In political studies, surveys have been conducted in order to construct historical rankings of the success of the presidents of the United States. 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 race; as well as the stu ...

s and political scientists or popular opinion. The scholarly rankings focus on presidential achievements, leadership qualities, failures and faults. Popular-opinion polls typically focus on recent or well-known presidents.

General findings

Abraham Lincoln Abraham Lincoln ( ; February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was an American lawyer, politician, and statesman who served as the 16th president of the United States from 1861 until his assassination in 1865. Lincoln led the nation thro ...

Franklin D. Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (; ; January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), often referred to by his initials FDR, was an American politician and attorney who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. As the ...

, and

George Washington George Washington (February 22, 1732, 1799) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first president of the United States from 1789 to 1797. Appointed by the Continental Congress as commander of th ...

are most often listed as the three highest-rated presidents among historians. More recent presidents such as

Ronald Reagan Ronald Wilson Reagan ( ; February 6, 1911June 5, 2004) was an American politician, actor, and union leader who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He also served as the 33rd governor of California from 1967 ...

and

Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton ( né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and agai ...

are often rated among the greatest in public opinion polls, but generally do not rank as highly among presidential scholars and historians. Because

William Henry Harrison William Henry Harrison (February 9, 1773April 4, 1841) was an American military officer and politician who served as the ninth president of the United States. Harrison died just 31 days after his inauguration in 1841, and had the shortest pres ...

(31 days) and

James A. Garfield James Abram Garfield (November 19, 1831 – September 19, 1881) was the 20th president of the United States, serving from March 4, 1881 until his death six months latertwo months after he was shot by an assassin. A lawyer and Civil War gene ...

(200 days, incapacitated after 119 days) both died shortly after taking office, they are often omitted from presidential rankings. Zachary Taylor died after serving as president for only 16 months, but he is usually included. In the case of these three, it is not clear whether they received low rankings due to their actions as president or because each was in office for such a limited time that he did not accomplish much. Political scientist

Walter Dean Burnham Walter Dean Burnham (June 15, 1930 – October 4, 2022) was an American political scientist who was an expert on elections and voting patterns. He was known for his quantitative analysis of national trends and patterns in voting behavior, th ...

noted the "dichotomous or schizoid profiles" of presidents, which can make some hard to classify. Historian

Alan Brinkley Alan Brinkley (June 2, 1949 – June 16, 2019) was an American political historian who taught for over 20 years at Columbia University. He was the Allan Nevins Professor of History until his death. From 2003 to 2009, he was University Provost. ...

stated that "there are presidents who could be considered both failures and great or near great (for example, Nixon)". Historian and political scientist

James MacGregor Burns James MacGregor Burns (August 3, 1918 – July 15, 2014) was an American historian and political scientist, presidential biographer, and authority on leadership studies. He was the Woodrow Wilson Professor of Government Emeritus at Williams Col ...

observed of Nixon: "How can one evaluate such an idiosyncratic president, so brilliant and so morally lacking?" It's also not clear that the absolute rankings mean much, especially for the middling presidents. Gerard Baker, US editor for ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

'', writes, "the 42 American presidents fall into a well-established, Bell-curve or normal distribution 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."

History

A 1948 poll was conducted by historian

Arthur M. Schlesinger Sr. Arthur Meier Schlesinger Sr. (; February 27, 1888 – October 30, 1965) was an American historian who taught at Harvard University, pioneering social history and urban history. He was a Progressive Era intellectual who stressed material caus ...

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

. 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. Arthur Meier Schlesinger Jr. (; born Arthur Bancroft Schlesinger; October 15, 1917 – February 28, 2007) was an American historian, social critic, and public intellectual. The son of the influential historian Arthur M. Schlesinger Sr. and a spe ...

, conducted another poll in 1996. ''The Complete Book of U.S. Presidents'' also gives the results of the 1982 survey, a poll of 49 historians conducted by the ''

Chicago Tribune The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television ar ...

''. A notable difference from the 1962 Schlesinger poll was the ranking of Dwight D. Eisenhower, which rose from 22nd in 1962 to 9th in 1982. The 1996 column shows the results from a poll conducted from 1988 to 1996 by William J. Ridings Jr. and Stuart B. McIver and published in ''Rating The Presidents: A Ranking of U.S. Leaders, from the Great and Honorable to the Dishonest and Incompetent''.''Rating the Presidents: A Ranking of U.S. leaders, from the Great and Honorable to the Dishonest and Incompetent''
. 2000. . More than 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" 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. A 2000 survey by ''

The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...

'' consisted of an "ideologically balanced group of 132 prominent professors of history, law, and political science". This poll sought to include an equal number of liberals and conservatives in the survey as the editors argued that previous polls were dominated by either one group or the other. According to the editors, this poll included responses from more women, minorities, and young professors than the 1996 Schlesinger poll. The editors noted that the results of their poll were "remarkably similar" to the 1996 Schlesinger poll, with the main difference in the 2000 poll being the lower rankings for the 1960s presidents Lyndon B. Johnson and John F. Kennedy and higher ranking of President Ronald Reagan at 8th. Franklin D. Roosevelt still ranked in the top three. Another presidential poll was conducted by ''The Wall Street Journal'' in 2005, with

James Lindgren James Lindgren is a professor of law at Northwestern University. Born in 1952 in Rockford, Illinois, Lindgren graduated from Yale College (1974, cum laude) and the University of Chicago Law School (1977), where he was an editor of the ''University o ...

Northwestern University Law School Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law is the law school of Northwestern University, a Private university, private research university. It is located on the university's Chicago campus. Northwestern Law has been ranked among the top 14, ...

for the Federalist Society. 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 still ranked in the top three, but editor

James Taranto James Taranto (born January 6, 1966) is an American journalist. He is editorial features editor for ''The Wall Street Journal'', in charge of the newspaper's op-ed pages, both print and digital.Siena College Research Institute has conducted surveys in 1982, 1990, 1994, 2002, 2010, 2018 and 2022 - 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 Andrew Johnson (December 29, 1808July 31, 1875) was the 17th president of the United States, serving from 1865 to 1869. He assumed the presidency as he was vice president at the time of the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Johnson was a Dem ...

and

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, he was one of the most popular sitting U.S. presidents. A ...

, below 50 points. A 2006 Siena College poll of 744 professors reported the following results:"Experts: Bush Presidency Is A Failure; Little Chance To Improve Ranking"
. ''Siena Research Institute''. May 1, 2006. * "George W. Bush has just finished five years as President. If today were the last day of his presidency, how would you rank him? The responses were: Great: 2%; Near Great: 5%; Average: 11%; Below Average: 24%; Failure: 58%" * "In your judgment, do you think he has a realistic chance of improving his rating?" Two-thirds (67%) responded no; less than a quarter (23%) responded yes; and 10% chose "no opinion or not applicable" Thomas Kelly, professor emeritus of American studies at Siena College, said: "President Bush would seem to have small hope for high marks from the current generation of practicing historians and political scientists. In this case, current public opinion polls actually seem to cut the President more slack than the experts do". Douglas Lonnstrom, Siena College professor of statistics and director of the Siena Research Institute, stated: "In our 2002 presidential rating, with a group of experts comparable to this current poll, President Bush ranked 23rd of 42 presidents. That was shortly after

9/11 The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial ...

. Clearly, the professors do not think things have gone well for him in the past few years. These are the experts that teach college students today and will write the history of this era tomorrow". In 2008, ''

'' 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 and satellite television network that was created in 1979 by the cable television industry as a nonprofit public service. It televises many proceedings of the United States ...

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, 2017, and 2021."C-SPAN Releases Third Historians Survey of Presidential Leadership"
. C-SPAN. February 17, 2017. The most recent survey was of 142 presidential historians, surveyed by C-SPAN's Academic Advisor Team, made up of Douglas G. Brinkley,

Edna Greene Medford Edna Greene Medford is a professor of history at Howard University who specializes in 19th-century African-American history. She is a member of the board of the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Foundationbr>and is on the Executive Committee of The ...

, Richard Norton Smith, and

Amity Shlaes Amity Ruth Shlaes (; born September 10, 1960) is a Conservatism in the United States, conservative American author, writer, and columnist. She writes about politics and economics from a classical liberal, classically liberal perspective. Shlaes has ...

. 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 have always ranked in the top five while James Buchanan, Andrew Johnson, and Franklin Pierce have been ranked at the bottom of all four surveys. The 2010 Siena poll of 238 presidential scholars found that former president George W. Bush was ranked 39th out of 43, with poor ratings in handling of the economy, communication, ability to compromise, foreign policy accomplishments, and intelligence. Meanwhile, the then-current president

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the U ...

was ranked 15th out of 43, with high ratings for imagination, communication ability, and intelligence and a low rating for background (family, education, and experience)."Rushmore Plus One; FDR joins Mountainside Figures Washington, Jefferson, Teddy Roosevelt and Lincoln as Top Presidents"
.

Siena Research Institute Siena College Research Institute (SCRI) is an affiliate of Siena College, located originally in Friars Hall and now in Hines Hall on the college's campus, in Loudonville, New York, in suburban Albany, New York, Albany. It was founded in 1980. It ...

. July 1, 2010. In 2011, through the agency of its United States Presidency Centre (USPC), 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-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degree ...

's School of Advanced Study) released the first ever United Kingdom academic survey to rate presidents. 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, but his 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"
. Retrieved October 10, 2013. In 2012, ''

Newsweek ''Newsweek'' is an American weekly online news magazine co-owned 50 percent each by Dev Pragad, its president and CEO, and Johnathan Davis (businessman), Johnathan Davis, who has no operational role at ''Newsweek''. Founded as a weekly print m ...

'' magazine 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, Harry S. Truman, John F. Kennedy, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Bill Clinton, Ronald Reagan, and Barack Obama as the best since that year. A 2013 History News Network poll of 203 American historians, when asked to rate Obama's presidency on an A–F scale, gave him a B- grade. Obama, whom historians graded using 15 separate measures plus an overall grade, was rated most highly in the categories of communication ability, integrity, and crisis management; and most poorly for his relationship with Congress, transparency, and accountability. A 2015 poll administered by the

American Political Science Association The American Political Science Association (APSA) is a professional association of political science students and scholars in the United States. Founded in 1903 in the Tilton Memorial Library (now Tilton Hall) of Tulane University in New Orleans, ...

(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, and Woodrow Wilson making the top 10. APSA conducted a repeat of this poll in 2018, with Donald Trump appearing for the first time, in last position. 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. 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, James Buchanan, Warren G. Harding, and Franklin Pierce among the bottom five US presidents. George W. Bush, whom presidential scholars had rated among the bottom five in the previous 2010 survey, improved in position to the bottom of the third quartile. A 2021 C-SPAN poll continued a recent rehabilitation of Ulysses Grant, with Bush improving yet again, Obama remaining high and Trump near the bottom.

Scholar survey summary

;Within each column: : Blue backgrounds indicate rankings in the first quartile. : Green backgrounds indicate rankings in the second quartile. : Yellow-green backgrounds indicate the

median In statistics and probability theory, the median is the value separating the higher half from the lower half of a data sample, a population, or a probability distribution. For a data set, it may be thought of as "the middle" value. The basic fe ...

ranking of an odd number of presidents.Quartiles were determined by splitting the data into an upper and lower half and then splitting these halves each into two quartiles. When splitting an odd total number of rankings, the median is given an intermediate color. : Yellow backgrounds indicate rankings in the third quartile. : Orange backgrounds indicate rankings in the fourth quartile. Note: click the "sort" icon at the head of each column to view the rankings for each survey in numerical order.

Notable scholar surveys

Murray–Blessing 1982 survey

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. (born October 1, 1924) is an American politician who served as the 39th president of the United States from 1977 to 1981. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he previously served as th ...

Calvin Coolidge Calvin Coolidge (born John Calvin Coolidge Jr.; ; July 4, 1872January 5, 1933) was the 30th president of the United States from 1923 to 1929. Born in Vermont, Coolidge was a History of the Republican Party (United States), Republican lawyer ...

Siena College Research Institute, Presidential Expert Poll of 2010

;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 = Avoid 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 UK Survey of US Presidents

In September/October 2010, the United States Presidency Centre (USPC) of the Institute for the Study of the Americas at 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 UK Survey of U.S. Presidents

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 Presidential Historians Survey

;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:

Siena College Research Institute, Presidential Expert Poll of 2018

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. (Note that 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 = Avoid 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 Presidential Historians Survey

; 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:

Siena College Research Institute, Presidential Expert Poll of 2022

The Siena College Research Institute released their seventh poll results on June 22, 2022. The best and worst 10% remain unchanged from their 2018 poll (top five: F. D. Roosevelt, Lincoln, Washington, T. Roosevelt, Jefferson; bottom five: Andrew 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, versus 17% support for the Electoral College. A year into his term, Joe Biden entered the ranking in the second quartile, at No. 19 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 No. 11, 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 = Avoid crucial mistakes : PV = Present overall view

he average ranking of the polled experts He or HE may refer to: Language * He (pronoun), an English pronoun * He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ * He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets * He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' in ...

ref 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 parameters He or HE may refer to: Language * He (pronoun), an English pronoun * He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ * He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets * He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' in ...

ref group=lower-alpha name=table_average>The average rank as calculated by Sienna 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

''American Politics and the African American Quest for Universal Freedom'' polls (2002–2020)

Professors

Hanes Walton Jr. Hanes Walton Jr. (September 25, 1941 — January 8, 2013) was an American political scientist and professor of African-American studies who pioneered the study of race in American politics. He was an early advocate for the creation of African-A ...

and Robert Smith conducted a poll in 2002 for their book ''American Politics and the African American Quest for Universal Freedom'', where 44 African-American political scientists and historians ranked presidents for their personal and institutional racism against their policies to counter racial subordination. The polls have been updated for subsequent editions of the book. The results (through Donald Trump) were as follows. Note that "white supremacist" refers to personal ''belief''; the other categories refer to policy.Hanes Walton Jr & Robert C. Smith, eds. (2008) ''American Politics and the African American Quest for Universal Freedom''. Pearson Longman. 4th edition.

Northwestern Presidential Leadership on Diversity and Inclusion Survey (2019)

In May 2019, Dr. Alvin Tillery of the Center for the Study of Diversity and Democracy at

Northwestern University Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston, Illinois. Founded in 1851, Northwestern is the oldest chartered university in Illinois and is ranked among the most prestigious academic institutions in the world. Charte ...

and Dr. Christina Greer of

Fordham University Fordham University () is a Private university, private Jesuit universities, Jesuit research university in New York City. Established in 1841 and named after the Fordham, Bronx, Fordham neighborhood of the The Bronx, 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 Liberal or liberalism may refer to: Politics * a supporter of liberalism ** Liberalism by country * an adherent of a Liberal Party * Liberalism (international relations) * Sexually liberal feminism * Social liberalism Arts, entertainment and m ...

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

Gallup Gallup may refer to: *Gallup, Inc., a firm founded by George Gallup, well known for its opinion poll *Gallup (surname), a surname *Gallup, New Mexico, a city in New Mexico, United States **Gallup station, an Amtrak train in downtown Gallup, New Me ...

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

Vision Critical Alida created the world's first CXM & Insights Platform. The company is based in Toronto and formerly known as Vision Critical. Initially it was founded by Andrew Reid in 2000 and worked with customer-obsessed brands around the world. Hist ...

Angus Reid Public Opinion Angus Reid (born December 17, 1947) is a Canadian entrepreneur, pollster, and Sociology, sociologist. He is the chairman of the #Angus Reid Institute, Angus Reid Institute and CEO and founder of Angus Reid Global. He is director of the Reid Campb ...

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

Quinnipiac University Quinnipiac University () is a private university in Hamden, Connecticut. The university grants undergraduate, graduate, and professional degrees through its College of Arts and Sciences, School of Business, School of Engineering, School of C ...

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, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

2017 Quinnipiac poll

Four 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 Morning Consult is a global decision intelligence company established in 2014. It was named one of the fastest growing technology companies in North America by Deloitte in both 2018 and 2019 and was valued at more than one billion dollars in Jun ...

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

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?"

Memorability of the presidents

In November 2014,

Henry L. Roediger III Henry L. "Roddy" Roediger III (born July 24, 1947) is an American psychology researcher in the area of human learning and memory. He rose to prominence for his work on the psychological aspects of False memory syndrome, false memories. Biograph ...

and K. Andrew DeSoto published a study in the journal ''

Science Science is a systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe. Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earliest archeological evidence for ...

'' 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: #

(100%) #

(96%) #

George W. Bush George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Republican Party, Bush family, and son of the 41st president George H. W. Bush, he ...

George H. W. Bush George Herbert Walker BushSince around 2000, he has been usually called George H. W. Bush, Bush Senior, Bush 41 or Bush the Elder to distinguish him from his eldest son, George W. Bush, who served as the 43rd president from 2001 to 2009; pr ...

(95%) #

(94%) #

(88%) #

John F. Kennedy John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), often referred to by his initials JFK and the nickname Jack, was an American politician who served as the 35th president of the United States from 1961 until his assassination i ...

(83%) #

Richard Nixon Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as a representative and senator from California and was ...

(82%) #

(79%) #

Thomas Jefferson Thomas Jefferson (April 13, 1743 – July 4, 1826) was an American statesman, diplomat, lawyer, architect, philosopher, and Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father who served as the third president of the United States from 18 ...

(72%) #

(66%) #

Gerald Ford Gerald Rudolph Ford Jr. ( ; born Leslie Lynch King Jr.; July 14, 1913December 26, 2006) was an American politician who served as the 38th president of the United States from 1974 to 1977. He was the only president never to have been elected ...

(62%) #

Theodore Roosevelt Theodore Roosevelt Jr. ( ; October 27, 1858 – January 6, 1919), often referred to as Teddy or by his initials, T. R., was an American politician, statesman, soldier, conservationist, naturalist, historian, and writer who served as the 26t ...

(60%) #

John Adams John Adams (October 30, 1735 – July 4, 1826) was an American statesman, attorney, diplomat, writer, and Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father who served as the second president of the United States from 1797 to 1801. Befor ...

or John Quincy Adams (56%) #

Dwight D. Eisenhower Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower (born David Dwight Eisenhower; ; October 14, 1890 – March 28, 1969) was an American military officer and statesman who served as the 34th president of the United States from 1953 to 1961. During World War II, ...

(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. A leader of the Democratic Party, he previously served as the 34th vice president from January to April 1945 under Franklin ...

(50%) #

Andrew Jackson Andrew Jackson (March 15, 1767 – June 8, 1845) was an American lawyer, planter, general, and statesman who served as the seventh president of the United States from 1829 to 1837. Before being elected to the presidency, he gained fame as ...

(47%) #

Herbert Hoover Herbert Clark Hoover (August 10, 1874 – October 20, 1964) was an American politician who served as the 31st president of the United States from 1929 to 1933 and a member of the Republican Party, holding office during the onset of the Gr ...

(42%) #

or Lyndon B. Johnson (41%) #

William Howard Taft William Howard Taft (September 15, 1857March 8, 1930) was the 27th president of the United States (1909–1913) and the tenth chief justice of the United States (1921–1930), the only person to have held both offices. Taft was elected pr ...

(39%) #

James Madison James Madison Jr. (March 16, 1751June 28, 1836) was an American statesman, diplomat, and Founding Father. He served as the fourth president of the United States from 1809 to 1817. Madison is hailed as the "Father of the Constitution" for hi ...

(38%) #

Ulysses S. Grant Ulysses S. Grant (born Hiram Ulysses Grant ; April 27, 1822July 23, 1885) was an American military officer and politician who served as the 18th president of the United States from 1869 to 1877. As Commanding General, he led the Union Ar ...

(38%) # James Monroe (30%) #

Woodrow Wilson Thomas Woodrow Wilson (December 28, 1856February 3, 1924) was an American politician and academic who served as the 28th president of the United States from 1913 to 1921. A member of the Democratic Party, Wilson served as the president of ...

(29%) #

(22%) #

(19%) #

James K. Polk James Knox Polk (November 2, 1795 – June 15, 1849) was the 11th president of the United States, serving from 1845 to 1849. He previously was the 13th speaker of the House of Representatives (1835–1839) and ninth governor of Tennessee (183 ...

(17%) #

(16%) #

William McKinley William McKinley (January 29, 1843September 14, 1901) was the 25th president of the United States, serving from 1897 until his assassination in 1901. As a politician he led a realignment that made his Republican Party largely dominant in ...

(15%) # John Tyler (12%) #

James Buchanan James Buchanan Jr. ( ; April 23, 1791June 1, 1868) was an American lawyer, diplomat and politician who served as the 15th president of the United States from 1857 to 1861. He previously served as secretary of state from 1845 to 1849 and repr ...

(12%) #

Grover Cleveland Stephen Grover Cleveland (March 18, 1837June 24, 1908) was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 22nd and 24th president of the United States from 1885 to 1889 and from 1893 to 1897. Cleveland is the only president in American ...

(11%) #

or Benjamin Harrison (11%) # Martin Van Buren (11%) # Rutherford B. Hayes (10%) #

Zachary Taylor Zachary Taylor (November 24, 1784 – July 9, 1850) was an American military leader who served as the 12th president of the United States from 1849 until his death in 1850. Taylor was a career officer in the United States Army, rising to th ...

(10%) #

Millard Fillmore Millard Fillmore (January 7, 1800March 8, 1874) was the 13th president of the United States, serving from 1850 to 1853; he was the last to be a member of the Whig Party while in the White House. A former member of the U.S. House of Represen ...

(8%) #

Franklin Pierce Franklin Pierce (November 23, 1804October 8, 1869) was the 14th president of the United States, serving from 1853 to 1857. He was a northern Democrat who believed that the abolitionist movement was a fundamental threat to the nation's unity ...

(7%) #

Chester A. Arthur Chester Alan Arthur (October 5, 1829 – November 18, 1886) was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 21st president of the United States from 1881 to 1885. He previously served as the 20th vice president under President James A ...

(7%)

Criticism

David Herbert Donald, noted biographer of

, relates that when he met

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

—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 Julian Emanuel Zelizer (born 1969) is a professor of political history and an author in the United States at Princeton University. Zelizer has authored or co-authored several books about American political history; his focuses of study are the sec ...

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. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in 1800. ...

."Zelizer (February 21, 2011)
"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. In 2002,

Ron Walters Ronald W. Walters (July 20, 1938 – September 10, 2010) was an American author, speaker and scholar of African-American politics. He was director of the African American Leadership Institute and Scholar Practitioner Program, Distinguished Leader ...

, 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. Founded in 1856, UMD is the flagship institution of the University System of M ...

'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'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' poll by

, 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

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 rigorous instructions, typically used to solve a class of specific Computational problem, problems or to perform a computation. Algorithms are used as specificat ...

to rank of the presidents based on objectively measurable economic statistics. The results 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. A common criticism of presidential surveys is that participants are "driven by liberal bias to give high ratings to presidents who expanded the role of 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).

Alvin S. Felzenberg Alvin S. Felzenberg is an American author, columnist, consultant, educator, historian, public official, and spokesperson. A resident of Palm Beach, Florida and Washington, D.C., he served with the 9/11 Commission and has written books on American ...

, a professor at both the Elliot School of International Affairs at

George Washington University , mottoeng = "God is Our Trust" , established = , type = Private federally chartered research university , academic_affiliations = , endowment = $2.8 billion (2022) , preside ...

and the Annenberg School for Communication at the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

, is one of those who has criticized what he sees as a liberal bias in presidential rankings. In particular, he ranks

in third place, substantially higher than averaged rankings. In his 2010 review of Felzenberg's 2008 book '' The Leaders We Deserved (and a Few We Didn't)'', 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.

References

External links

2001 column by John Dean. {{DEFAULTSORT:Historical Rankings Of United States Presidents Historical rankings of public figures Lists relating to the United States presidency Presidency of the United States United States presidential history