Historians rank Joe Biden as 14th-greatest US president; Lincoln in 1st, Trump in last

Delaware's own Joe Biden has been ranked the 14th greatest president in U.S. history, according to a newly released survey of historians.

The 2024 Presidential Greatness Project Expert Survey polled social science experts in presidential politics and authors of relevant peer-reviewed academic research during the final month and a half of 2023. Each of the 154 participants — only 29% of the total experts invited to partake in the survey — was asked to individually rate each president by their greatness on a scale from zero to 100, with zero being a failure and 100 being great.

The surveyors then averaged each of the recorded scores and ranked the presidents in order, with many of the results echoing past surveys. Abraham Lincoln consistently ranks first, with Franklin Delano Roosevelt, George Washington, Teddy Roosevelt and Thomas Jefferson typically in the top five in some order.

Former President Donald Trump was rated the lowest at an average of 10.92, according to the survey. It's almost six points lower than the average score of James Buchanan, who ranked second last. Among other recent office holders, Barack Obama ranked seventh, George W. Bush ranked 32nd and Bill Clinton ranked 12th.

How the major 2024 candidates compare

Although respondents to the 2024 Presidential Greatness Project Expert Survey identified themselves as aligning with political parties across the spectrum, the ratings in general tended to be fairly similar across the board for each president.

However, both Biden and Trump had a wider range of scores across political parties.

Democrats were the most favorable of Biden, giving him an average greatness rating of 66.88. Biden was rated at 47.69 by Republicans, 57 by independents and 62.04 by moderates. Trump was rated at 6.66 by Democrats, 31.38 by Republicans, 13.96 by independents and 14.21 by moderates.

Both of these presidents were also rated as highly polarizing, with Trump ranking first and Biden ranking eighth. Additionally, Biden was ranked the sixth-most underrated president, while Trump was ranked the eighth-most overrated president. Only Obama was considered to be both one of the most underrated and overrated.

MORE: 'We cannot normalize failure': Wilmington Learning Collaborative eyes lofty goals ahead

Send story tips or ideas to Hannah Edelman at hedelman@delawareonline.com. For more reporting, follow them on X at @h_edelman.

This article originally appeared on Delaware News Journal: Biden is 14th-greatest president in US history, new poll finds