Top 10 Youngest US Presidents

Who are the top 10 youngest US presidents? The United States of America has experienced the reign of 46 presidents, from the oldest (elected at 78) to the youngest (elected at 42).

The current president of the United States, Joe Biden is the oldest president in the United States to be elected into office. He assumed office as President on the 20th of January, 2021 at the age of 78.

In this article, RNN will provide a top 10 list of the youngest presidents in American history. The list is according to their age upon assumption of office.

10. Millard Fillmore

Millard Fillmore was 50 years old when he assumed office on the 9th of July 1850. He was born on January 7, 1800, on a farm in the Finger Lakes region of New York in the States.

Fillmore who was a member of the Whig party served as the 13th president of the United States between 1850 and 1853. He was a professional lawyer before going into politics. The ex-president assumed office after serving as vice president for only one year and four months. His election as president was a result of the untimely death of the then-president, Zachary Taylor.

Millard Fillmore became the last president to not be affiliated with either a Democratic or Republican party.

9. James K. Polk

Next on our list of Youngest Presidents in the United States is James Polk. Polk was 49 years old when he became the 11th president of the United States, serving from 1845 to 1849. He was previously the 9th governor of Tennessee and the 13th speaker of the House of Representatives between 1835–1839.

According to records, Polk’s Administration was one of the most successful in the history of the American Presidency/politics. He led America to war against Mexico in 1846 and brought Texas into the Union. Polk graduated from the University of North Carolina before pursuing his career in Law. Since then, he followed his ambition in politics and was elected into several political offices like the Speaker of the US House of Representatives and Governor of Tennessee before becoming president.

Polk was born on November 2, 1795, and died on June 2, 1849, at the age of 53.

8. James Garfield

James Abram Garfield was 49 years old when he became the 20th President of the US. He was born on November 19, 1831, and died on September 19, 1889, from infections sustained due to an assassination attempt.

Garfield’s tenure ran through from March 4, 1881, to September 19, 1881. His tenure as President was one of the shortest the United States has ever experienced. He was a Lawyer and Civil War general who served nine terms in the House of Representatives before assuming the presidential seat.

James Garfield was shot by Charles J. Guiteau, who was eventually sentenced to death for his crime.

7. Franklin Pierce

Franklin Pierce was the 14th president of the United States who assumed office at the age of 48. Like some of his counterparts, Pierce also practiced Law before venturing into American politics. He also served in the U.S House of Representatives.

Pierce partook in the US-Mexican war as Brigadier General in the army. He was regarded by Democrats as a compromise candidate who united Northern and Southern interests. He was then nominated as the party’s presidential candidate on the 49th ballot at the 1852 Democratic National Convention.

Pierce was known for backing the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 and overturning the Missouri Compromise of 1820. He was born on November 23, 1804, and died on October 8, 1869.

6. Grover Cleveland

Glover Cleveland is the only President in the history of America to serve two non-consecutive terms of office. He was first president at the age of 47 in 1885 and then in 1893.

Cleveland won the popular vote for the 1884, 1888, and 1892 presidential elections and was one of two Democrats to be elected president in the era of Republican presidential domination from 1861-1933. The second Democrat was Woodrow Wilson in 1912.

Glover is the 6th youngest president in American history. He died from a heart attack on June 24 at the age of 71 in his Princeton residence.

5. Barack Obama

Barrack Obama was America’s first black (African-American) president. He assumed office at the age of 47 on January 20, 2009, and remained President until January 20, 2017. He was the 44th President of America.

Obama was a member of the Democratic Party during his reign as President. He previously served as a senator in the United States from Illinois between 2005 to 2008 and then as an Illinois State senator from 1997 – 2004. Obaman received national attention for a couple of things. First, his Senate primary win and then his July Democratic National Convention keynote address, and finally, his landslide November election into the Senate.

He was nominated by the Democratic Party as the Presidential candidate after a close primary campaign against Hillary Clinton in 2008. The current US president, Joe Biden was his running mate as Vice president. Obama is one of the youngest US presidents alive.

4. Ulysses S. Grant

Ulysses Grant was the 18th president of the United States of America. He served as president of America from March 4, 1869, to March 4, 1877. He was 46 years old when he assumed office.

Grant was an American military officer and politician who led the Union Army to victory in the American Civil War in 1865 as Commanding General. He also served as Secretary of War shortly after.

As president, Grant was known to be an effective civil rights executive who signed the bill for the creation of the Justice Department and worked with Radical Republicans in order to protect African-Americans during Reconstruction.

Ulysses Grant was Preceded by Andrew Johnson and Succeeded by Rutherford B. Hayes as president. He was born on April 27, 1822, and died from throat cancer on July 23, 1885.

3. Bill Clinton

Bill Clinton was the 42nd American president who assumed office on January 20, 1993, at the age of 46. At this age, Clinton became the 3rd youngest president in American history.

Prior to his election as president, he served as governor of Arkansas between 1979 and 1981 and then from 1983 to 1992. He was also the attorney general of Arkansas from 1977 to 1979. As a member of the Democratic Party, Clinton became a New Democrat and many of his policies reflected a centrist “Third Way” political philosophy.

He is married to Hillary Clinton, the Democratic nominee for president in the 2016 presidential election.

2. John F. Kennedy

John Fitzgerald Kennedy served as the 35th president of the United States from January 20, 1961, until November 22, 1963, when he was assassinated. He assumed office at the age of 43.

The ex-president ruled America at the height of the Cold War, and most of his work as president involved relations with the Soviet Union and Cuba. As a Democrat, he represented Massachusetts in both houses of the U.S. Congress before his presidential tenure.

Although John Kennedy is the second youngest president in the United State, he is also the youngest president to rule America via election. Kennedy was Preceded by Dwight D. Eisenhower and Succeeded by Lyndon B. Johnson as president.

1. Theodore Roosevelt

Theodore Roosevelt Jr. is the youngest president in the history of America. He assumed office at the age of 42 and served as the president of the United States between 1901 and 1909.

Roosevelt was an American politician, conservationist, statesman, naturalist, writer, and historian. Prior to his emergence as president, he served as the 25th vice president of the US under the William McKinley administration from March to September 1901. He was also the 33rd governor of New York from 1899 to 1900.

The statesman assumed office as president after the assassination of McKinley. Roosevelt died at the age of 60 on January 6, 1919.

Youngest US Presidents (Summary)

Here’s a table containing the youngest US presidents so far.