Ranked: Presidential Approval Ratings From First to Worst

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It's not uncommon for presidents to leave office less popular than when they entered. In fact, very few achieve the opposite. Presidential approval rating polls go back to FDR's second term, and only two of the thirteen presidents since then have left office with higher ratings than when they came in: FDR and Clinton.

We sympathize. Presidents often get elected to office because they inspire hope (remember Obama's “Yes we can!” back in 2008?), but by the end of their terms when things—aside from a few successes and failures here and there—seem just like they've always been, voters are ready for a change.

Thankfully, history looks more fondly upon presidents than approval polls that capture voter sentiment in the heat of the moment. Take President Harry Truman: He left office as one of the most unpopular presidents in history, amid a “botched” Korean War, rapid inflation, and a tax-collection scandal that mired his administration in corruption. But scholars now appreciate him for his conclusion of WWII, successful execution of The Marshall Plan, and taking the first steps toward ending racial segregation.

So while acknowledging that approval ratings aren't a definitive guide to the best and worst presidents, it's still interesting to take a peak at which presidents since FDR were the most and least popular at the time they left office.

Start the countdown of all 13, from first to worst, below. We've also listed the percentage points each president lost (or gained) in popularity from the beginning of their presidency to the end, as well as their average popularity over all of the months they served.

Franklin D. Roosevelt

Approval rating when he left office: 70%
Percentage point difference between beginning and end of term(s): +9
Average approval rating: 64%

Not only did FDR leave office with the highest approval rating out of any of the thirteen presidents on record, but he's also one of the only two presidents to leave office with more popularity than when he left.

John F. Kennedy

Approval rating when left office: 63%
Percentage point difference between beginning and end of term(s): -13
Average approval rating: 70%

JFK had a 63 percent approval rating when he was assassinated, enough to make him the second-most popular president on our countdown. He had, however, dropped 13 percentage points in percentage points in popularity in just under three years.

Dwight D. Eisenhower

Approval rating when he left office: 61%
Percentage point difference between beginning and end of term(s): -7
Average approval rating: 64

Although Eisenhower left office having dropped seven percentage points from when he started, he still had a good approval rating of above 50 percent.

Bill Clinton

Approval rating when he left office: 60%
Percentage point difference between beginning and end of term(s): +12
Average approval rating: 54%

Bill Clinton came into his presidency with a 48 percent approval rating, making him the second president on record to leave office with a higher approval rating than when he entered. Nevertheless, Eisenhower, Kennedy and Roosevelt all had approval ratings higher than his by the end of their terms.

Ronald Reagan

Approval rating when he left office: 52%
Percentage point difference between beginning and end of term(s): -4
Average approval rating: 52%

Public sentiment toward Reagan didn't vary much over the course of his term, dropping only four percentage points throughout. Only one other president who's still to come saw less variation in public perception.

Gerald Ford

Approval rating when he left office: 48%
Percentage point difference between beginning and end of term(s): -1
Average approval rating: 45%

President Ford saw his popularity ratings vary the least, hardly budging from a 49 percent at the beginning of his term, to 48 percent by the end.

Barack Obama

Approval rating as of October: 47%
Percentage point difference between beginning and end of term(s): -14
Average approval rating: 47%

President Obama doesn't seem too popular at the moment, but he's still much more popular than President Bush was when he left office in 2009.

Lyndon B. Johnson

Approval rating when he left office: 42%
Percentage point difference between beginning and end of term(s): -34
Average approval rating: 54%

President Kennedy entered the White House with a 76 percent approval rating, and when President Johnson took office after Kennedy's assassination, so did he. But by the end of his Johnson's, that number had sunk to 42.

George H.W. Bush

Approval rating when he left office: 39%
Percentage point difference between beginning and end of term(s): -24
Average approval rating: 60%

Although the polls look more kindly upon Bush Sr. than Bush Jr., a 39 percent approval rating still places him in fifth place, which certainly isn't fantastic.

Jimmy Carter

Approval rating when he left office: 38%
Percentage point difference between beginning and end of term(s): -23
Average approval rating: 45%

Jimmy Carter's defense of human rights an unwillingness to pursue military action impressed a few. But the sentiment when he left office was low enough to rank him as number four on this list.

George W. Bush

Approval rating when he left office: 28%
Percentage point difference between beginning and end of term(s): -35
Average approval rating: 47%

President Bush entered two wars–one largely with the support of the American people and one not–but by the end of his time in office, many Americans disapproved of both wars. And the president too.

Harry S. Truman

Approval rating when he left office: 28%
Percentage point difference between beginning and end of term(s): -53
Average approval rating: 42%

Another wartime president, Harry Truman left office having plummeted 53 percentage points in approval rating. He entered with the highest approval rating out of any president on this countdown–81 percent–but left with only 28 percent approval.

Richard Nixon

Approval rating when he left office: 25%
Percentage point difference between beginning and end of term(s): -35
Average approval rating: 49%

Richard Nixon resigned before he could be impeached, so it's no surprise he left office with the lowest rating on record.

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