U.S. Presidents in Order: The Complete List

Who Were the U.S. Presidents in Order?

Here is every presidency from 1789 to November 2026, with the standard numbering. Dates and ages come from our presidents table, which is cross-checked against the Miller Center's page for each president ^[1]. "Age at start" is the president's age on the first day of that presidency.

No.	President	Took office	Left office	Age at start	How it ended
1	George Washington	Apr 30, 1789	Mar 4, 1797	57	Term ended
2	John Adams	Mar 4, 1797	Mar 4, 1801	61	Term ended
3	Thomas Jefferson	Mar 4, 1801	Mar 4, 1809	57	Term ended
4	James Madison	Mar 4, 1809	Mar 4, 1817	57	Term ended
5	James Monroe	Mar 4, 1817	Mar 4, 1825	58	Term ended
6	John Quincy Adams	Mar 4, 1825	Mar 4, 1829	57	Term ended
7	Andrew Jackson	Mar 4, 1829	Mar 4, 1837	61	Term ended
8	Martin Van Buren	Mar 4, 1837	Mar 4, 1841	54	Term ended
9	William Henry Harrison	Mar 4, 1841	Apr 4, 1841	68	Died in office
10	John Tyler	Apr 4, 1841	Mar 4, 1845	51	Term ended
11	James K. Polk	Mar 4, 1845	Mar 4, 1849	49	Term ended
12	Zachary Taylor	Mar 4, 1849	Jul 9, 1850	64	Died in office
13	Millard Fillmore	Jul 9, 1850	Mar 4, 1853	50	Term ended
14	Franklin Pierce	Mar 4, 1853	Mar 4, 1857	48	Term ended
15	James Buchanan	Mar 4, 1857	Mar 4, 1861	65	Term ended
16	Abraham Lincoln	Mar 4, 1861	Apr 15, 1865	52	Assassinated
17	Andrew Johnson	Apr 15, 1865	Mar 4, 1869	56	Term ended
18	Ulysses S. Grant	Mar 4, 1869	Mar 4, 1877	46	Term ended
19	Rutherford B. Hayes	Mar 4, 1877	Mar 4, 1881	54	Term ended
20	James A. Garfield	Mar 4, 1881	Sep 19, 1881	49	Assassinated
21	Chester A. Arthur	Sep 19, 1881	Mar 4, 1885	51	Term ended
22	Grover Cleveland	Mar 4, 1885	Mar 4, 1889	47	Term ended
23	Benjamin Harrison	Mar 4, 1889	Mar 4, 1893	55	Term ended
24	Grover Cleveland	Mar 4, 1893	Mar 4, 1897	55	Term ended
25	William McKinley	Mar 4, 1897	Sep 14, 1901	54	Assassinated
26	Theodore Roosevelt	Sep 14, 1901	Mar 4, 1909	42	Term ended
27	William Howard Taft	Mar 4, 1909	Mar 4, 1913	51	Term ended
28	Woodrow Wilson	Mar 4, 1913	Mar 4, 1921	56	Term ended
29	Warren G. Harding	Mar 4, 1921	Aug 2, 1923	55	Died in office
30	Calvin Coolidge	Aug 2, 1923	Mar 4, 1929	51	Term ended
31	Herbert Hoover	Mar 4, 1929	Mar 4, 1933	54	Term ended
32	Franklin D. Roosevelt	Mar 4, 1933	Apr 12, 1945	51	Died in office
33	Harry S. Truman	Apr 12, 1945	Jan 20, 1953	60	Term ended
34	Dwight D. Eisenhower	Jan 20, 1953	Jan 20, 1961	62	Term ended
35	John F. Kennedy	Jan 20, 1961	Nov 22, 1963	43	Assassinated
36	Lyndon B. Johnson	Nov 22, 1963	Jan 20, 1969	55	Term ended
37	Richard Nixon	Jan 20, 1969	Aug 9, 1974	56	Resigned
38	Gerald Ford	Aug 9, 1974	Jan 20, 1977	61	Term ended
39	Jimmy Carter	Jan 20, 1977	Jan 20, 1981	52	Term ended
40	Ronald Reagan	Jan 20, 1981	Jan 20, 1989	69	Term ended
41	George H. W. Bush	Jan 20, 1989	Jan 20, 1993	64	Term ended
42	Bill Clinton	Jan 20, 1993	Jan 20, 2001	46	Term ended
43	George W. Bush	Jan 20, 2001	Jan 20, 2009	54	Term ended
44	Barack Obama	Jan 20, 2009	Jan 20, 2017	47	Term ended
45	Donald Trump	Jan 20, 2017	Jan 20, 2021	70	Term ended
46	Joe Biden	Jan 20, 2021	Jan 20, 2025	78	Term ended
47	Donald Trump	Jan 20, 2025	In office	78	In office (as of Nov 2026)

A few patterns stand out in the table. Theodore Roosevelt, at 42, was the youngest person to start a presidency, and he got there by succession rather than election; our guide to the youngest president explains how. At the other end, Donald Trump's second presidency began when he was 78 years and about seven months old, a few months older than Joe Biden was in 2021, which makes Trump the oldest president at the start of a term as of November 2026.

Why Are There 47 Presidencies but Only 45 Presidents?

Presidents are numbered by presidency, not by person, so a president who returns after someone else has served gets a second number. That has happened twice.

Grover Cleveland served one term, left office, and returned four years later. The Miller Center lists him as president number 22 and 24, with terms from March 4, 1885 to March 4, 1889, and from March 4, 1893 to March 4, 1897 ^[2]. Benjamin Harrison, the 23rd president, served in the gap.

Donald Trump followed the same path more than a century later. The Miller Center gives him the numbers 45 and 47, with inaugurations on January 20, 2017 and January 20, 2025; Joe Biden, the 46th president, served between them ^[3].

So the count works like this: 47 numbered presidencies, minus the two repeat numbers, equals 45 different people. If you see a list that stops at 45 or 46, it is either out of date or counting people instead of presidencies.

How Do the Presidencies Line Up by Century?

Grouping the presidencies by the year they began gives an uneven picture: 2 began in the 1700s, 23 in the 1800s, 17 in the 1900s and 5 since 2000. The 1800s had the most turnover, with many one-term presidents and three presidencies that lasted less than a year and a half (Harrison, Taylor and Garfield).

The 1800s also saw two of the four deaths by natural causes and two of the four assassinations, including Abraham Lincoln's in 1865; our explainer on why the Civil War started covers the crisis that defined his presidency. The 1900s, by contrast, include the single longest presidency: Franklin D. Roosevelt's, which began during the Great Depression in 1933 and ended with his death on April 12, 1945, a span of 4,422 days.

How Did Each Presidency End?

Most presidencies end on schedule. Of the 47, 37 ran to the end of the term, and one (Donald Trump's second) is still under way as of November 2026. Nine presidencies ended early, and each of those early endings put the vice president in charge that same day.

The early endings fall into three groups:

• Died of natural causes (4): William Henry Harrison (1841), Zachary Taylor (1850), Warren G. Harding (1923) and Franklin D. Roosevelt (1945).
• Assassinated (4): Abraham Lincoln (1865), James A. Garfield (1881), William McKinley (1901) and John F. Kennedy (1963). Our page on how many presidents have been assassinated covers each case in more detail.
• Resigned (1): Richard Nixon, who left office on August 9, 1974.

Harrison's presidency, at 31 days, is the shortest on record; Garfield's, at 199 days, is the second shortest. Both men had been in office less than a year.

What Happens When a President Leaves Office Early?

The vice president takes over. The original Constitution says that in case of the president's "Removal ... from Office, or of his Death, Resignation, or Inability," the powers of the office "shall devolve on the Vice President," and it lets Congress decide by law who acts if both offices are empty ^[4].

The 25th Amendment, ratified on February 10, 1967, later put the rule in plainer words: on the president's removal, death or resignation, "the Vice President shall become President" ^[5]. Gerald Ford's move into the office after Nixon resigned in 1974 is the only time so far that a resignation triggered the rule.

Nine of the 45 presidents first reached the office by succession rather than by winning a presidential election: John Tyler, Millard Fillmore, Andrew Johnson, Chester A. Arthur, Theodore Roosevelt, Calvin Coolidge, Harry S. Truman, Lyndon B. Johnson and Gerald Ford. Four of them, Theodore Roosevelt, Coolidge, Truman and Lyndon Johnson, stayed in office well past the end of the term they inherited, which means they went on to win elections of their own.

Why Did Inauguration Day Move From March 4 to January 20?

Look down the "Took office" column and the date changes partway through. Washington began on April 30, 1789, and almost every elected presidency after him started on March 4. Since Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1953, every presidency that began after an election has started on January 20.

The reason is the 20th Amendment, ratified on January 23, 1933. It says the terms of the president and vice president "shall end at noon on the 20th day of January" ^[5]. The change moved the start of each new term about six weeks earlier, from March 4 to January 20. Herbert Hoover's term in the table still ends on March 4, 1933, and Franklin D. Roosevelt's starts the same day, because the new schedule had not yet taken effect.

A second change shaped the list after Roosevelt. The 22nd Amendment, ratified on February 27, 1951, says that "No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice" ^[5]. No presidency since Roosevelt's has lasted longer than eight years; the longest are the eight-year presidencies of Eisenhower, Reagan, Clinton, George W. Bush and Obama.

For more presidential history, browse the presidents section or look up what happened on any date in On This Day. How we check dates and sources is set out in our editorial policy.