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.