The other night, I was laying in bed (the couch) and had this brilliant idea pop into my head. It would be engaging for me to write about as a history nerd, as well as intriguing to those with interest in US politics. Statistically speaking, using several different metrics, who was the best president of the United States?
There are a couple of things worth noting here in the introductory paragraphs. One important thing is mentioning one device I’ll be using to determine which president was the best, which is, of course, approval ratings. President job approval ratings were, however, first introduced in 1937 by George Gallup. Now, from the sources I was able to find, the earliest presidential approval ratings come from Harry Truman (whose term started in 1945). To maintain accuracy across all presidents (and save myself the sanity of going through 45 presidents), I will be going from 1950(ish) to the most recent president. I will be excluding Donald Trump’s second term but include his first in my ratings. The other methods of determining who was the best president will be through crime, economical, and poverty statistics.
This will be based on a point system. So, if a president doesn’t hit the nail on the head in one category, they aren’t completely removed from the title of best. I also want to highlight that times change. People change. Therefore, nothing is one hundred percent accurate. All rankings will be, to the absolute best of my ability, fair, unbiased, and statistically backed.
Approval Rating
Approval rating is the percentage of people through a specific polling that approve/disapprove of someone in a certain role. It’s mostly seen for people in positions of power, from local to national government. I could easily remove every single president lower than the highest approval rating, but for fairness, I wanted to set a specific number. I’ve added all presidents average approval ratings and divided it by the number of presidents since 1945. Through Gallup’s official polls, I calculated the number 51.91%. However, I want to give a fair shake, so let’s set the number at 50.1%. Therefore, if a president’s overall approval rating is below 50.1% (which is about less than half of those polled), they will not gain any points.
Post WW2 – Vietnam War
To make life easier, the presidents belonging to this grouping are: Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon. Ford, although president during the end of the Vietnam War, will be grouped in the next group.
Kennedy highlights this group at 70.1%, despite having his term and life cut short. It then goes as following: Eisenhower, Johnson, Nixon, and finally Truman at 45.4%. Those presidents serving two terms — Truman and Eisenhower — will be evaluated in a combination of their two terms. Nixon and Johnson both technically served two terms, but were cut short for separate reasons we’ll dive into later.
We’ll be giving a point to every president that is above the 50.1% mark. Kennedy, Eisenhower, and Johnson all receive points while Nixon and Truman do not.
We can examine some reasons for high and low approval rating, although we’ll delve more into it later. Truman inherited the presidency as WW2 was coming to a conclusion, riding a high off FDR. His approval rating takes a large dip because of the Korean War late in the 1940s into the 1950s. Eisenhower stays relatively fluent in the 60s of approval rating. JFK’s approval rating is the highest of any post-WW2 president, mostly due to his charisma, youth, and appearance on the world stage. Johnson inherited presidency after JFK’s death, riding a high approval rating from his predecessor. It takes a dip because of his American involvement in the Vietnam War. Nixon, with a relatively steady approval rating, took a major dip after the Watergate scandal indirectly involving him.
Vietnam War – Afghanistan War
The presidents grouped in this category are: Ford, Carter, Reagan, H.W. Bush, and Clinton.
Sitting at the top, maybe surprisingly, is H.W. Bush for his efforts in Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait. He is followed by Bill Clinton, who may be lower after his presidency and controversy, Reagan, Ford, then Carter. The cut-off for points is at Reagan with a 52.8% approval rating. Ford and Carter fall behind the cut-off at 47.2% and 45.5%, respectively.
In 1981, Reagan enacted tax cuts, which saw his approval rating soar several points. His lowest approval rating, which came in January 1983, was moments after a Social Security disaster (read more). Bill Clinton, known more for his sex scandal with then White House intern, Monica Lewinsky, boasted the second highest approval rating of this era. Clinton expanded the economy, education, and boasted the lowest crime, unemployment, poverty rate, hinting to his approval rating. Gerald Ford inherited the presidency after Nixon’s watergate scandal, at a time when Nixon’s approval rating was an abysmal 24. Luckily, he didn’t let it stain his own presidency. Granting Nixon a full pardon, however, did diminish his credibility, honor, and approval rating. Jimmy Carter’s approval rating slowly deteriorated over time, with a large hit because of the emergence of AIDS and the Iranian hostage crisis.
Modern Era Presidents
This leaves the remainder of presidents that have yet to be talked about. These include George W. Bush, Barack Obama, Donald Trump, and Joseph Biden. This is where America as a nation begins to unfold a little, and approval ratings take a major dip. There’s no reason for this aside from the surge of extremities of left and right in today’s political landscape.
No president of Bush, Obama, Trump, or Biden receive points. None of the four have over 50% approval rating, at Bush is the highest with 49.4%. Obama follows at 47.9%, then Biden at 42.2%, and Trump at the bottom, the worst out of any president since 1945, at a dismal 41.1%
George W. Bush also boasts the highest ever approval rating at ~90%, days after the 9/11 attacks in New York. Slowly, but surely, it deteriorates to ~34% by the end of his term. Besides 9/11, he is most known for his (America’s) involvement in Iraq, Afghanistan, and the housing/economic crisis that followed into Obama’s first term. Obama, however, didn’t let it hold him down. Obama brought with him large job growth, tax inequality fixes, and affordable healthcare. His shortcomings come in terrorism, including, but not limited to, his handling of Iran and ISIS. He also had large critics regarding gun and foreign policy.
Donald Trump, Obama’s successor, has the worst approval rating of any president in the era of approval ratings. His 41.1% can be attributed to his harsh and one-dimensional opinions on immigration, the economy, and allies and enemies of the United States. Joe Biden took over after Trump with a slightly higher approval rating after 2024. He lost approval rating mostly due to factors out of his control, including Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the COVID-19 pandemic, and an inflated economy. Biden was quietly strong on economic policy, but fell short when it came to tackling said inflation, pulling-out of Afghanistan, and dealing with never before seen levels of immigration. Staying in the race caused catastrophic damage to the Democratic party as well, leaving office with a 40% approval rating.
Summary
Let’s summarize. Those presidents that receive a point for approval rating are: Kennedy, Eisenhower, Johnson, H.W. Bush, Clinton, and Reagan. Those who did not are: Nixon, Truman, Ford, Carter, Bush, Obama, Trump, and Biden.
Approval rating is determined by a plethora of different scales, from people of all different backgrounds in America. One person may approve of a president’s work while another may disapprove. While approval rating is extremely important, it doesn’t fully determine a president’s abilities. If circumstances were different, and times were different, a president may have a much higher approval rating. This is the importance of having more than one scale to measure who the best president is. How about we move onto the next category, which is crime rate.
Crime Rate
While the rest of the categories I’ll be using are more loosely defined than approval rating, I did my best. I’ll be measuring the crime rate statistic through violent and nonviolent crime rates, as well as anything else helpful to the discussion. From here, raw numbers and data are significantly harder to find than approval rating. Some numbers may vary slightly, but again, I’ll do my best to be unbiased and truthful to the data. I’m using a number of charts and graphs which also can be harder to interpret, given there’s no actual number. There will be estimations, so I apologize.
Let’s also clear the air: the graphs being used are 1960 and beyond. Therefore, Truman and Eisenhower will be exempt (to an extent). Given contextual backgrounds and researching era appropriate data, we will calculate a number that is valid for them to be included. Instead of divvying through one defined number like approval rating at 50.1%, we will be organizing the subheadings based on type of crime.
Nonviolent Crime
Nonviolent crime, in my case, is defined as crime that does not physically/threateningly hurt someone. In the category of nonviolent crime, I will look into things such as property crimes, larceny, burglary, petty theft, and motor vehicle theft.
Motor Vehicle Theft
Motor vehicle theft is the least common of the nonviolent crimes listed above. JFK’s tenure as president was short, but total crime rates were down the lowest during his presidency. This included Motor Vehicle Theft incidents per 100,000 people, at roughly 150. It increases steadily after JFK. It is at its worst in 1990 under George H.W. Bush, but we need to put a steady number on who gets a 1/4 of a point and who doesn’t. After doing the math, I’ve determined a good cut-off number is over ~400 per 100,000 people per year. This, of course, will be averaged through their term, if a two-term president.
JFK, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, W. Bush, Obama, Trump, and Biden all receive 1/4 of a point. Reagan, H.W. Bush, and Clinton do not get anything for their horrible motor vehicle theft rates. The worst year for motor vehicle theft is 1990 under Bush at ~680 per 100,000 people and the best year was under Barack Obama in 2015 at roughly ~120.
Again, these numbers are difficult to find, and therefore are estimations based on the graphs being used.
Burglary and Theft
We’ll be using mainly burglary numbers for this section, as it was easiest to find. The chart varies slightly in terms of curvature in comparison to motor vehicle theft. While there is a visible peak in motor vehicle theft in the late 80s/early 90s, the spike for burglary comes late 1970s/early 1980s. The highest point is 1,700 burglaries per 100,000 people. The magical number will be set to 1,000 burglaries per 100,000 people, which I believe is a fair number. This will eliminate about half of the presidents from contention of the 1/4 of a point this category holds.
Nixon, Carter, Reagan, Ford, and H.W. Bush are all missing out. The remaining presidents, Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Clinton, W. Bush, Obama, Trump, and Biden get 1/4 of a point.
To summarize the nonviolent crime section, those who earn 1/2 points are Biden, Trump, Obama, W. Bush, Johnson, and JFK. Those with 1/4 of a point are Nixon, Ford, Carter, Truman, Clinton and Eisenhower. Ronald Reagan and H.W. Bush are the biggest losers, earning nothing in the nonviolent crime category.
Violent Crime
We’ll be defining violent crime as crimes that physically aim to hurt or threaten another human being. I add the “threaten” part to the definition I’ll be using to include robbery, which most often doesn’t not result in physical harm. Other methods of violent crime include homicide, rape, and aggravated assault. These three will be lumped into the main category of violent crime for simplicity. Each president who meets under 450 offenses per 100,000 people will receive half a point.
While I struggled to find specific numbers, the effects of WW2 saw an increase of violent crime during Harry Truman’s first term. Truman believed this was a natural effect of war and dislocation. He will not earn half a point. Eisenhower, however, will.
The violence chart begins to rise significantly from here. JFK, Johnson, and Nixon hold onto their half a point. However, the bulk of presidents will miss out. Ford, Carter, Reagan, H.W. Bush, Clinton, and W. Bush lose out. Obama steadies the violent crime numbers, seeing the violent crime per 100,000 people dip below the quota of 450. Trump and Biden hold on for their points as well.
Violent crime peaks in the late 80s, early 90s during the time of Reagan and H.W. Bush. Reagan was notoriously bad of enforcing the war on drugs and other related crime. Around 1991, the number of violent crimes per 100,000 people was roughly 775.
Summary
Crime is becoming an issue more prominently in today’s society, with fewer chances being given to criminals and felons. It’s important to gauge how safe the citizens of the country feel. Some candidates run with strong pushes to be harsh on criminal sentences and other put it on the back burner. Whether the crime committed is rape, murder, or motor vehicle theft, it affects someone’s life.
While this category was a bit tougher to place than approval rating, which could be set at an easy percentage, I did my best with average numbers of crime to qualify/disqualify presidents from winning decimals of points.
Those who come out most successful tackling crime are as follows. Presidents with a full point in crime are Biden, Trump, Obama, Johnson, and Kennedy. Those taking 3/4 of a point are Eisenhower and Nixon. Half a point winners include just W. Bush. Ford, Carter, and Clinton take a 1/4 of a point. Reagan and H.W. Bush are the biggest losers with horrible strategies to tackle crime rates.
Economy
The easiest measurement to determine the status of the United States’ economy is checking inflation numbers. Luckily, different from the crime section, I found great resources to show these inflation numbers. I’ll be using one from Investopedia, which goes back to Truman. While inflation works as a great number, it was too easy, and doesn’t fully define a president’s economy. I went back and forth with myself for a little on what would work best in the economy section. I’ve decided to toss job growth and unemployment numbers in as well to sweeten the pot.
Inflation Rate
First, we’ll need to set a rate that is fair. I think 3% growth would be a good number, as it splits the presidents in half, or as close as one can get. The graph is organized by inflation rate, not by year, but to add some more suspense, I’ll rearrange it. Truman doesn’t show on the graph, but with some thorough research, I found him to be off the charts. Eisenhower boasted another low of 1.4% inflation through eight years of presidency. JFK followed his path of inflation with even lower numbers, but we never saw the full term. Lyndon Johnson makes the cut-off at 2.6%. Nixon is our first cut as he raised inflation to 5.7%.
The former house speaker, Gerald Ford, was significantly worse at 8%. Jimmy Carter, however, takes the cake in worst inflation rate. He tops the charts at 9.9%. It is worth noting that Carter suffered mostly due to Nixon’s budget deficits and an oil surge in the Middle East. Reagan still misses the mark, but shows promise less than half of Carter’s rate at 4.6%. Both H.W. and W. Bush lose out with inflation rates above 3%. Clinton, however, secures the point with a 2.6% inflation rate. Obama and Trump make it under 2% and Biden, dealing with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and COVID-19, falls at 5.2% (as of Aug. 2024).
Inflation is much more interesting as it doesn’t follow a chunk of presidents being eliminated (like crime rates). Next, we’ll examine job growth underneath each president.
Job Growth
As always, we need to set a number of jobs created, which I have determined is 2%. The graph being used did not provide exact numbers, so I’ll be going off the bar chart, estimating the decimals. The numbers presented are not farm positions either, as the job creation numbers for farms are not proportional.
Almost every single democratic candidate passes the job growth point, all being granted 1/3 of a point, except Barack Obama. In case you don’t recognize party lines (I don’t either, no blame), these democrats are Truman, Kennedy, Johnson, Carter, Clinton, and Biden. Biden had the largest job growth gain out of any president, although it’s not heard of much in the media. He is the only president, democrat or republican, who had over 4% job growth (in this grouping of presidents) as president.
On the other side of party lines, the only republican with over 2% job growth is Richard Nixon, with Ronald Reagan just barely missing the cut-off. Eisenhower, Ford, H.W. Bush, W. Bush, and Trump. It is worth noting that Trump was the only president on this list that had negative job growth, losing 2.7 million jobs in his first four years.
Unemployment
Other great chart provided by Investopedia gives us the median to be going off of. This number is 5.7%, which will eliminate much fewer presidents than other categories. This, unlike job growth, is extremely divided between party lines, showing neither party is more likely to have higher unemployment numbers.
Truman and Eisenhower boast a sub-5% unemployment rate, while it trickles slightly higher with JFK. LBJ and Nixon both follow with low unemployment rates, but Ford raises it to the highest point at 7.8%. Carter and Reagan, tasked with tough situations, are unable to get it below 5.7%. H.W. Bush can’t either, but Clinton and W. Bush average 5.25% unemployment, meeting quota. Obama leaves office with another high, 7.4% unemployment, and Trump and Biden, even tasked with COVID-19, are able to average below. Biden matches LBJ’s low of 4.2% unemployment, as of August 2024.
Some numbers may not tell the whole truth, and I want to clarify a few things before moving on. Ford inherited an economy battling stagflation. Reagan was in a similar situation, and while his Reaganomics plan decreased unemployment rates, it added to the national debt and widened the wealth gap. Biden was tasked heavily with creating jobs after the global pandemic. He was able to recover all the lost jobs in 29 months, the fastest recovery in forty years.
Summary
This section’s a bit all over the place so I thought a summary might be more useful than ever. For the economy section, each subdivision (unemployment, job growth, and inflation) is worth a third of a point.
For inflation, those who met quota are W. Bush, Johnson, Clinton, Trump, Obama, Eisenhower, and JFK. Those meeting quota in job growth are Truman, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Carter, Clinton, and Biden. For unemployment percentages, W. Bush, Clinton, Trump, Nixon, Eisenhower, Truman, Biden, and Johnson meet the standard.
Therefore, those who receive full points for the economy are Johnson and Clinton. Those with 2/3 of a point are Trump, Nixon, Biden, Truman, W. Bush, Kennedy, and Eisenhower. Obama is the only president to receive 1/3 of a point. The worst presidents for economy, by statistics, are Reagan, Ford, and H.W. Bush.
Average American Statistics (AAS)
It wouldn’t be an article written by yours truly if there wasn’t a little bit of fun thrown in there. I’m making the last category available for points called “Average American Statistics”, which will include some basic American consumer statistics. These include: price of groceries (I will be using price of eggs as a common ground) and poverty numbers.
It has been a running joke that egg prices increased significantly under Biden’s presidency, and now have climbed further under Trump’s leadership. The egg prices will be more of a fun topic, which is why it’s not included under economy.
Poverty and Homelessness
It was surprisingly difficult to find accurate numbers regarding poverty and homelessness. However, I did find an article by 24/7 Wall Street and ResearchGate.
I did the math and believe setting the poverty rate at 13% of Americans is fair to the presidents. JFK and LBJ both miss the cut off by a hefty amount, while Nixon saw it lower to 12.3%. Ford and Carter both continued this trend while Reagan (again?!) misses the mark. H.W. Bush and Clinton can’t nail it down but W. Bush can. Obama fails while Trump and Biden succeed.
Johnson was given a poor hand of cards, starting with roughly 20% poverty when he took office. He was able to leave with 12%, but it affected his averages. Obama took over right after the 2008 financial crisis, but lowered the tax rate and increased minimum wage.
Donald Trump, meanwhile, rode off of Obama’s hard work and bills and managed to slip through with a point. In his term, the number of people lacking health insurance increased by more than 4.6 million. While Ford’s poverty numbers were the lowest, he caused the worst recession since the Great Depression. I say all of this to show that despite what the numbers may saw, it’s important to take into consideration the context.
Egg Prices
Let’s have a little fun for our last category, shall we? All of this talk of approval rating, economics, and crime has been slightly dull, and many people have forgotten about history in presidents, because it’s just that: history!
One thing all Americans have been complaining about for years is the price of eggs, a basic consumer good at grocers. How much is a dozen of eggs nowadays? While again, context is needed, egg prices are at an all-time high due to bird flu, inflation, and other world events. A cost of a dozen Grade A large eggs in January 2025 was $4.95. Price tracking goes back to 1980 by the BLS, when a dozen of Grade A eggs was $0.88 a dozen, not adjusted for inflation.
Please keep in mind, that this category will not count for ANY points. It is simply to poke a little bit of fun and bring in some light-heartedness to today’s political landscape.
Comparison
This chart only dates back, so presidents that took office before (Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter) are excluded. We could look at straight prices without inflation, however, it would be unfair to more recent presidents. Starting with Reagan in 1981, egg prices would be $2.75 with inflation. By the time he left office, they would’ve dropped to $2.48. The downward trend continues. By the time H.W. Bush left office, eggs were only $2.28!
Egg prices were lowest in 2001 at $2.00 even. It then rises again throughout W. Bush’s presidency and into Obama’s. Egg prices dropped significantly during Trump’s presidency and soared in Biden’s, but only to $2.86.
Conclusion
Why did I even bring this up? I brought this up for two reasons. As Americans, we see how the media is dividing us yet do very little to stop it. Yes, grocery prices are annoying to see rising, but when major news outlets like FOX and CNN dedicate all of their focus to small things that have little significance instead of the major decisions being made at the helm of the ship, there’s a problem. While American party hatred is at some of its highest in the country’s history, let us not forget we are all human. Human lives are not political.
I bring this up for one other reason. If you look at the egg price chart below from US Inflation Calculator, you’ll see egg prices have stayed relatively the same since 1980. There is slight changes in prices, but egg prices being only ten cents more expensive than 1980 (with inflation added), it’s not the end of the world. I’ve mentioned it once and will mention it again that things like these are facts on charts. Charts do not always provide context, such as January 2023’s spike in egg prices being directly related to avian influenza (bird flu).
Who is the Best President?
You’ve read this far, so now it’s time to reveal the numbers for the best president. I’ve done all of the math (excruciatingly) and made a quick tierlist based on point totals. If a president is further to the left, they are ranked higher than the presidents on their right.
As you’ll see above, Lyndon B. Johnson is the grand winner. According to statistics, he is the best president since Franklin D. Roosevelt. He is followed by JFK, Biden, and Trump. The next category, of “good presidents” contains Eisenhower and Nixon. Clinton, W. Bush, and Obama are decent. The bottom tier, bad presidents, has Ford, Carter, H.W. Bush, Reagan, and Truman.
There’s one important thing I wanted to do with this blog. I wanted to show that statistics and facts don’t make the best president. Despite receiving two of the worst approval ratings, Biden and Trump were able to be considered “great”. Presidents who were great in one category, such as Ford with economics, were still stranded in “bad”. Nixon, who arguably had an insane end of presidency, still is “good”.
Let’s not forget that the categories taken were on a fact basis. I didn’t include subjective topics like social issues, foreign policy, and others. It could be said that most presidents would shift spots based on subjective categories, like Trump with harsh social policies. All sources have been included within the article.
I hope everyone enjoyed reading through this little piece, as it took hours and hours of research, writing, and editing. To show your support, please leave a comment on what president you thought would be considered the best. Share the post with friends and family, and be ready for more blogs soon!