If you’re looking for a list of U.S. Presidents with their associated generation, look no further!
I could not find a list myself, so I created one. I have taken many of the generation names and dates from Strauss-Howe Generational Theory. Where Strauss-Howe and common names conflicted, I used common names. (For example, Strauss-Howe refers to Generation Z as The Homeland Generation).
| President | Birth Year | Generation |
| George Washington | 1732 | The Liberty Generation |
| John Adams | 1735 | The Liberty Generation |
| Thomas Jefferson | 1743 | The Republican Generation |
| James Madison | 1751 | The Republican Generation |
| James Monroe | 1758 | The Republican Generation |
| John Quincy Adams | 1767 | The Compromise Generation |
| Andrew Jackson | 1767 | The Compromise Generation |
| Martin Van Buren | 1782 | The Compromise Generation |
| William Henry Harrison | 1773 | The Compromise Generation |
| John Tyler | 1790 | The Compromise Generation |
| James K. Polk | 1795 | The Transcendental Generation |
| Zachary Taylor | 1784 | The Transcendental Generation |
| Millard Fillmore | 1800 | The Transcendental Generation |
| Franklin Pierce | 1804 | The Transcendental Generation |
| James Buchanan | 1791 | The Transcendental Generation |
| Abraham Lincoln | 1809 | The Transcendental Generation |
| Andrew Johnson | 1808 | The Transcendental Generation |
| Ulysses S. Grant | 1822 | The Gilded Generation |
| Rutherford B. Hayes | 1822 | The Gilded Generation |
| James A. Garfield | 1831 | The Gilded Generation |
| Chester A. Arthur | 1829 | The Gilded Generation |
| Grover Cleveland | 1837 | The Gilded Generation |
| Benjamin Harrison | 1833 | The Gilded Generation |
| Grover Cleveland | 1837 | The Gilded Generation |
| William McKinley | 1843 | The Progressive Generation |
| Theodore Roosevelt | 1858 | The Progressive Generation |
| William Howard Taft | 1857 | The Progressive Generation |
| Woodrow Wilson | 1856 | The Progressive Generation |
| Warren G. Harding | 1865 | The Missionary Generation |
| Calvin Coolidge | 1872 | The Missionary Generation |
| Herbert Hoover | 1874 | The Missionary Generation |
| Franklin D. Roosevelt | 1882 | The Missionary Generation |
| Harry S. Truman | 1884 | The Lost Generation |
| Dwight D. Eisenhower | 1890 | The Lost Generation |
| John F. Kennedy | 1917 | The Greatest Generation |
| Lyndon B. Johnson | 1908 | The Greatest Generation |
| Richard Nixon | 1913 | The Greatest Generation |
| Gerald Ford | 1913 | The Greatest Generation |
| Jimmy Carter | 1924 | The Greatest Generation |
| Ronald Reagan | 1911 | The Greatest Generation |
| George H.W. Bush | 1924 | The Greatest Generation |
| Bill Clinton | 1946 | Baby Boomers |
| George W. Bush | 1946 | Baby Boomers |
| Barack Obama | 1961 | Baby Boomers |
| Donald Trump | 1946 | Baby Boomers |
| Joe Biden | 1942 | The Silent Generation |
There are a couple of notable observations to be made. First, a few generations are very heavily represented, namely, Transcendental, Gilded, and The Greatest Generations.
Additionally, we never elected a President born between 1924 and 1942. That is an 18-year gap!
Finally, there was only one time in U.S. history that we went backward a generation. After electing four Baby Boomer presidents in a row, in 2020 we elected a president from the previous Silent Generation.
If you have any theories or insight into these interesting observations, or if you’ve made an interesting observation of your own, please leave a comment!
Do you think we will ever have a Generation X President? Read here to see what I think.
Great list, thank you. My additional takeaway is that the longest gaps happen when a dominant generation takes over (case in point the 18y gap you mention when GIs took over). My intuition tells me that the previous generations’ lack of leadership incentivises people to vote into office younger members of a stronger generation. Similarly, strong generations tend to provide not only younger presidents, but also older ones, probably because the new generation is less strong and cannot win elections vs the proven dominant one. Also, I’d say Biden being born in 1942 he is as close as it gets to a boomer since he was only around 3 years old when ww2 ended (Clinton and Trump being from 1946 probably had similar life experiences to him).
Best,
Joao