the country in 1957.
He served as the nation's president from 1961-1965. "He was a highly dedicated public servant," Macapagal-Arroyo recalled, as quoted in The Power and the Glory: Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and Her Presidency by Isabelo T. Crisostomo. "God is first in his priority list, followed by the country and lastly his own family. And because the country comes first before family, he made a special arrangement with my mother. In public service, he was supreme and she would not meddle. But at home my mother was supreme and he was not allowed to meddle."
Macapagal-Arroyo was raised in both San Juan and her mother's hometown of Iligan, on the island of Mindanao, where she lived from the age of four to eleven with her maternal grandmother, Irinea de la Cruz Macaraeg. Reportedly, Macapagal-Arroyo moved in with her grandmother because she was jealous of her younger brother, Diosdado Jr., although Crisostomo theorized in The Power and the Glory that Irinea Macaraeg prevailed on Macapagal-Arroyo's parents to let their daughter live with her so she could dote on her granddaugter.
After the age of 11, Macapagal-Arroyo commuted between her grandmother's home and her parents'. In 1994, at Diosdado Macapagal's urging, the Philippine government turned the house in Iligan into a tourist destination featuring memorabilia related to the Macaraeg and Macapagal families. Macapagal-Arroyo attended primary and secondary school at Assumption College in the Philippine capital of Manila.
When she was 15, her father became president and she moved into the Malacanang Palace with her family. She graduated from high school in 1964 and was named valedictorian of her class. From 1964 to 1966, Macapagal-Arroyo attended Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., where she was classmates with future United States President Bill Clinton.
Macapagal-Arroyo returned to Manila after two years at Georgetown to be with her future husband, Jose Miguel "Mike" Tuason Arroyo, a law student from a political family who went on to become one of Macapagal-Arroyo staunchest supporters. The couple, who began dating when Macapagal-Arroyo was a teenager, were married on August 2, 1968. They have three children: Juan Miguel, born on April 26, 1969; Evangelina Lourdes, born on June 5, 1971; and Diosdado Ignacio, born on September 4, 1974.
Macapagal-Arroyo completed her undergraduate education in Manila, graduating magna cum laude from Assumption College with a degree in commerce in 1968. Initially, she stayed home to raise her children, but soon returned to academia. "Early in our marriage, I asked her to stay home, look after the kids, while I worked," Mike Arroyo recalled in The Power and the Glory. "I saw how bored she was, wasting away that intelligence.
So I told her she could go back to school, do what she wanted and I'd support her. I've supported her ever since." Macapagal-Arroyo earned a master's degree in economics from Ateneo de Manila University in 1978 and a Ph.D. in economics from the University of the Philippines in 1985. She worked as an assistant professor at both schools as well, from 1977 to 1987.
From 1984 to 1987 she also chaired the Economics Department at Assumption College. In 1989, she became assistant secretary in the Department of Trade and Industry under president Corazon Aquino. She was later named Trade Undersecretary and Governor of the Board of Investments.