Presidents ranked from worst to best

By Elisha Fieldstadt
Published: 02:38 PM September 13, 2022
Ting Shen/Bloomberg via Getty Images

The ranking of presidents... so far

Is President Joe Biden the best president in history — or the worst? Turns out, it's neither. According to the latest available survey of presidential historians, he's somewhere in between. 

But who is the worst, and who is the best? And where would other recent presidents, such as Donald Trump, Barack Obama, and George W. Bush rank on such a list? Here are the results of a sweeping survey of historians, political scientists and presidential scholars maintained by Siena College Research Institute. Since 1982, SCRI has ranked presidents across 20 categories, ranging from integrity to executive ability.

This is the first time that Biden has appeared on such a survey.

Biographical information for each president from WhiteHouse.gov and the Miller Center at the University of Virginia