In this list of presidents of the United States by age, the first table charts the age of each

president of the United States The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States of America. The president directs the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United Stat ...

at the time of

presidential inauguration A presidential inauguration is a ceremonial event centered on the formal transition of a new president into office, usually in democracies where this official has been elected. Frequently, this involves the swearing of an oath of office. Examples o ...

(first inauguration if elected to multiple and consecutive terms), upon leaving office, and at the time of death. Where the president is still living, their lifespan and post-presidency timespan are calculated up to .

Age of presidents

Age distribution graph United States Presidents

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 ...

age at inauguration of incoming U.S. presidents is 55 years. The specific years and days median is 55 years and 104.5 days, which falls midway between how old

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 ...

was in 1921 and

Lyndon B. Johnson Lyndon Baines Johnson (; August 27, 1908January 22, 1973), often referred to by his initials LBJ, was an American politician who served as the 36th president of the United States from 1963 to 1969. He had previously served as the 37th vice ...

was in 1963. The youngest person to assume the presidency was

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 ...

, who, at the age of 42, succeeded to the office after the

assassination of William McKinley William McKinley, the 25th president of the United States, was shot on the grounds of the Pan-American Exposition at the Temple of Music in Buffalo, New York, on September 6, 1901, six months into his second term. He was shaking hands with the ...

. The youngest to become president by

election An election is a formal group decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy has opera ...

was

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 ...

, who was

inaugurated In government and politics, inauguration is the process of swearing a person into office and thus making that person the incumbent. Such an inauguration commonly occurs through a formal ceremony or special event, which may also include an inaugu ...

at age 43. The oldest person to assume the presidency was Joe Biden, who was inaugurated 61 days after turning 78.

Assassinated Assassination is the murder of a prominent or important person, such as a head of state, head of government, politician, world leader, member of a royal family or CEO. The murder of a celebrity, activist, or artist, though they may not have a ...

at age 46, John F. Kennedy was the youngest president at the end of his tenure, and his lifespan was the shortest of any president. At age 50, Theodore Roosevelt was the youngest person to become a former president. The oldest president at the end of his tenure was

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 ...

at 77; this distinction will eventually fall upon Joe Biden, who is .

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 ...

had the shortest retirement of any president, dying months after leaving office at age 53 (the youngest president to die of natural causes).

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 ...

's retirement, now years, is the longest in American presidential history. At age , Carter is also the oldest living president as well as the nation's longest-lived president. The youngest living president is Barack Obama, age .

Presidential age-related data

Notes

Graphical representation

This is a

graphical Graphics () are visual images or designs on some surface, such as a wall, canvas, screen, paper, or stone, to inform, illustrate, or entertain. In contemporary usage, it includes a pictorial representation of data, as in design and manufacture, ...

lifespan timeline of the presidents of the United States. They are listed in order of office, with Grover Cleveland listed in the order of his first presidency. The following chart shows presidents by their age (living presidents in green), with the years of their presidency in blue. The vertical blue line at 35 years indicates the minimum age to be president.

References

Sources

* Frank Freidel and Hugh S. Sidey
"The Presidents of the United States"
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. ...

. * Robert S. Summers
"POTUS: Presidents of the United States"

Internet Public Library The Internet Public Library (IPL, ipl2) was a non-profit, largely student-run website managed by a consortium, headed by Drexel University. Visitors could ask reference questions, and volunteer librarians and graduate students in library and info ...

. {{DEFAULTSORT:presidents of the United States by age United States, Presidents

Age Age or AGE may refer to: Time and its effects * Age, the amount of time someone or something has been alive or has existed ** East Asian age reckoning, an Asian system of marking age starting at 1 * Ageing or aging, the process of becoming older ...

United States presidents and death