The 21 states where U.S. presidents have been born
Every president comes from somewhere. Here’s a look at the 21 states where U.S. presidents have been born.
George Washington (1st)
Thomas Jefferson (3rd)
James Madison (4th)
James Monroe (5th)
William Henry Harrison (9th)
John Tyler (10th)
Zachary Taylor (12th)
Woodrow Wilson (28th)
Virginia absolutely dominated the first run of presidents, starting when George Washington was born in Westmoreland County on February 22, 1732.
Ulysses S. Grant (18th)
Rutherford B. Hayes (19th)
James A. Garfield (20th)
Benjamin Harrison (23rd)
William McKinley (25th)
William H. Taft (27th)
Warren G. Harding (29th)
Ohio traditionally claims eight presidents, though William Henry Harrison — who we counted for Virginia’s total because he was born there in 1773 — didn’t move to the state until he was an adult. (Ohio did not reach statehood until 1803.)
Martin Van Buren (8th)
Millard Fillmore (13th)
Theodore Roosevelt (26th)
Franklin D. Roosevelt (32nd)
Donald Trump (45th)
The Empire State has produced an array of presidents throughout the years. A total of 176 years separated Martin Van Buren’s last day in office in 1841 and Donald Trump’s inauguration in 2016.
John Adams (2nd)
John Quincy Adams (6th)
John F. Kennedy (35th)
George H.W. Bush (41st)
You could likely name the first three presidents on this list, but not everyone knows the elder Bush was born in Massachusetts. He moved with his family to Connecticut as a young boy and eventually launched the family’s political dynasty from Texas.
James K. Polk (11th)
Andrew Johnson (17th)
Both presidents who were born in North Carolina are more closely associated with Tennessee. Both men served as Tennessee’s governor before the presidency.
Dwight D. Eisenhower (34th)
Lyndon Baines Johnson (36th)
There are few men in history more associated with Texas than LBJ — and few more associated with Kansas than Ike.
Chester A. Arthur (21st)
Calvin Coolidge (30th)
Both men were born in Vermont, but achieved their political fame elsewhere: Arthur in New York and Coolidge in Massachusetts.
Bill Clinton (42nd)
Clinton was born in Hope, Arkansas on August 19, 1946.
Richard Nixon (37th)
The Richard Nixon Library and Museum is located in Yorba Linda on the grounds where Nixon was born in 1912.
George W. Bush (43rd)
The younger Bush has lived in Texas for much of his adult life, but he was born on the East Coast.
Jimmy Carter (39th)
Carter was born in Plains, Georgia and was served in the Senate before beating Gerald Ford in the 1976 presidential election.
Barack Obama (44th)
Obama is the only U.S. president not to be born in the contiguous United States.
Ronald Reagan (40th)
Reagan arrived in Washington via Hollywood, but his formative years were spent in the Land of Lincoln.
Herbert Hoover (31st)
Hoover was born in West Branch, Iowa on August 10, 1874 and grew up in the state before heading west to attend Stanford University.
Abraham Lincoln (16th)
You ever hear the story of Lincoln being born in a log cabin, yes? That was Sinking Spring, Kentucky on February 12, 1809.
Harry Truman (33rd)
Truman was born in the Show Me State on May 8, 1884.
Gerald Ford (38th)
Ford was born in Omaha, Nebraska, but his mother separated from his father just 16 days after his birth and moved to Illinois and later Grand Rapids, Michigan — the city most closely associated with Ford’s legacy.
Franklin Pierce (14th)
New Hampshire’s lone entry on this list shouldn’t be the source of much pride. Pierce is regarded as one of the worst U.S. presidents and his performance during the 1850s helped leaded to the Civil War a few years later.
Grover Cleveland (22nd and 24th)
The only president to serve two non-consecutive terms was born in Caldwell, New Jersey at March 17, 1837.
James Buchanan (15th)
It’s a little surprising that Pennsylvania only has one entry on this list, but it could become two if Joe Biden — the pride of Scranton — is elected in November.
Andrew Jackson (7th)
Like Polk and Andrew Johnson, Jackson is known as hailing from Tennessee — he was a U.S. senator before being elected president. But he was born in the colonial Carolinas.