The only five American Former Presidents still alive
For only the third time in U.S. history, there are five former U.S. presidents alive at the same time (as of February 2023). There have been way more times in the country’s history — six to be exact — when there were no living ex-presidents. That may have to do with the usual steps politicians take to get to the top, which means they’re no spring chickens when they finally arrive. On average, they’re already middle-aged when they’re able to make the leap to the leader of the nation.
Fifty-five is the average age of presidents at inauguration, but there have been some, including the current president, Joseph R. Biden Jr. — 78 at his inauguration — who were quite a bit older than the average. Chalk it up to modern medicine or good genes — the five men who once held the highest office in the land and are still among us range in age from 61 to 98.
The youngest is Barack Obama
Barack Obama holds several distinctions with his presidency, which lasted from 2009 to 2017. He was the first African-American elected to the position as the 44th president, and he had a quick political rise to the top, having been in the U.S. Senate for a mere four years before the country elected him president. Obama was also nearly a decade younger than average when he took his Oath of Office. He was 47 at the time of his first inauguration on January 20, 2009, joining five other former presidents who were the same age or younger. The youngest, at 42, was Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt.
The oldest living former president is Jimmy Carter, who at 98 is also the oldest ex-president in history. On February 18, 2023, the Carter Center announced the former president would spend whatever time he had left at home with his family receiving hospice care rather than seeking any further medical interventions. Carter served as the 39th president from 1977 to 1981. He was 52 years old at his inauguration on January 20, 1977.
The three others are the same age
The three other living former presidents — two of whom served back to back — are the same age at 76. Bill Clinton, the 42nd U.S. president, served from 1993 to 2001 and, at 46, was a year younger than Obama when he began his presidency that lasted for two terms. George W. Bush, who succeeded Clinton, was also a two-term president who served from 2001 to 2009. At 54, when Bush became the 43rd president, he was about of average age for the country’s top spot. Donald J. Trump served one term as the 45th president, from 2017 to 2021. He was 70 when he took office, making him the second oldest behind Biden.
The last time there were this many former presidents alive at once was back in the mid-90s when Carter, George H. W. Bush, Ronald Reagan, and Richard M. Nixon were all alive. And before that, you’d have to go back to the 1860s.
