Visualizing The Lifespan of Every U.S. President
During any presidential election, it’s common for the electorate to look at the age of a politician, as well as their specific leadership experience, in order to gauge an appropriate fit.
Interestingly, of the 44 presidents sworn to office since 1789, there is quite a range in the starting points of presidencies, going from 42 years (Teddy Roosevelt) to 70 years (Donald Trump).
The average age for inauguration, however, is at the center of this bell curve at 55 years old:
Today’s data visualization, which comes from Reddit, shows a timeline of the life of each president, highlighting when they were inaugurated, when they left office, and when they eventually passed away (or their current age, if still alive).
The Oldest Presidents
At an age of 70 years old, Donald Trump edges out Ronald Reagan (69 years) as the oldest person to be inaugurated as president in the country’s history. However, because Reagan served two terms, it is possible that Trump will not be able to beat Reagan as the oldest U.S. president at the time of leaving office.
Reagan was 77 years, 349 days when he finished his second term.
Reagan lived for the third-longest of all presidents, but was beat out by Gerald Ford, who lived to the age of 93 years and 165 days. Very recently, George H.W. Bush recently became the oldest person to have previously served as president – he turns 94 in June 2018.
Unexpected Ends
As you can see in the visualization, there were eight presidents to die while in office.
Lincoln, Garfield, Mckinley, and JFK were assassinated – all by gunshot. Meanwhile, Harrison, Taylor, Harding, and FDR died of natural causes in office.
The Youngest Presidents
The youngest president was Teddy Roosevelt at age 42.
Even though Barack Obama was viewed as young when he started his first term at age 47 – he was actually edged out by JFK (43 years), Bill Clinton (46 years), and Ulysses S. Grant (46 years) as well.
