EXPLANER
At 78 years and 7 months, Donald Trump will become the oldest president in United States history on the day of his inauguration.
Donald Trump will be sworn in as the 47th president of the United States on Monday.
The 78-year-old will begin his second term as president, becoming the oldest person to ever hold the position. He will be five months older than Joe Biden, who previously held the record for oldest president on Inauguration Day 2021.
In the following explanation, Al Jazeera visualizes the ages of all US presidents on their inauguration day, as well as their lifespans and years in office.
Oldest and youngest American presidents
Donald J. Trump was born in Queens, New York on June 14, 1946, less than a year after the end of World War II.
In 2017, at the age of 70, Trump was sworn in as the 45th President of the United States, making him the oldest president to be inaugurated, surpassing Ronald Reagan, who was about to turn 70 years on Inauguration Day in 1981.
The average age of U.S. presidents at inauguration is 57, a figure that extends from George Washington, the first president, who was 57 in 1789, to the present.
The youngest American president at the time of his inauguration was Theodore Roosevelt, who became president at the age of 42 after the assassination of William McKinley in 1901.
The longest-lived American presidents
The longest-serving US president was Jimmy Carter, who died on December 29, 2024 at the age of 100. He lived 43 years after serving a presidential term from 1977 to 1981 – longer than any other president.
Of the 41 presidents who have died, six lived to be over 90, five between 80 and 90, and the average age of death was 72.
John F. Kennedy, the 35th president, lived the shortest time of any American president. He was assassinated in 1963 at the age of 46.
Longest-serving American presidents
Before 1951, there was no formal limit on the number of terms a U.S. president could serve. The two-term limit was formally established by the 22nd Amendment, ratified on February 27, 1951, largely in response to Franklin D. Roosevelt’s four terms.
Roosevelt, the longest-serving U.S. president, served from 1933 to 1945, holding the position for more than 12 years before dying at age 63 during his fourth term.
Most American presidents have served one term rather than two. Of the 46 presidencies, only 15 presidents have served two or more terms.
The shortest-serving president was William Henry Harrison, who died on April 4, 1841, just one month into his term.
