The youngest presidents in U.S. history

President Biden, 81, and erstwhile President Donald Trump, 78, person been nan 2 oldest candidates to tally for president, but successful nan expansive strategy of things, they're outliers. A look backmost astatine nan database of erstwhile presidents shows nan mostly entered agency overmuch earlier successful their governmental careers. 

Data assembled by CBS shows that astir U.S. presidents person been successful their 50s connected Inauguration Day. This aligns pinch Americans' preferences: According to a 2023 Pew Research Center poll, astir half of Americans said nan champion property for a U.S. president is personification successful their 50s. Vice President Kamala Harris turned 60 successful October.

The youngest personification to beryllium elected president successful caller history was Barack Obama, who was inaugurated successful 2009 astatine property 47. But he doesn't clasp nan grounds erstwhile you look backmost further. In fact, location are 4 presidents who were younger than Obama erstwhile they began their stints astatine nan White House.

Read connected for nan afloat database of nan youngest presidents successful U.S. history.

Who were nan youngest U.S. presidents astatine nan clip of inauguration and successful office?

The youngest president successful U.S. history is Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt. He was thrust into nan nation's apical station successful 1909 astatine property 42 aft President William McKinley was assassinated while visiting an exposition in Buffalo, New York. 

Roosevelt quickly injected his youthful vigor into nan role, driving progressive policies astatine location and an progressive overseas argumentation schedule abroad. His celebrated proposal connected world politics, repeated successful generations of schoolhouse textbooks, was: "Speak softly and transportation a large stick…"

 In this 1904 record photo, Theodore Roosevelt campaigns for nan presidency. He took agency 5 years later astatine property 42. / AP

The youngest presidents aft Roosevelt were John F. Kennedy, who was 43 years aged astatine his inauguration; Bill Clinton, who was 46; and Ulysses S. Grant, who was besides 46. 

Why are location truthful fewer young presidents?

Just 9 U.S. presidents, aliases astir 1 successful 5, person been successful their 40s, and nary person been successful their 30s. This sets nan U.S. isolated from countries for illustration Ecuador, Chile and France, which have all elected leaders successful their 30s. One of nan youngest leaders successful nan world is Burkina Faso's Ibrahim Traoré, now 36, who has overseen nan state of 22 cardinal since 2022.

Back successful 1789, nan Constitution established 35 arsenic nan minimum property request to go president, but nan times person changed, said Costas Panagopoulos, a governmental subject professor astatine Northeastern University.

"This norm was adopted erstwhile nan life expectancy successful America was astir that (mid-30s), connected average," he said. "Clearly, nan Founders expected presidents would beryllium older, and apt knowledgeable arsenic a result."

As to why location person been truthful fewer young candidates, Panagopoulos said it could person to do pinch nan measurement they whitethorn beryllium perceived by voters. "Experience extracts a premium successful nan voting calculus, which could explicate why truthful fewer presidents person been young," he said. "Voters shun inexperienced candidates, and, arsenic nan saying goes, acquisition comes pinch age."

Conversely, if candidates are connected nan older side, voters whitethorn mobility whether they're up for nan challenge, arsenic they see their intelligence acuity and beingness fitness, he said.

Full database of U.S. presidents, from youngest to oldest astatine extremity of presidency

• John F. Kennedy, 46
• James A. Garfield, 49
• Theodore Roosevelt, 50
• Grover Cleveland, 51
• Franklin Pierce, 52
• James Knox Polk, 53
• Millard Fillmore, 53
• John Tyler, 54
• Ulysses S. Grant, 54
• Bill Clinton, 54
• Chester A. Arthur, 55
• William Howard Taft, 55
• Barack Obama, 55
• Abraham Lincoln, 56
• Calvin Coolidge, 56
• Jimmy Carter, 56
• Warren G. Harding, 57
• Martin Van Buren, 58
• Rutherford B. Hayes, 58
• William McKinley, 58
• Herbert Hoover, 58
• Benjamin Harrison, 59
• Grover Cleveland, 59
• Andrew Johnson, 60
• Lyndon B. Johnson, 60
• John Quincy Adams, 61
• Richard Nixon, 61
• George W. Bush, 62
• Franklin D. Roosevelt, 63
• Gerald Ford, 63
• Woodrow Wilson, 64
• George Washington, 65
• John Adams, 65
• Thomas Jefferson, 65
• James Madison, 65
• Zachary Taylor, 65
• James Monroe, 66
• William Henry Harrison, 68
• Harry S. Truman, 68
• George H. W. Bush, 68
• Andrew Jackson, 69
• James Buchanan, 69
• Dwight D. Eisenhower, 70
• Donald Trump, 74
• Ronald Reagan, 77
• Joe Biden, turns 82 connected Nov. 20, 2024

In:
• Biden Administration
• Joe Biden
• Kamala Harris
• Donald Trump