Historical rankings of presidents of the United States
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In political studies, since the mid 20th-century, surveys have been conducted in order to construct historical rankings of the success of the
presidents of the United States The president of the United States is the head of state and head of government of the United States, indirectly elected to a four-year term via the Electoral College. Under the U.S. Constitution, the officeholder leads the executive bra ...
. Ranking systems are usually based on surveys of academic
historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human species; as well as the ...
s and
political scientists The following is a list of notable political scientists. Political science is the scientific study of politics, a social science dealing with systems of governance and power. A * Robert Abelson – Yale University psychologist and political ...
, or popular opinion. The scholarly rankings focus on presidential achievements, leadership qualities, failures, and faults. Among such scholarly rankings,
Abraham Lincoln Abraham Lincoln (February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was the 16th president of the United States, serving from 1861 until Assassination of Abraham Lincoln, his assassination in 1865. He led the United States through the American Civil War ...
is most often ranked as the best, while his predecessor
James Buchanan James Buchanan Jr. ( ; April 23, 1791June 1, 1868) was the 15th president of the United States, serving from 1857 to 1861. He also served as the United States Secretary of State, secretary of state from 1845 to 1849 and represented Pennsylvan ...
is most often ranked as the worst. Popular-opinion polls typically focus on recent or well-known presidents.


History


20th century

A 1948 poll was conducted by historian Arthur M. Schlesinger Sr. of
Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...
. A 1962 survey was also conducted by Schlesinger, who surveyed 75 historians.Schlesinger, Arthur M. "Our Presidents: A Rating by 75 Historians". ''The New York Times''. July 1962. pp. 12–13, 40–41, 43. Schlesinger's son, Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr., conducted another poll in 1996. The ''
Chicago Tribune The ''Chicago Tribune'' is an American daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Founded in 1847, it was formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper", a slogan from which its once integrated WGN (AM), WGN radio and ...
'' surveyed 49 historians in 1982. The Siena College Research Institute began conducting surveys in 1982 and continued in 1990, 1994, 2002,
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,
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and
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– during the second year of the first term of each president since Ronald Reagan. These surveys collect presidential rankings from historians, political scientists, and presidential scholars in a range of attributes, abilities, and accomplishments. The 1994 survey placed only two presidents, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln, above 80 points and two presidents, Andrew Johnson and Warren G. Harding, below 50 points. In 1996, William J. Ridings Jr. and Stuart B. McIver conducted and published a poll and in 1997, an accompanying book on the poll results. 719 people took part in the poll, primarily academic historians and political scientists, although some politicians and celebrities also took part. Participants from every state were included and emphasis was placed upon getting input from female historians and "specialists in
African American studies Black studies or Africana studies (with nationally specific terms, such as African American studies and Black Canadian studies), is an interdisciplinary academic field that primarily focuses on the study of the history, culture, and politics of ...
" as well as a few non-American historians. Poll respondents rated the presidents in five categories (leadership qualities, accomplishments, crisis management, political skill, appointments, and character and integrity) and the results were tabulated to create the overall ranking.


2000–2017

A 2005 presidential poll was conducted by James Lindgren for the
Federalist Society The Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies (FedSoc) is an American Conservatism in the United States, conservative and Libertarianism in the United States, libertarian legal organization that advocates for a Textualism, textualist an ...
and ''
The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' (''WSJ''), also referred to simply as the ''Journal,'' is an American newspaper based in New York City. The newspaper provides extensive coverage of news, especially business and finance. It operates on a subscriptio ...
''. As in the 2000 survey, the editors sought to balance the opinions of liberals and conservatives, adjusting the results "to give Democratic- and Republican-leaning scholars equal weight".
Franklin D. Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), also known as FDR, was the 32nd president of the United States, serving from 1933 until his death in 1945. He is the longest-serving U.S. president, and the only one to have served ...
still ranked in the top three, but editor James Taranto noted that Democratic-leaning scholars rated
George W. Bush George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician and businessman who was the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Bush family and the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he i ...
the sixth-worst president of all time while Republican scholars rated him the sixth-best, giving him a split-decision rating of "average". In 2008, ''
The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...
'' daily newspaper of London asked eight of its own "top international and political commentators" to rank all 42 presidents "in order of greatness". The
C-SPAN Cable-Satellite Public Affairs Network (C-SPAN ) is an American Cable television in the United States, cable and Satellite television in the United States, satellite television network, created in 1979 by the cable television industry as a Non ...
Survey of Presidential Leadership consists of rankings from a group of presidential historians and biographers. The C-SPAN Survey of Presidential Leadership has taken place four times: in 2000, 2009,
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, and
2021 Like the year 2020, 2021 was also heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the emergence of multiple Variants of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 variants. The major global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which began at the end of 2020, continued ...
."C-SPAN Releases Third Historians Survey of Presidential Leadership"
. C-SPAN. February 17, 2017.
The 2021 survey was of 142 presidential historians, surveyed by C-SPAN's Academic Advisor Team, made up of Douglas G. Brinkley, Edna Greene Medford, Richard Norton Smith, and Amity Shlaes. In the survey, each historian rates each president on a scale of one ("not effective") to 10 ("very effective") on presidential leadership in ten categories: Public Persuasion, Crisis Leadership, Economic Management, Moral Authority, International Relations, Administrative Skills, Relations with Congress, Vision/Setting An Agenda, Pursued Equal Justice for All and Performance Within the Context of His Times—with each category equally weighed. The results of all four C-SPAN surveys have been fairly consistent. Abraham Lincoln has taken the highest ranking in each survey and George Washington, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and
Theodore Roosevelt Theodore Roosevelt Jr. (October 27, 1858 – January 6, 1919), also known as Teddy or T.R., was the 26th president of the United States, serving from 1901 to 1909. Roosevelt previously was involved in New York (state), New York politics, incl ...
have always ranked in the top five while
James Buchanan James Buchanan Jr. ( ; April 23, 1791June 1, 1868) was the 15th president of the United States, serving from 1857 to 1861. He also served as the United States Secretary of State, secretary of state from 1845 to 1849 and represented Pennsylvan ...
,
Andrew Johnson Andrew Johnson (December 29, 1808July 31, 1875) was the 17th president of the United States, serving from 1865 to 1869. The 16th vice president, he assumed the presidency following the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Johnson was a South ...
, and
Franklin Pierce Franklin Pierce (November 23, 1804October 8, 1869) was the 14th president of the United States, serving from 1853 to 1857. A northern Democratic Party (United States), Democrat who believed that the Abolitionism in the United States, abolitio ...
have been ranked at the bottom of all four surveys. The 2011 survey, the first poll asking UK academics to rate American presidents, was conducted by the United States Presidency Centre (USPC) at the Institute for the Study of the Americas (located in the
University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a collegiate university, federal Public university, public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The ...
's School of Advanced Study). This polled the opinion of British specialists in American history and politics to assess presidential performance. They also gave an interim assessment of
Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II (born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who was the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the first African American president in American history. O ...
, but his then-unfinished presidency was not included in the survey. (Had he been included, he would have attained eighth place overall.)Iwan Morgan
"UK Survey of US Presidents: Results and Analysis"
. Institute for the Study of the Americas. Retrieved October 10, 2013.
In 2012, ''
Newsweek ''Newsweek'' is an American weekly news magazine based in New York City. Founded as a weekly print magazine in 1933, it was widely distributed during the 20th century and has had many notable editors-in-chief. It is currently co-owned by Dev P ...
'' asked a panel of historians to rank the ten best presidents since 1900. The results showed that historians had ranked Franklin D. Roosevelt, Theodore Roosevelt, Lyndon B. Johnson,
Woodrow Wilson Thomas Woodrow Wilson (December 28, 1856February 3, 1924) was the 28th president of the United States, serving from 1913 to 1921. He was the only History of the Democratic Party (United States), Democrat to serve as president during the Prog ...
, Harry S. Truman, John F. Kennedy, Dwight D. Eisenhower,
Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton (né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician and lawyer who was the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, ...
,
Ronald Reagan Ronald Wilson Reagan (February 6, 1911 – June 5, 2004) was an American politician and actor who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He was a member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party a ...
, and Barack Obama as the best since that year. A 2015 poll administered by the
American Political Science Association The American Political Science Association (APSA) is a professional association of political scientists in the United States. Founded in 1903 in the Tilton Memorial Library (now Tilton Hall) of Tulane University in New Orleans, it publishes four ...
(APSA) among political scientists specializing in the American presidency had Abraham Lincoln in the top spot, with George Washington, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Theodore Roosevelt, Thomas Jefferson, Harry S. Truman, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Bill Clinton,
Andrew Jackson Andrew Jackson (March 15, 1767 – June 8, 1845) was the seventh president of the United States from 1829 to 1837. Before Presidency of Andrew Jackson, his presidency, he rose to fame as a general in the U.S. Army and served in both houses ...
, and Woodrow Wilson making the top 10. A 2016 survey of 71 British specialists by the Presidential History Network produced similar results to the 2011 USPC survey, with Barack Obama placed in the first quartile.


2018–present

A second Presidential Greatness Project Expert Survey was sent to members of the Presidents and Executive Politics section of the APSA in 2018. It ranked
Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who is the 47th president of the United States. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he served as the 45 ...
for the first time, putting him in the last position. In the 2024 edition, Trump scored 10.92 out of 100, easily the worst, while self-identified Republican historians rated Trump in the bottom five. The study organizers noted a drop in recent Republican presidents' scores by speculating that respondents valued presidents that respected political and institutional norms. The first version of this poll was conducted in 2015. The 2018 Siena poll of 157 presidential scholars reported George Washington, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, and Thomas Jefferson as the top five US presidents, with SCRI director Don Levy stating, "The top five, Mount Rushmore plus FDR, is carved in granite with presidential historians". Donald Trump—entering the SCRI survey for the first time—joined Andrew Johnson and James Buchanan among the bottom three US presidents. George W. Bush, whom presidential scholars had rated fifth lowest in the previous 2010 survey, improved in position to 12th lowest. The 2022 Siena poll had Franklin Roosevelt first, Lincoln second, and Washington third, with the bottom three as Trump, Buchanan, and Johnson. The 2021 C-SPAN poll showed a continued recent rehabilitation of Ulysses Grant, showed George W. Bush improving, Obama remaining high, and Trump with the fourth lowest ranking.


Scholar survey summary

Within each column : backgrounds indicate rankings in the first quartile. : backgrounds indicate rankings in the second quartile. : backgrounds indicate the
median The median of a set of numbers is the value separating the higher half from the lower half of a Sample (statistics), data sample, a statistical population, population, or a probability distribution. For a data set, it may be thought of as the “ ...
ranking of an odd number of presidents. : backgrounds indicate rankings in the third quartile. : backgrounds indicate rankings in the fourth quartile. : within a column indicates a given survey's lowest-ranking president. At leftmost column head, click "triangles" to view the in-office order of each president.
At each survey column head, click on "triangles" to view the ranking order for each president in that survey. Scroll in the center of the table. The headers will remain in view.


Notable scholar surveys


1982 Murray–Blessing

The Murray–Blessing 1982 survey asked historians whether they were liberal or conservative on domestic, social, and economic issues. The table below shows that the two groups had only small differences in ranking the best and worst presidents. Both groups agreed on the composition of nine of the top ten presidents (and were split over the inclusion of either Lyndon B. Johnson or Dwight D. Eisenhower) and six of the worst seven (split over
Jimmy Carter James Earl Carter Jr. (October 1, 1924December 29, 2024) was an American politician and humanitarian who served as the 39th president of the United States from 1977 to 1981. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party ...
or
Calvin Coolidge Calvin Coolidge (born John Calvin Coolidge Jr.; ; July 4, 1872January 5, 1933) was the 30th president of the United States, serving from 1923 to 1929. A Republican Party (United States), Republican lawyer from Massachusetts, he previously ...
).


2010 Siena College

;Abbreviations :Bg = Background :PL = Party leadership :CAb = Communication ability :RC = Relations with Congress :CAp = Court appointments :HE = Handling of economy :L = Luck :AC = Ability to compromise :WR = Willing to take risks :EAp = Executive appointments :OA = Overall ability :Im = Imagination :DA = Domestic accomplishments :Int = Integrity :EAb = Executive ability :FPA = Foreign policy accomplishments :LA = Leadership ability :IQ = Intelligence :AM = Avoiding crucial mistakes :EV = Experts' view :O = Overall : Blue  backgrounds indicate first quartile. : Green  backgrounds indicate second quartile. : Yellow-green  backgrounds indicate the median. : Yellow  backgrounds indicate third quartile. : Orange  backgrounds indicate fourth quartile. Source:


2011 USPC

In September/October 2010, the United States Presidency Centre (USPC) of the Institute for the Study of the Americas at the
University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a collegiate university, federal Public university, public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The ...
surveyed 47 British specialists on American history and politics. Presidents were rated from 1 to 10 in five categories: # vision/agenda-setting: "did the president have the clarity of vision to establish overarching goals for his administration and shape the terms of policy discourse?" # domestic leadership: "did the president display the political skill needed to achieve his domestic objectives and respond effectively to unforeseen developments?" # foreign policy leadership: "was the president an effective leader in promoting US foreign policy interests and national security?" # moral authority: "did the president uphold the moral authority of his office through his character, values, and conduct?" # positive historical significance of legacy: "did the president's legacy have positive benefits for America's development over time?" William Henry Harrison (1841) and James Garfield (1881) were not rated because they died shortly after taking office. Barack Obama (2009–) ranked 8th in interim ranking as of January 2011, but was not counted in the final results (and thus did not affect the rankings of other presidents) because he had yet to complete a term. Franklin D. Roosevelt (1933–1945) came in first overall and in the categories of vision/agenda, domestic leadership, and foreign policy leadership. Washington came in first for moral authority; Lincoln for his legacy. Morgan believes it is likely that Roosevelt's ranking (which only marginally surpassed Lincoln's) rose because the poll was conducted during the worst economic troubles since the 1930s. Of presidents since 1960, only Ronald Reagan and (in interim results) Barack Obama placed in the top ten; Obama was the highest-ranked president since Harry Truman (1945–1953). Most of the other recent presidents held middling positions, though George W. Bush placed in the bottom ten, the lowest-ranked president since Warren Harding (1921–1923). Lyndon Johnson (1963–1969) "would have been placed much higher in recognition of his civil rights achievement but for the corrosive effect of Vietnam on his foreign policy and moral authority scores." As with US polls, the bottom five (other than Harding) were president before and after the Civil War. One of the more significant differences from American polls is the relatively low ranking of John F. Kennedy (1961–1963), who placed fifteenth. British academics "seemingly faulted JFK for the gap between his rhetoric and his substantive achievements as president." ;Abbreviations :VSA = Vision/Setting an agenda :DL = Domestic leadership :FPL = Foreign-policy leadership :MA = Moral authority :HL = Historical legacy (positive significance of) :O = Overall : Blue  backgrounds indicate first quartile. : Green  backgrounds indicate second quartile. : Yellow  backgrounds indicate third quartile. : Orange  backgrounds indicate fourth quartile. Each category is ranked according to its averaged numerical score (in parentheses). Source:


2016 PHN

In 2016, the Presidential History Network surveyed 71 named British and Irish specialists. The questions were the same as in the USPC survey, which was directed by some of the same people. Some respondents did not rate presidents that they were not familiar with. The minimum number of responses (62) were for the rather obscure and inconsequential presidents Hayes, Arthur, Cleveland, and Benjamin Harrison. 69–70 rated all recent presidents, from FDR on. ; Abbreviations : VSA = Vision/Setting an agenda : DL = Domestic leadership : FPL = Foreign-policy leadership : MA = Moral authority : HL = Historical legacy (positive significance of) : O = Overall :  Blue  backgrounds indicate first quartile. :  Green  backgrounds indicate second quartile. :  Yellow-green  backgrounds indicate the median. :  Yellow  backgrounds indicate third quartile. :  Orange  backgrounds indicate fourth quartile. Each category is ranked according to its averaged numerical score. Source:


2017 C-SPAN

;Abbreviations :PP = Public persuasion :CL = Crisis leadership :EM = Economic management :MA = Moral authority :IR = International relations :AS = Administrative skills :RC = Relations with Congress :VSA = Vision/Setting an agenda :PEJ = Pursued equal justice for all :PCT = Performance within context of times :O = Overall : Blue  backgrounds indicate first quartile. : Green  backgrounds indicate second quartile. :  Yellow-green  backgrounds indicate the median. : Yellow  backgrounds indicate third quartile. : Orange  backgrounds indicate fourth quartile. Source:


2018 Siena College

On February 13, 2019, Siena released its sixth presidential poll. The poll was initiated in 1982 and occurs one year into the term of each new president. It is currently a survey of 157 presidential scholars across a range of leadership parameters. The ranking awarded the top five spots to George Washington, Franklin Roosevelt, Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, and Thomas Jefferson, in keeping with prior surveys. Washington had been ranked fourth in all previous surveys, and Franklin Roosevelt first. (The numbers below do not match the source where there are ties in the rankings. They have instead been counted as ties are in other polls (e.g. 26, 27, 27, 27, ''30'' rather than 26, 27, 27, 27, ''28''), so that all categories span the range 1–44.) ; Abbreviations : Bg = Background : Im = Imagination : Int = Integrity : IQ = Intelligence : L = Luck : WR = Willing to take risks : AC = Ability to compromise : EAb = Executive ability : LA = Leadership ability : CAb = Communication ability : OA = Overall ability : PL = Party leadership : RC = Relations with Congress : CAp = Court appointments : HE = Handling of economy : EAp = Executive appointments : DA = Domestic accomplishments : FPA = Foreign policy accomplishments : AM = Avoiding crucial mistakes : EV = Experts' view : O = Overall :  Blue  backgrounds indicate first quartile. :  Green  backgrounds indicate second quartile. :  Yellow  backgrounds indicate third quartile. :  Orange  backgrounds indicate fourth quartile.


2021 C-SPAN

; Abbreviations : PP = Public persuasion : CL = Crisis leadership : EM = Economic management : MA = Moral authority : IR = International relations : AS = Administrative skills : RC = Relations with Congress : VSA = Vision/Setting an agenda : PEJ = Pursued equal justice for all : PCT = Performance within context of times : O = Overall :  Blue  backgrounds indicate first quartile. :  Green  backgrounds indicate second quartile. :  Yellow  backgrounds indicate third quartile. :  Orange  backgrounds indicate fourth quartile. Source:


2022 Siena College

The Siena College Research Institute released their seventh poll results on June 22, 2022. The best 10% and worst 10% remain unchanged from their 2018 poll (top five: F. D. Roosevelt, Lincoln, Washington, T. Roosevelt, Jefferson; bottom five: A. Johnson, Buchanan, Trump, Harding, Pierce). 41% of the scholars polled said that if a president were to be added to Mount Rushmore, it should be FDR. 63% believed that the president should be elected by a national popular vote; whereas, 17% supported the Electoral College. A year into his term, Joe Biden entered the ranking in the second quartile, at nineteenth place out of 45. Among recent presidents, George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and Barack Obama moved up in the rankings, while George W. Bush and Donald Trump moved down, though part of the downward shift was due to the addition of a new president to the poll. Counting from the other direction, Trump remained unchanged at third place from last. The changes were relatively small (one or two places), apart from Obama, who moved up six places (14%) to eleventh place, in the first quartile. Notable shifts among earlier presidents included the continuing rehabilitation of Lyndon Johnson, up 8 places into the first quartile, and of Ulysses Grant, up 3 places (up 8 in the individual evaluations) into the second quartile; and the lessening appreciation of Andrew Jackson, down 4 places to the median (down 7, into the third quartile, in the individual evaluations); Ronald Reagan, down 5 places, remaining in the second quartile; and Zachary Taylor, down 6 places into the fourth quartile. ; Abbreviations : Bg = Background (family, education, experience) : Im = Imagination : Int = Integrity : IQ = Intelligence : L = Luck : WR = Willing to take risks : AC = Ability to compromise : EAb = Executive ability : LA = Leadership ability : CAb = Communication ability (speak, write) : OA = Overall ability : PL = Party leadership : RC = Relationship with Congress : CAp = Court appointments : HE = Handling of U.S. economy : EAp = Executive appointments : DA = Domestic accomplishments : FPA = Foreign policy accomplishments : AM = Avoiding crucial mistakes : PV = Present overall view he average ranking of the polled expertsref group="lower-alpha" name="average_rank">The average evaluation. The wording on the survey was "your present overall view."
: O = Overall rank he average of the individual parametersref group="lower-alpha" name="table_average">The average rank as calculated by Siena from the data items in the table. This is usually within a few places of the average evaluation, but more divergent in the cases of Ulysses Grant and Richard Nixon.
:  Blue  backgrounds indicate first quartile. :  Green  backgrounds indicate second quartile. :  Yellow-green  backgrounds indicate the median. :  Yellow  backgrounds indicate third quartile. :  Orange  backgrounds indicate fourth quartile. Source
Siena College Research Institute: 2022 Survey of U.S. Presidents


Scholar surveys of diversity and racism


Walton and Smith (2002–2020)

Professors Hanes Walton Jr. and Robert Smith in their book ''American Politics and the African American Quest for Universal Freedom'', ranked presidents for their views and actions on the topic of race. Presidents can be ranked twice since "White supremacist" refers only to personal ''belief''; while the other categories incorporate policy actions as well.


Tillery and Greer (2019)

In May 2019, Alvin Tillery of the Center for the Study of Diversity and Democracy at
Northwestern University Northwestern University (NU) is a Private university, private research university in Evanston, Illinois, United States. Established in 1851 to serve the historic Northwest Territory, it is the oldest University charter, chartered university in ...
and Christina Greer of
Fordham University Fordham University is a Private university, private Society of Jesus, Jesuit research university in New York City, United States. Established in 1841, it is named after the Fordham, Bronx, Fordham neighborhood of the Bronx in which its origina ...
"conducted a poll of 113 academic researchers and asked them to rate the 14 modern presidents on both their overall leadership and rhetoric on diversity and inclusion using a scale ranging from 0 to 100." Survey respondents were significantly more liberal than the national average, "with only 13 percent of the respondents describing themselves as either moderate, slightly conservative, or conservative."


Public opinion polls


2010 Gallup poll

A Gallup poll taken on November 19–21, 2010, asked 1,037 Americans to say, based on what they know or remember about the nine most recent former presidents, whether they approve or disapprove of how each handled his job in office. # John F. Kennedy (85% approval/10% disapproval) # Ronald Reagan (74% approval/24% disapproval) # Bill Clinton (69% approval/30% disapproval) # George H. W. Bush (64% approval/34% disapproval) # Gerald Ford (61% approval/26% disapproval) # Jimmy Carter (52% approval/42% disapproval) # Lyndon B. Johnson (49% approval/36% disapproval) # George W. Bush (47% approval/51% disapproval) # Richard Nixon (29% approval/65% disapproval)


2011 Gallup poll

A Gallup poll about presidential greatness taken February 2–5, 2011, asked 1,015 American adults the following question: "Who do you regard as the greatest United States president?" # Ronald Reagan (19%) # Abraham Lincoln (14%) # Bill Clinton (13%) # John F. Kennedy (11%) # George Washington (10%) # Franklin Roosevelt (8%) # Barack Obama (5%) # Theodore Roosevelt (3%) # Harry S. Truman (3%) # George W. Bush (2%) # Thomas Jefferson (2%) # Jimmy Carter (1%) # Dwight Eisenhower (1%) # George H. W. Bush (1%) # Andrew Jackson (<0.5%) # Lyndon B. Johnson (<0.5%) # Richard Nixon (<0.5%) In addition, "Other" received 1%, "None" received 1% and "No opinion" received 5%.


Public Policy Polling

A Public Policy Polling poll taken between September 8–11, 2011, asked 665 American voters, based on what they know or remember about the nine then-most recent former presidents, whether they hold favorable or unfavorable views of how each handled his job in office. # John F. Kennedy (74% favorability/15% unfavorability) # Ronald Reagan (60% favorability/30% unfavorability) # Bill Clinton (62% favorability/34% unfavorability) # George H. W. Bush (53% favorability/35% unfavorability) # Gerald Ford (45% favorability/26% unfavorability) # Jimmy Carter (45% favorability/43% unfavorability) # Lyndon B. Johnson (36% favorability/39% unfavorability) # George W. Bush (41% favorability/51% unfavorability) # Richard Nixon (19% favorability/62% unfavorability)


Vision Critical/Angus Reid poll

A Vision Critical/ Angus Reid Public Opinion poll taken on February 18–19, 2011, asked 1,010 respondents about 11 former presidents plus the current president and whether each was a good or bad president. # John F. Kennedy (80% approval/6% disapproval) # Ronald Reagan (72% approval/16% disapproval) # Bill Clinton (65% approval/24% disapproval) # Dwight D. Eisenhower (61% approval/6% disapproval) # Harry S. Truman (57% approval/7% disapproval) # Jimmy Carter (47% approval/28% disapproval) # George H. W. Bush (44% approval/38% disapproval) # Barack Obama (41% approval/33% disapproval) # Gerald Ford (37% approval/25% disapproval) # Lyndon B. Johnson (33% approval/27% disapproval) # George W. Bush (30% approval/55% disapproval) # Richard Nixon (24% approval/54% disapproval)


2013 Gallup poll

A Gallup poll taken November 7–10, 2013, asked 1,039 American adults the following question: "How do you think each of the following presidents will go down in history—as an outstanding president, above average, average, below average, or poor?".


2014 Quinnipiac poll

A Quinnipiac University poll taken June 24–30, 2014, asked 1,446 American registered voters who they believed were the best and worst presidents since
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
.


2017 Quinnipiac poll

Two and a half years later, a Quinnipiac University poll taken January 20–25, 2017, asked 1,190 American voters who they believed were the best and worst presidents since World War II.


2017 Morning Consult poll

Including President Donald Trump for the first time, a Morning Consult poll taken February 9–10, 2017, asked 1,791 American registered voters who they believed were the best and worst presidents since World War II.


2018 Quinnipiac poll

A Quinnipiac University poll taken March 3–5, 2018, asked 1,122 American voters who they believed were the best and worst presidents since World War II.


2021 Gallup poll

A Gallup poll taken January 4–15, 2021, asked 1,023 American adults the following question: "How do you think each of the following presidents will go down in history—as an outstanding president, above average, average, below average, or poor?"


2024 Gallup poll

A Gallup poll taken December 2–18, 2024, asked the following question: "How do you think each of the following presidents will go down in history—as an outstanding president, above average, average, below average, or poor?"


Memorability of the presidents


2014 Roediger and DeSoto Survey

In November 2014, Henry L. Roediger III and K. Andrew DeSoto published a study in the journal ''
Science Science is a systematic discipline that builds and organises knowledge in the form of testable hypotheses and predictions about the universe. Modern science is typically divided into twoor threemajor branches: the natural sciences, which stu ...
'' asking research subjects to name as many presidents as possible. They reported data from three generations as well as from an online survey conducted . The percentage of participants in the online survey sample who could name each president was the following: #
Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II (born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who was the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the first African American president in American history. O ...
(100%) #
Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton (né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician and lawyer who was the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, ...
(96%) #
George W. Bush George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician and businessman who was the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Bush family and the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he i ...
or
George H. W. Bush George Herbert Walker BushBefore the outcome of the 2000 United States presidential election, he was usually referred to simply as "George Bush" but became more commonly known as "George H. W. Bush", "Bush Senior," "Bush 41," and even "Bush th ...
(95%) #
George Washington George Washington (, 1799) was a Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father and the first president of the United States, serving from 1789 to 1797. As commander of the Continental Army, Washington led Patriot (American Revoluti ...
(94%) #
Abraham Lincoln Abraham Lincoln (February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was the 16th president of the United States, serving from 1861 until Assassination of Abraham Lincoln, his assassination in 1865. He led the United States through the American Civil War ...
(88%) # John F. Kennedy (83%) #
Richard Nixon Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 until Resignation of Richard Nixon, his resignation in 1974. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican ...
(82%) #
Jimmy Carter James Earl Carter Jr. (October 1, 1924December 29, 2024) was an American politician and humanitarian who served as the 39th president of the United States from 1977 to 1981. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party ...
(79%) #
Thomas Jefferson Thomas Jefferson (, 1743July 4, 1826) was an American Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father and the third president of the United States from 1801 to 1809. He was the primary author of the United States Declaration of Indepe ...
(72%) #
Ronald Reagan Ronald Wilson Reagan (February 6, 1911 – June 5, 2004) was an American politician and actor who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He was a member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party a ...
(66%) #
Gerald Ford Gerald Rudolph Ford Jr. (born Leslie Lynch King Jr.; July 14, 1913December 26, 2006) was the 38th president of the United States, serving from 1974 to 1977. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, Ford assumed the p ...
(62%) #
Franklin D. Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), also known as FDR, was the 32nd president of the United States, serving from 1933 until his death in 1945. He is the longest-serving U.S. president, and the only one to have served ...
or
Theodore Roosevelt Theodore Roosevelt Jr. (October 27, 1858 – January 6, 1919), also known as Teddy or T.R., was the 26th president of the United States, serving from 1901 to 1909. Roosevelt previously was involved in New York (state), New York politics, incl ...
(60%) #
John Adams John Adams (October 30, 1735 – July 4, 1826) was a Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father and the second president of the United States from 1797 to 1801. Before Presidency of John Adams, his presidency, he was a leader of ...
or
John Quincy Adams John Quincy Adams (; July 11, 1767 – February 23, 1848) was the sixth president of the United States, serving from 1825 to 1829. He previously served as the eighth United States secretary of state from 1817 to 1825. During his long diploma ...
(56%) #
Dwight D. Eisenhower Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower (born David Dwight Eisenhower; October 14, 1890 – March 28, 1969) was the 34th president of the United States, serving from 1953 to 1961. During World War II, he was Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionar ...
(54%) #
Harry S. Truman Harry S. Truman (May 8, 1884December 26, 1972) was the 33rd president of the United States, serving from 1945 to 1953. As the 34th vice president in 1945, he assumed the presidency upon the death of Franklin D. Roosevelt that year. Subsequen ...
(50%) #
Andrew Jackson Andrew Jackson (March 15, 1767 – June 8, 1845) was the seventh president of the United States from 1829 to 1837. Before Presidency of Andrew Jackson, his presidency, he rose to fame as a general in the U.S. Army and served in both houses ...
(47%) #
Herbert Hoover Herbert Clark Hoover (August 10, 1874 – October 20, 1964) was the 31st president of the United States, serving from 1929 to 1933. A wealthy mining engineer before his presidency, Hoover led the wartime Commission for Relief in Belgium and ...
(42%) #
Andrew Johnson Andrew Johnson (December 29, 1808July 31, 1875) was the 17th president of the United States, serving from 1865 to 1869. The 16th vice president, he assumed the presidency following the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Johnson was a South ...
or
Lyndon B. Johnson Lyndon Baines Johnson (; August 27, 1908January 22, 1973), also known as LBJ, was the 36th president of the United States, serving from 1963 to 1969. He became president after the assassination of John F. Kennedy, under whom he had served a ...
(41%) #
William Howard Taft William Howard Taft (September 15, 1857March 8, 1930) served as the 27th president of the United States from 1909 to 1913 and the tenth chief justice of the United States from 1921 to 1930. He is the only person to have held both offices. ...
(39%) #
James Madison James Madison (June 28, 1836) was an American statesman, diplomat, and Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father who served as the fourth president of the United States from 1809 to 1817. Madison was popularly acclaimed as the ...
(38%) # Ulysses S. Grant (38%) #
James Monroe James Monroe ( ; April 28, 1758July 4, 1831) was an American Founding Father of the United States, Founding Father who served as the fifth president of the United States from 1817 to 1825. He was the last Founding Father to serve as presiden ...
(30%) #
Woodrow Wilson Thomas Woodrow Wilson (December 28, 1856February 3, 1924) was the 28th president of the United States, serving from 1913 to 1921. He was the only History of the Democratic Party (United States), Democrat to serve as president during the Prog ...
(29%) #
Calvin Coolidge Calvin Coolidge (born John Calvin Coolidge Jr.; ; July 4, 1872January 5, 1933) was the 30th president of the United States, serving from 1923 to 1929. A Republican Party (United States), Republican lawyer from Massachusetts, he previously ...
(22%) # James A. Garfield (19%) # James K. Polk (17%) #
Warren G. Harding Warren Gamaliel Harding (November 2, 1865 – August 2, 1923) was the 29th president of the United States, serving from 1921 until his death in 1923. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he was one of the most ...
(16%) #
William McKinley William McKinley (January 29, 1843September 14, 1901) was the 25th president of the United States, serving from 1897 until Assassination of William McKinley, his assassination in 1901. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Repub ...
(15%) #
John Tyler John Tyler (March 29, 1790 – January 18, 1862) was the tenth president of the United States, serving from 1841 to 1845, after briefly holding office as the tenth vice president of the United States, vice president in 1841. He was elected ...
(12%) #
James Buchanan James Buchanan Jr. ( ; April 23, 1791June 1, 1868) was the 15th president of the United States, serving from 1857 to 1861. He also served as the United States Secretary of State, secretary of state from 1845 to 1849 and represented Pennsylvan ...
(12%) #
Grover Cleveland Stephen Grover Cleveland (March 18, 1837June 24, 1908) was the 22nd and 24th president of the United States, serving from 1885 to 1889 and from 1893 to 1897. He was the first U.S. president to serve nonconsecutive terms and the first Hist ...
(11%) #
William Henry Harrison William Henry Harrison (February 9, 1773April 4, 1841) was the ninth president of the United States, serving from March 4 to April 4, 1841, the shortest presidency in U.S. history. He was also the first U.S. president to die in office, causin ...
or Benjamin Harrison (11%) #
Martin Van Buren Martin Van Buren ( ; ; December 5, 1782 – July 24, 1862) was the eighth president of the United States, serving from 1837 to 1841. A primary founder of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he served as Attorney General o ...
(11%) # Rutherford B. Hayes (10%) #
Zachary Taylor Zachary Taylor (November 24, 1784 – July 9, 1850) was an American military officer and politician who was the 12th president of the United States, serving from 1849 until his death in 1850. Taylor was a career officer in the United States ...
(10%) #
Millard Fillmore Millard Fillmore (January 7, 1800 – March 8, 1874) was the 13th president of the United States, serving from 1850 to 1853. He was the last president to be a member of the Whig Party while in the White House, and the last to be neither a De ...
(8%) #
Franklin Pierce Franklin Pierce (November 23, 1804October 8, 1869) was the 14th president of the United States, serving from 1853 to 1857. A northern Democratic Party (United States), Democrat who believed that the Abolitionism in the United States, abolitio ...
(7%) # Chester A. Arthur (7%)


2021 Putnam Survey

In July 2021, a survey was taken on the memorability of U.S. presidents by name and facial recognition. The rate of memorability for the name recognition survey was: # Bill Clinton (98%) # Barack Obama (98%) # George W. Bush (96%) # Abraham Lincoln (95%) # Ronald Reagan (94%) # George Washington (93%) # Richard Nixon (92%) # George H.W. Bush (90%) # John F. Kennedy (88%) # Jimmy Carter (83%) # Lyndon B. Johnson (82%) # Thomas Jefferson (77%) # William Howard Taft (77%) # Teddy Roosevelt (75%) # Dwight D. Eisenhower (74%) # Harry S. Truman (73%) # Andrew Jackson (65%) # Franklin D. Roosevelt (59%) # James Madison (55%) # Grover Cleveland (53%) # Benjamin Harrison (53%) # Martin Van Buren (52%) # Gerald Ford (52%) # James A. Garfield (50%) # Woodrow Wilson (50%) # William Henry Harrison (48%) # John Quincy Adams (48%) # Rutherford B. Hayes (47%) # Herbert Hoover (46%) # John Adams (44%) # James K. Polk (43%) # Franklin Pierce (42%) # Chester A. Arthur (42%) # Ulysses S. Grant (37%) # John Tyler (36%) # William McKinley (35%) # Millard Fillmore (31%) # Warren G. Harding (31%) # Zachary Taylor (28%) # James Monroe (26%) # Andrew Johnson (24%) # Calvin Coolidge (21%) # James Buchanan (18%)


Reception

Gerard Baker, US editor for ''
The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...
'', writes, "the 42 American presidents fall into a well-established, bell-curve or
normal distribution In probability theory and statistics, a normal distribution or Gaussian distribution is a type of continuous probability distribution for a real-valued random variable. The general form of its probability density function is f(x) = \frac ...
on a chart – a handful of outstanding ones, a handful of duds, and a lot of so-sos. I couldn't, in all honesty therefore, really say that number 13 on the list is that much better than number 30." Political scientist Walter Dean Burnham described "dichotomous or schizoid profiles" of presidents, making some hard to classify in his opinion. Historian Alan Brinkley said "there are presidents who could be considered ''both'' failures ''and'' great or near great (for example, Wilson, Johnson, Nixon)". Historian and political scientist James MacGregor Burns observed of Nixon: "How can one evaluate such an idiosyncratic president, so brilliant and so morally lacking?" David Herbert Donald, noted biographer of
Abraham Lincoln Abraham Lincoln (February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was the 16th president of the United States, serving from 1861 until Assassination of Abraham Lincoln, his assassination in 1865. He led the United States through the American Civil War ...
, relates that when he met John F. Kennedy in 1961, Kennedy voiced his deep dissatisfaction and resentment with historians who had rated some of his predecessors. Kennedy remarked, "No one has a right to grade a president—even poor
James Buchanan James Buchanan Jr. ( ; April 23, 1791June 1, 1868) was the 15th president of the United States, serving from 1857 to 1861. He also served as the United States Secretary of State, secretary of state from 1845 to 1849 and represented Pennsylvan ...
—who has not sat in his chair, examined the mail and information that came across his desk, and learned why he made his decisions." Historian and political scientist Julian E. Zelizer has argued that traditional presidential rankings explain little concerning actual presidential history and that they are "weak mechanisms for evaluating what has taken place in the
White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest (Washington, D.C.), NW in Washington, D.C., it has served as the residence of every U.S. president ...
."Zelizer, Julian E. (February 21, 2011)
Opinion: "What's wrong with presidential rankings"
. CNN Opinion.
The broadly static nature of the rankings over multiple decades has also been called into question, particularly given the frequent exposure of previously unknown material about American government. The first British survey, published in 2011, places some small government advocates higher than recent US surveys have: Thomas Jefferson at 4, Ronald Reagan at 8, and Andrew Jackson at 9 (compare 7, 10 and 13 in C-SPAN 2009).


Survey takers

In 2002, Ron Walters, former director of the
University of Maryland The University of Maryland, College Park (University of Maryland, UMD, or simply Maryland) is a public land-grant research university in College Park, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1856, UMD is the flagship institution of the Univ ...
's African American Leadership Institute, stated that ranking based on the presidents' ability to balance the interests of the majority and those of excluded groups was practical in respect to American debate on racial politics. Presidents have traditionally been ranked on personal qualities and their leadership ability to solve problems that move the nation in a positive direction. Walters stated that there was a qualitative difference between presidential evaluations from white and African-American intellectuals. He gives as an example of this difference a comparison between two contemporary studies, a 1996 ''
New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'' poll by Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr., where 31 white historians and one black historian ranked presidents as "Great", "Near Great", "High Average", "Average", "Below Average", or "Failure", and a survey performed by professors Hanes Walton Jr. and Robert Smith and featured in their book ''American Politics and the African American Quest for Universal Freedom'', where 44 African-American political scientists and historians ranked presidents as "White Supremacist", "Racist", "Racially Neutral", "Racially Ambivalent", or "Antiracist". A 2012 analysis by Mark Zachary Taylor faulted presidential surveys with "partisan bias and subjective judgments", suggesting an
algorithm In mathematics and computer science, an algorithm () is a finite sequence of Rigour#Mathematics, mathematically rigorous instructions, typically used to solve a class of specific Computational problem, problems or to perform a computation. Algo ...
to rank of the presidents based on objectively measurable economic statistics. His algorithm placed Franklin Roosevelt as the best president for the economy, followed by Harding, Hayes and McKinley tied for second. The worst-ranked presidents were Hoover and Van Buren, tied. Alvin S. Felzenberg has criticized what he sees as a liberal bias in presidential rankings. In particular, he ranks
Ronald Reagan Ronald Wilson Reagan (February 6, 1911 – June 5, 2004) was an American politician and actor who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He was a member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party a ...
in third place, substantially higher than averaged rankings. In reviewing his 2010 book, Michael Genovese says, "Felzenberg is upset—with some justification—at the liberal bias he sees as so prevalent in the ranking of U.S. presidents by historians and political scientists. To remedy this, he has provided a counter to the liberal bias with a conservative bias. In doing so, he commits all the sins of which he accuses liberals. This book is a mirror image of the work he finds so troubling....It is unscientific, impressionistic, and highly subjective."Michael Genovese (2010) "The Leaders We Deserved (And a Few We Didn't): Rethinking the Presidential Rating Game." ''Presidential Studies Quarterly'' 40.4: 799–800.


See also

Individual presidents * Legacy of George Washington * Historical reputation of Thomas Jefferson * Historical reputation of Ulysses S. Grant * Historical reputation of Warren G. Harding * Criticism of Franklin D. Roosevelt * Public image of Bill Clinton * Public image of George W. Bush * Public image of Barack Obama * Public image of Donald Trump * Public image of Joe Biden Other countries * Historical rankings of chancellors of Germany * Historical rankings of prime ministers of Australia * Historical rankings of prime ministers of Canada * Historical rankings of prime ministers of the Netherlands * Historical rankings of prime ministers of the United Kingdom


References


Further reading

* → A non-quantitative appraisal by leading historian. * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Historical Rankings Of United States Presidents
United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
Historical reputations of presidents of the United States Lists relating to the United States presidency Presidency of the United States United States presidential history