In political studies, since the mid 20th-century, surveys have been conducted in order to construct historical rankings of the success of the presidents of the United States. Ranking systems are usually based on surveys of academic historians and political scientists, or popular opinion. The scholarly rankings focus on presidential achievements, leadership qualities, failures, and faults. Among such scholarly rankings, George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and Franklin D. Roosevelt are most often ranked as the best, while James Buchanan, Andrew Johnson and Donald Trump are most often ranked as the worst. Popular-opinion polls typically focus on recent or well-known presidents.
History
20th century A 1948 poll was conducted by historian Arthur M. Schlesinger Sr. of Harvard University. A 1962 survey was also conducted by Schlesinger, who surveyed 75 historians. Schlesinger's son, Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr., conducted another poll in 1996. The Chicago Tribune surveyed 49 historians in 1982.
The Siena College Research Institute (SCRI) began conducting surveys in 1982 and continued in 1990, 1994, 2002, 2010, 2018, and 2022 during the second year of the first term of each president since Ronald Reagan. These surveys collect presidential rankings from historians, political scientists, and presidential scholars in a range of attributes, abilities, and accomplishments. The 1994 survey placed only two presidents (Abraham Lincoln and Franklin D. Roosevelt) above 80 points and two presidents (Andrew Johnson and Warren G. Harding) below 50 points.
In 1996, William J. Ridings Jr. and Stuart B. McIver conducted and published a poll and in 1997, an accompanying book on the poll results. 719 people took part in the poll, primarily academic historians and political scientists, although some politicians and celebrities also took part. Participants from every state were included and emphasis was placed upon getting input from female historians and "specialists in African American studies" as well as a few non-American historians. Poll respondents rated the presidents in five categories (leadership qualities, accomplishments, crisis management, political skill, appointments, and character and integrity) and the results were tabulated to create the overall ranking.
2000–2017 A 2005 presidential poll was conducted by James Lindgren for the Federalist Society and The Wall Street Journal. As in the 2000 survey, the editors sought to balance the opinions of liberals and conservatives, adjusting the results "to give Democratic- and Republican-leaning scholars equal weight". Although Franklin D. Roosevelt still ranked in the top three, editor James Taranto observed that Democratic-leaning scholars rated George W. Bush the sixth-worst president of all time while Republican scholars rated him the sixth-best, giving him a split-decision rating of "average". In 2008, The Times daily newspaper of London asked eight of its own "top international and political commentators" to rank all 42 presidents "in order of greatness".
The C-SPAN Survey of Presidential Leadership consists of rankings from a group of presidential historians and biographers. The C-SPAN Survey of Presidential Leadership has taken place four times: in 2000, 2009,"C-SPAN Releases Second Historians Survey of Presidential Leadership" . C-SPAN. February 15, 2009. 2017,"C-SPAN Releases Third Historians Survey of Presidential Leadership" . C-SPAN. February 17, 2017. and 2021."C-SPAN releases fourth Historians Survey of Presidential Leadership". C-SPAN. June 30, 2021. . The 2021 survey was of 142 presidential historians, surveyed by C-SPAN's Academic Advisor Team, made up of Douglas G. Brinkley, Edna Greene Medford, Richard Norton Smith, and Amity Shlaes. In the survey, each historian rates each president on a scale of one ("not effective") to 10 ("very effective") on presidential leadership in ten categories: Public Persuasion, Crisis Leadership, Economic Management, Moral Authority, International Relations, Administrative Skills, Relations with Congress, Vision/Setting An Agenda, Pursued Equal Justice for All, and Performance Within the Context of His Times—with each category equally weighed. The results of all four C-SPAN surveys have been fairly consistent. Abraham Lincoln has taken the highest ranking in each survey and George Washington, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Theodore Roosevelt have always ranked in the top five while James Buchanan, Andrew Johnson, and Franklin Pierce have been ranked at the bottom of all four surveys.
The 2011 survey, the first poll asking UK academics to rate American presidents, was conducted by the United States Presidency Centre (USPC) at the Institute for the Study of the Americas (located in the University of London's School of Advanced Study). This polled the opinion of British specialists in American history and politics to assess presidential performance. They also gave an interim assessment of Barack Obama, but his unfinished presidency was not included in the survey (had he been included, he would have attained eighth place overall).Iwan Morgan. "UK Survey of US Presidents: Results and Analysis" . Institute for the Study of the Americas. Retrieved October 10, 2013.
In 2012, Newsweek asked a panel of historians to rank the ten best presidents since 1900. The results showed that historians had ranked Franklin D. Roosevelt, Theodore Roosevelt, Lyndon B. Johnson, Woodrow Wilson, Harry S. Truman, John F. Kennedy, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Bill Clinton, Ronald Reagan, and Obama as the best since that year. A 2015 poll administered by the American Political Science Association (APSA) among political scientists specializing in the American presidency had Abraham Lincoln in the top spot, with Washington, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Theodore Roosevelt, Thomas Jefferson, Truman, Eisenhower, Clinton, Andrew Jackson, and Wilson making the top 10.
Since 2018 A second Presidential Greatness Project Expert Survey was sent to members of the Presidents and Executive Politics section of the APSA in 2018. It ranked Donald Trump for the first time, putting him in the last position. In the 2024 edition, Trump scored 10.92 out of 100, easily the worst, while self-identified Republican historians rated Trump in the bottom five. The study organizers observed a drop in recent Republican presidents' scores by speculating that respondents valued presidents that respected political and institutional norms. The first version of this poll was conducted in 2015.
The 2018 Siena poll of 157 presidential scholars reported George Washington, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, and Thomas Jefferson as the top five U.S. presidents, with SCRI director Don Levy stating, "The top five, Mount Rushmore plus FDR, is carved in granite with presidential historians." Trump—entering the SCRI survey for the first time—joined Andrew Johnson and James Buchanan among the bottom three U.S. presidents. George W. Bush, whom presidential scholars had rated fifth lowest in the previous 2010 survey, improved in position to 12th lowest. The 2022 Siena poll had Franklin D. Roosevelt first, Lincoln second, and Washington third, with the bottom three as Trump, Buchanan, and Johnson.
The 2021 C-SPAN poll showed a continued recent rehabilitation of Ulysses S. Grant, showed George W. Bush improving, Barack Obama remaining high, and Trump with the fourth lowest ranking. After Trump's election to a non-consecutive second term, C-SPAN postponed its planned 2025 survey, explaining that "with a former president returning to office, conducting the survey now would turn it from historical analysis to punditry."
Survey summary
Abraham Lincoln is often regarded as the greatest president in American history for his leadership during the Civil War and the abolition of slavery. His main competitors are Franklin D. Roosevelt for leading the country out of the Great Depression and during most of World War II, and Founding Father and first president George Washington for holding the newly formed nation together and setting several enduring and important precedents for the office of the president. Theodore Roosevelt has usually ranked in fourth place for his conservation, antitrust and consumer protection efforts. Thomas Jefferson has typically ranked in fifth for the Louisiana Purchase, leadership over and support for the Lewis and Clark Expedition, and lowering the U. S. federal debt.
Most surveys consider James Buchanan, Lincoln's predecessor, the worst president for his leadership during the lead-up to the Civil War. Many rank Lincoln's successor Andrew Johnson near the bottom for blocking civil rights for freed slaves and undermining Reconstruction. Donald Trump's first presidency has consistently polled among the bottom four and twice in last place due to breaking longstanding norms such as the peaceful transfer of power, an American precedent not broken by a president since Washington first set it. Franklin Pierce has typically ranked in the bottom five for him being a benefactor of the South, particularly with his support of the Kansas-Nebraska Act. Most 20th century surveys assigned the bottom rank to the scandal-ridden presidency of Warren G. Harding.
The first five presidents were all Founding Fathers (also known as "framers") and is considered an exceptionally great era of presidents by scholars and political scientists. John Adams, James Monroe, and James Madison have consistently been ranked in the top 20, Jefferson typically in the top five and Washington typically in the top three. Another presidential era considered exceptional is the World War II and post-war era of the mid-20th century, with John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson consistently ranking in the top 20, Harry S. Truman and Dwight D. Eisenhower in the top ten, and Franklin D. Roosevelt in the top three. An era considered exceptionally poor by presidential historians is the mid-19th century and "sectional crisis" years leading up to the Civil War, with John Tyler, Zachary Taylor, and Millard Fillmore typically in the bottom ten, Pierce in the bottom five, and Buchanan in the bottom two. (The exception of that era is James K. Polk.)
Of the modern era, presidents George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and Joe Biden have ranked in the top 20, with Ronald Reagan and Barack Obama often in the top ten. (The exceptions of this era are George W. Bush and Donald Trump.)
Table Within each column backgrounds indicate rankings in the first quartile. backgrounds indicate rankings in the second quartile. backgrounds indicate the median ranking of an odd number of presidents. backgrounds indicate rankings in the third quartile. backgrounds indicate rankings in the fourth quartile. Italics within row indicate rank awarded before president had completed term in office. within a column indicates a given survey's lowest-ranking president.
At leftmost column head, click "triangles" to view the in-office order of each president.At each survey column head, click on "triangles" to view the ranking order for each president in that survey.