U.S. Presidents Are Usually Older

By Tom Emery

The age of U.S. Presidents has been a frontline issue for months. Throughout American history, Presidents are usually older – and whether that’s a good thing is debatable.

The median age of American Presidents as they enter office is 55 years old. For much of our history, that’s actually older than the average American, and past the life expectancy of their respective times. However, mental capability has rarely been as white-hot of an issue as in today’s race.

In 1860, the year that Abraham Lincoln was elected, the life expectancy of Americans born that year was 39.4 years.

In his farewell speech to Springfield on Feb. 11, 1861, Lincoln referred to himself as “an old man,” an accurate statement based on the normal ages of people in his era. At the time, Lincoln was two days past his 52nd birthday.

More Presidents have taken office who were over the age of sixty (twelve) than were under fifty (nine). While an age of sixty is not considered old today, it certainly was in past eras, when people did not live as long.

The first Presidents who were at least 70 years old when they took office were the last two – Donald Trump, who was 70 when he was inaugurated in 2017, and Joe Biden, who was 78 in 2021. They snapped the record held by Ronald Reagan, who was sixteen days shy of 70 years old upon his inauguration in 1981.

Though life expectancies were alarmingly low at the time, most of the early Presidents were in their late fifties to mid-sixties when they were inaugurated, including the first five -- George Washington (57 years old), John Adams (65), Thomas Jefferson (57), James Madison (57), and James Monroe (58).

James Polk, the eleventh man to be elected to the office, was the first chief executive inaugurated under the age of 50. He was 49 years, 122 days old when he was sworn in 1845.

Earlier that decade, William Henry Harrison was 68 years, 23 days old when he took office in 1841. He would stand as the oldest chief executive at inauguration for 140 years, until Reagan in 1981.

However, Harrison wasn’t around for long to revel in it. He fell ill on his inauguration day, and died 31 days later.

While John F. Kennedy is remembered as the youngest President to be elected at age 43, he was not the youngest man to actually hold the office. That distinction belongs to Theodore Roosevelt, who was 42 years, 322 days old when, as Vice-President, he ascended to the Presidency after the assassination of William McKinley in September 1901.

Bill Clinton (46 years, 154 days) is the third-youngest man to be sworn as President. The fourth-youngest was Ulysses S. Grant (46 years, 311 days).

Until now, the oldest man to leave the office was Reagan, at 77 years, 349 days. Next was Dwight D. Eisenhower, who was a few weeks past the age of seventy. Biden was two and a half months older than Reagan on the day he was inaugurated, meaning that he broke the record on his first day in office.

The man who preceded Lincoln, James Buchanan, was 69 years, 315 days of age when he left office.

Voters, though, may have learned something from that, as Buchanan is considered one of the worst Presidents ever to hold the position. After Buchanan, there would not be another President who entered the office at sixty or older until Harry Truman in 1945.

Likely owning to their advanced age, many earlier Presidents did not live for long after leaving office. Washington survived for 33 months, while Monroe, Andrew Jackson, Buchanan, Andrew Johnson, and Grant each lived less than ten years. Chester Arthur lived for just twenty months, while Polk survived for a mere 103 days.

The youngest surviving President at the time of his departure from office was Theodore Roosevelt, who was just 50 years, 128 days. Roosevelt, though, lived for just under ten years afterward, as he died on Jan. 6, 1919 at age sixty.

Two others left the office at a younger age than Roosevelt, but under tragic circumstances. Kennedy was 46 when he was assassinated, while James Garfield, another President lost to an assassin, was 49. Lincoln was 56 at the time of his murder, two years younger than McKinley.

In addition to Harrison, three other Presidents have died in office from natural causes; Zachary Taylor (65 years old), Warren Harding (57), and Franklin Roosevelt (63).

Until Gerald Ford, who lived for over 29 years after leaving office, there were only four ex-Presidents who survived for over twenty years. The longest of the four was Herbert Hoover, who died in 1964, thirty-one years after his last day in the White House.

Hoover’s record has since been broken by Jimmy Carter, who is 43 years past his term. Carter is also now the longest-surviving ex-President, at 99 years of age.

Tom Emery is a freelance writer and historical researcher from Carlinville. He may be reached at 217-710-8392 or [email protected].