​Presidential Notes - How Old Are You Mr. President?

The constitutional provisions to serve as the President of the United States require that a person must be at least 35 years old. No legislation or court decision has altered this requirement since the Constitution was adopted, and Washington was inaugurated in 1789. The average age of the men who have served as President of the United States, is slightly under 55. George Washington was 57 when he was inaugurated.

The youngest person ever to serve as president was Theodore Roosevelt. He was 42 when he was sworn into office following the assassination of President McKinley in September of 1901. When John Kennedy was inaugurated in January of 1961, he was 43, making him the youngest person ever elected to the office. Kennedy was also the president with the shortest lifetime. He was 46 when he was assassinated on November 22, 1963.

Ronald Reagan became the oldest president to assume the office, when he was inaugurated in January of 1981. He was just shy of his 70^th birthday. When he left office eight years later in January of 1989, he was the oldest person ever to have served as president. He turned 78 the next month. The president who lived the longest was Gerald Ford. When he died in December of 2006, he was 93. Reagan also lived to be 93, but when he passed he was a month and a half younger than Ford was at the time of his death. James Knox Polk had the shortest post-presidential life span. After leaving the White House he only lived three months. Polk died from cholera.

The Constitution makes no statement regarding a maximum presidential age--an age beyond which a person cannot serve as president. If our founding fathers had any concerns regarding a maximum age for the president, they made no provisions to address their concern. It is highly doubtful that age discrimination was a critical issue of the day with which they had to contend. Nonetheless, thoughtful deliberations and careful considerations put them well ahead of their times on so many issues and questions. As a result, the single age requirement that they established for the president has stood the test of time.