21 of the 50 U.S. states have been the birthplace of U.S. presidents. Historically, Virginia has been the most common birthplace of U.S. presidents, with eight in total; although seven of these were born in the 1700s, and Woodrow Wilson is the most recent Virginian to have been elected president, in 1912. Similarly to Virginia, Ohio has produced seven U.S. presidents, although they were all born between 1822 and 1865, and all served as president between 1845 and 1923.
Born in the USA
Five presidents, including the incumbent President Donald Trump, were born in New York; the first of which, Martin Van Buren, also has the distinction of being the first president born in the independent United States. Eight of the first nine presidents, all born in Massachusetts, South Carolina or Virginia, were born as British subjects when these states were still part of the Thirteen Colonies. Since then, no other presidents were born in areas that had not yet been admitted into the United States, and no U.S. presidents were ever born in the Confederate States of America, a U.S. territory or any foreign country. The U.S. Constitution includes the "natural-born-citizen clause", which is generally understood to mean that only those born in the U.S. may be elected to the office of president or vice president; however, the exact meaning of the phrase "natural-born-citizen" has never been finally clarified and remains open to interpretation.
Increasing variety
With President Joe Biden's victory in the 2020 election, he became just the second president to have been born in Pennsylvania (the other being James Buchanan). Today, there have been 13 states which were the birthplace of just one president, and, apart from Biden, Donald Trump and George H. W. Bush, seven of the most recent ten presidents were born in these states. Barack Obama is the only U.S. president not to have been born on the U.S. mainland, as he was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, in 1961. There are 29 states, along with the District of Columbia, that are yet to produce a U.S. president.
Number of U.S. presidents born in each state, from those elected between 1789 and 2021
*Andrew Jackson was born in the Waxhaw region along the border of North and South Carolina. The precise location of his birth remains unknown and disputed, however Jackson himself claimed to have been born in South Carolina, and most historians accept this.
The list of states, the presidents , and their year of birth are as follows:
Virginia: George Washington (1732), Thomas Jefferson (1743), James Madison (1751), James Monroe (1758), William Henry Harrison (1773), Zachary Taylor (1784), John Tyler (1790), Woodrow Wilson (1856)
Ohio: Ulysses S. Grant (1822), Rutherford B. Hayes (1822), James A. Garfield (1831), Benjamin Harrison (1833), William McKinley (1843), William H. Taft (1857), Warren G. Harding (1865)
New York: Martin Van Buren (1782), Millard Fillmore (1800), Theodore Roosevelt (1858), Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882), Donald Trump (1946)
Massachusetts: John Adams (1735), John Quincy Adams (1767), John F. Kennedy (1917), George H. W. Bush (1924)
North Carolina: James K. Polk (1795), Andrew Johnson (1808)
Pennsylvania: James Buchanan (1791), Joe Biden (1942)
Texas: Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890), Lyndon B. Johnson (1908)
Vermont: Chester A. Arthur (1829), Calvin Coolidge (1872)
Arkansas: Bill Clinton (1946)
California: Richard Nixon (1913)
Connecticut: George W. Bush (1946)
Georgia: Jimmy Carter (1924)
Hawaii: Barack Obama (1961)
Illinois: Ronald Reagan (1911)
Iowa: Herbert Hoover (1874)
Kentucky: Abraham Lincoln (1809)
Missouri: Harry S. Truman (1884)
Nebraska: Gerald Ford (1913)
New Hampshire: Franklin Pierce (1804)
New Jersey: Grover Cleveland (1837)
South Carolina: Andrew Jackson (1767)
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Business Insider. (January 20, 2021). Number of U.S. presidents born in each state, from those elected between 1789 and 2021 [Graph]. In Statista. Retrieved July 22, 2024, from https://www.statista.com/statistics/1097042/us-president-birth-states/
Business Insider. "Number of U.S. presidents born in each state, from those elected between 1789 and 2021." Chart. January 20, 2021. Statista. Accessed July 22, 2024. https://www.statista.com/statistics/1097042/us-president-birth-states/
Business Insider. (2021). Number of U.S. presidents born in each state, from those elected between 1789 and 2021. Statista. Statista Inc.. Accessed: July 22, 2024. https://www.statista.com/statistics/1097042/us-president-birth-states/
Business Insider. "Number of U.S. Presidents Born in Each State, from Those Elected between 1789 and 2021." Statista, Statista Inc., 20 Jan 2021, https://www.statista.com/statistics/1097042/us-president-birth-states/
Business Insider, Number of U.S. presidents born in each state, from those elected between 1789 and 2021 Statista, https://www.statista.com/statistics/1097042/us-president-birth-states/ (last visited July 22, 2024)
Number of U.S. presidents born in each state, from those elected between 1789 and 2021 [Graph], Business Insider, January 20, 2021. [Online]. Available: https://www.statista.com/statistics/1097042/us-president-birth-states/
