Being elected to the highest office in the land is a job that comes with immense responsibility. Whether it was guiding the U.S. through its earliest days of independence, attempting to reunite a nation torn apart by the Civil War, weathering financial crises, or avoiding escalating conflict during the Cold War, every commander in chief has tackled obstacles and made decisions that form their legacy. But just like any job—and in many ways, more than any other job—how they handle their time in office is open to analysis and criticism, including the former presidents who performed poorly enough to be considered among the worst to ever sit in the Oval Office.
A recent survey of 142 presidential historians conducted by C-SPAN continued the tradition of ranking former executives based on a wide range of criteria. Each respondent issued a score from 1 (meaning "not effective") to 10 (meaning "very effective") in 10 categories that encompass presidential leadership: crisis leadership, public persuasion, economic management, moral authority, international relations, administrative skills, pursuing equal justice for all, relations with congress, vision or setting an agenda, and their performance within the context of the times. The average of each president's responses was then added to rank them overall, with each category given equal weighting.
New questionnaires are issued at the beginning of every new administration so that only former presidents are included in the rankings, meaning you won't see current President Joe Biden on this list. The latest survey also invited dozens more respondents to participate so as to create “new diversity in race, gender, age and philosophy" in the results, C-SPAN said. (Here is a full list of the historians surveyed.)
Each time the survey is conducted, presidents rise and fall among the ranks, and this year is no different. With everything considered from impeachment to landing on the moon, here is every former president of the United States ranked from best to worst, according to historians.
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1 | Abraham Lincoln
Everett Historical/ShutterstockFinal score: 897
2 | George Washington
ShutterstockFinal score: 851
3 | Franklin D. Roosevelt
AlamyFinal score: 841
4 | Theodore Roosevelt
ShutterstockFinal score: 785
5 | Dwight D. Eisenhower
Everett Collection Historical / Alamy Stock PhotoFinal score: 734
6 | Harry S. Truman
AlamyFinal score: 713
7 | Thomas Jefferson
ShutterstockFinal score: 704
8 | John F. Kennedy
dpa Fotografen/picture alliance via Getty ImagesFinal score: 699
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9 | Ronald Reagan
Mark Reinstein / ShutterstockFinal score: 681
10 | Barack Obama
Evan El-Amin / ShutterstockFinal score: 664
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11 | Lyndon B. Johnson
AlamyFinal score: 654
12 | James Monroe
Everett Collection / ShutterstockFinal score: 643
13 | Woodrow Wilson
ShutterstockFinal score: 617
14 | William McKinley
ShutterstockFinal score: 612
15 | John Adams
ShutterstockFinal score: 609
16 | James Madison
ShutterstockFinal score: 604
17 | John Quincy Adams
ShutterstockFinal score: 603
18 | James K. Polk
ShutterstockFinal score: 599
19 | William J. Clinton
Joseph Sohm/ShutterstockFinal score: 594
20 | Ulysses S. Grant
ShutterstockFinal score: 590
21 | George H. W. Bush
ShutterstockFinal score: 585
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22 | Andrew Jackson
Everett Collection / ShutterstockFinal score: 568
23 | William Howard Taft
ShutterstockFinal score: 543
24 | Calvin Coolidge
Everett Collection / ShutterstockFinal score: 535
25 | Grover Cleveland
Everett Collection / ShutterstockFinal score: 523
26 | Jimmy Carter
ShutterstockFinal score: 506
27 | James A. Garfield
ShutterstockFinal score: 506
28 | Gerald R. Ford
Photo12/Universal Images Group via Getty ImagesFinal score: 498
29 | George W. Bush
ShutterstockFinal score: 495
30 | Chester A. Arthur
Everett Collection / ShutterstockFinal score: 472
31 | Richard M. Nixon
National Archives and Records AdministrationFinal score: 464
32 | Benjamin Harrison
ShutterstockFinal score: 462
33 | Rutherford B. Hayes
ShutterstockFinal score: 456
34 | Martin Van Buren
ShutterstockFinal score: 455
35 | Zachary Taylor
Everett Collection / ShutterstockFinal score: 449
36 | Herbert Hoover
Library of Congress/Corbis/VCG via Getty ImagesFinal score: 396
37 | Warren G. Harding
ShutterstockFinal score: 388
38 | Millard Fillmore
Everett Collection / ShutterstockFinal score: 378
39 | John Tyler
Everett Collection / ShutterstockFinal score: 354
40 | William Henry Harrison
ShutterstockFinal score: 354
41 | Donald J. Trump
Evan El-Amin / Shutterstock.comFinal score: 312
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42 | Franklin Pierce
ShutterstockFinal score: 312
43 | Andrew Johnson
Everett Collection / ShutterstockFinal score: 230
44 | James Buchanan
Everett Collection / ShutterstockFinal score: 227
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