Heights of presidents and presidential candidates of the United States

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File:PrezHeight.png
Presidents have trended to be taller over time, as shown using linear trend estimation.

A record of the heights of the presidents and presidential candidates of the United States is useful for evaluating what role, if any, height plays in presidential elections in the United States. Some observers have noted that the taller of the two major-party candidates tends to prevail, and argue this is due to the public's preference for taller candidates.[1]

The tallest U.S. president was Abraham Lincoln at Script error: No such module "convert"., while the shortest was James Madison at Script error: No such module "convert"..

Donald Trump, the current president, is Script error: No such module "convert". tall, according to the White House physician (as of April 2025).[2]Template:Independent source inline JD Vance, the current vice president, is reportedly Script error: No such module "convert". tall.[3] Trump's height is disputed and is generally considered shorter than official reports suggest.[4][5][6][7]

U.S. presidents by height order

File:Abraham Lincoln, 1863.jpg
Abraham Lincoln, the tallest president, was Script error: No such module "convert"..
File:James Madison Portrait2.jpg
James Madison, the shortest president, was Script error: No such module "convert"..

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Electoral success as a function of height

File:Election heights 1798-2004.png
Graph of winner vs. loser heights in presidential elections, 1789–2004

Folk wisdom about U.S. presidential politics holds that the taller of the two major-party candidates always wins or almost always wins since the advent of the televised presidential debate.[14] The topic is also popular among essayists and popular science writers.[40]

A number of studies have been published, but many have methodological issues,[40] including varied and unjustified date ranges from which elections are sampled in order to calculate percentages of elections in which taller candidates have won.[40] One 2001 study approached the issue by measuring the support of candidates in terms of popular votes, giving evidence for an advantage for taller candidates.[40] Other studies have also compared presidential height to the average height of the population.[40]

According to a 2013 study, significantly taller candidates were more likely to win the popular vote, while they were not more likely to win U.S. presidential elections: the number of taller candidates who won elections did not differ in a statistically significant manner from chance.[40] It also found that the winning probability of the taller candidate increases to the present day, affecting studies which only analyze elections from the recent past.[40]

Mentions in popular culture

  • In Ray Bradbury's 1953 dystopian novel Fahrenheit 451, when Mildred and her friends discuss the success of one presidential candidate over the other in a recent election, they talk only about the attractiveness of the winning candidate over the loser. One of their points is "You just don't go running a little short man like that against a tall man."[41]
  • A 1975 book called First Impressions: The Psychology of Encountering Others notes: "Elevator Shoes, Anyone? One factor which has a far-reaching influence on how people are perceived, at least in American society, is height. From 1900 to 1968 the man elected U.S. president was always the taller of the two candidates. (Richard Nixon was slightly shorter than George McGovern.)"[42]
  • A 1978 book titled The Psychology of Person Identification states: "They also say that every President of the USA elected since the turn of the [20th] century has been the taller of the two candidates (Jimmy Carter being an exception)."[43]
  • A 1988 article in the Los Angeles Times fashion section about a haberdasher devoted to clothing shorter men included a variation of the tale: "Stern says he just learned that Dukakis is 5 feet, 8 inches. 'Did you know,' he adds, noticeably disappointed, 'that since 1900 the taller of the two candidates always wins?'"[44]
  • A 1997 book called How to Make Anyone Fall in Love with You discusses the issue in a section about the importance of height: "What about height? One assumes the taller the better, because our culture venerates height. In fact, practically every president elected in the United States since 1900 was the taller of the two candidates."[45]
  • A 1999 book, Survival of the Prettiest by Nancy Etcoff, repeated a version of the legend in a section on the power of heights: "... Since 1776 only [two Presidents,] James Madison and Benjamin Harrison[,] have been below-average height. The easiest way to predict the winner in a United States election is to bet on the taller man: in this century you would have had an unbroken string of hits until 1972 when Richard Nixon beat George McGovern."[46]
  • A chapter titled "Epistemology at the Core of Postmodernism" in the 2002 book Telling the Truth: Evangelizing Postmodernisms makes this observation: "I remember the subversive effect the observation had on me that in every U.S. presidential race, the taller of the two candidates had been elected. It opened up space for a counterdiscourse to the presumed rationality of the electoral process."[47]

Comparative table of heights of United States presidential candidates

File:Secretary Kerry Compares His Height to That of George Washington While Touring National Constitution Center in Philadelphia (21104044311).jpg
Secretary Kerry compares his height to that of a statue of George Washington while touring National Constitution Center in Philadelphia.
 Taller candidate was elected   Shorter candidate was elected 
 Winner and opponent were of the same height   Comparison data unavailable 

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Notes:

** Lost the House of Representatives vote, but received the most popular votes and a plurality of electoral votes; however, not the majority needed to win.

† Ran unopposed

Extremes

File:Lincoln O-62 by Gardner, 1862-crop.jpg
President Lincoln at Antietam in October 1862 with eventual 1864 opponent Gen. George B. McClellan (second from left)

The tallest president elected to office was Abraham Lincoln (Script error: No such module "convert".). Portrait artist Francis Bicknell Carpenter supplies the information for Lincoln:

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Mr. Lincoln's height was six feet three and three-quarter inches "in his stocking-feet." He stood up one day, at the right of my large canvas, while I marked his exact height upon it.[8]

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A disputed theory holds that Lincoln's height is the result of the genetic condition multiple endocrine neoplasia type 2b (MEN2B); see medical and mental health of Abraham Lincoln.[78]

Only slightly shorter than Lincoln was Lyndon B. Johnson (Script error: No such module "convert".), the tallest president who originally entered office without being elected directly.

The shortest president elected to office was James Madison (Script error: No such module "convert".); the shortest president to originally enter the office by means other than election is tied between Millard Fillmore and Harry S. Truman (both were Script error: No such module "convert".).

The tallest unsuccessful presidential candidate (who is also the tallest of all presidential candidates) is Winfield Scott, who stood at Script error: No such module "convert". and lost the 1852 election to Franklin Pierce, who stood at Script error: No such module "convert".. The second-tallest unsuccessful candidate is John Kerry at Script error: No such module "convert".. The shortest unsuccessful presidential candidates are Stephen A. Douglas and Kamala Harris, both at Script error: No such module "convert".. The next shortest unsuccessful presidential candidate is Hillary Clinton, who lost the 2016 election, and is Script error: No such module "convert"..

The largest height difference between two presidential candidates (out of the candidates whose heights are known) was in the 1860 election, when Abraham Lincoln stood Script error: No such module "convert". taller than opponent Stephen A. Douglas. The second-largest difference (and the largest difference where the winner was the shorter candidate) was in the 1812 election, with DeWitt Clinton standing Script error: No such module "convert". taller than incumbent James Madison. The 2024 election between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris had the third-largest difference at Script error: No such module "convert"..

Notes

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References

Citations

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  1. As some examples, USA TODAY listed height among six criteria for predicting who would win the 2004 election; a Washington Post blog Template:Webarchive noted the significance of height in physical appearance and its effect on voters. See the discussion of this phenomenon later in the article for further examples.
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  17. Various sources have put Washington's height between 6 ft and 6 ft 3.5 in. See: Chernow, Ron, Washington: A Life, 2010, The Penguin Press HC Template:ISBN; Wilson, Woodrow, George Washington, 2004, Cosimo, Inc., p. 111; Alden, John Richard, George Washington: A Biography, 1984, Louisiana State University Press, p. 11; Lodge, Henry Cabot, George Washington, Vol. I, 2007, The Echo Library, p. 30; Haworth, Paul Leland, George Washington, Kessinger Publishing, 2004, p. 119; Thayer, William Roscoe, George Washington, 1931, Plain Label Books, p. 65; Ford, Paul Leicester, The True George Washington, Philadelphia, J.B. Lippincott Company, 1896, p. 18−19
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  19. Remini, Robert V., Andrew Jackson, HarperCollins, 1969, p. 15. Template:ISBN
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  21. a b c Whitcomb, John and Claire Whitcomb, Real Life at the White House, Routledge (UK), 2002. Template:ISBN
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  25. Sotos, John G. (2003). Taft and Pickwick: Sleep Apnea in the White House. Chest. 2003;124:1133-1142. Online copy
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  31. Levin, Phyllis Lee, Edith & Woodrow: the Wilson White House, New York: Simon & Schuster, 2001. Template:ISBN Google PrintScript error: No such module "Unsubst".
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  33. Behrman, Carol H., James K. Polk, Twenty-First Century Books, 2004. Template:ISBN
  34. King, Charles, The True Ulysses Grant, Philadelphia & London, J.B. Lippincott & Co., 1914. Google PrintScript error: No such module "Unsubst".
  35. Levy, Debbie, John Quincy Adams, Twenty-First Century Books, 2004, p. 28. Template:ISBN
  36. Ferling, John E., John Adams: A Life, Owl Books, 1996, Template:ISBN, p. 169. Google PrintScript error: No such module "Unsubst".
  37. Widmer, Ted and Arthur M. Schlesinger, Edward L. Widmer, Martin Van Buren, Times Books, 2005, p. 2. Template:ISBN
  38. Loderhouse, Gary and Nelson Price, William Addison Hunter, Legendary Hoosiers: Famous Folks from the State of Indiana, Emmis Books, 1999. Template:ISBN Google PrintScript error: No such module "Unsubst".
  39. Phillips, Louis, Ask Me Anything About the Presidents, HarperCollins, 1992. Template:ISBN
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  42. Kleinke, Chris L., First Impressions: The Psychology of Encountering Others, Prentice-Hall, 1975, p. 13. Template:ISBN Google Print
  43. Clifford, Brian R. and Ray Bull, The Psychology of Person Identification, Routledge & K. Paul, 1978, p. 115. Template:ISBN. Print
  44. Los Angeles Times, March 25, 1988, p. 7
  45. Lowndes, Leil, How to Make Anyone Fall in Love with You, McGraw-Hill Professional, 1997, pp.174-175. Template:ISBN Google Print
  46. Etcoff, Nancy, Survival of the Prettiest, New York, Anchor Books, 1999. Template:ISBN
  47. Telling the Truth: Evangelizing Postmoderns, edited by D.A. Carson, Zondervan, 2002, p. 83. Template:ISBN Google Print
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  59. Gillis, Too Tall, Too Small, p. 20. Lists his height as Script error: No such module "convert"..
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  63. Records of his height have been difficult to obtain. In one biography, he was described as "just under six feet in height". While not a definitive record of his height, this description does allow us to presume he was at least comparable in height to Cleveland. See Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
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  72. According to Cass's biography, he was "about five foot eight or nine inches". See Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
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  76. One biography of Crawford describes his stature as being "considerably over six feet". See Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  77. Cornog, Evan, The Birth of Empire: DeWitt Clinton and the American Experience, 1769-1828, Template:ISBN
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Sources

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External links

Template:Lists of US Presidents and Vice Presidents