How Tall is Joe Biden? Joe Biden’s height is listed at 5 feet 11 1⁄2 inches (182 cm). He is taller than the average American, but is he the tallest president ever?
Joe Biden is one of the most popular men in the world as he is the 46th and current president of the United States. The American politician began his political career in 1970 and rose through the ranks over the years. From 1973 to 2009, he represented Delaware in the United States Senate, and from the latter year to 2017, he served as the 47th vice president of the country under Barack Obama. In November 2020, Biden defeated incumbent president Donald Trump to be installed as POTUS.
Given his status as the leader of the most powerful country in the world, almost everything about Joe piques interest. From his family life to his net worth and even trivial things like his shoe size, his eye color, weight, height, and what have you. The interest in knowing how tall Biden is peaked during his 2020 presidential campaign. It was driven by folk wisdom which upheld that the taller of the two major candidates tends to win the presidential election.
Has Joe Biden’s Height Helped His Political Career In Any Way?
At a height of 5 feet 11 1⁄2 inches (182 cm), Joe Biden is not only tall but taller than the average human. For many, there ought to be no correlation between height and politics, but several studies beg to differ. As much as one might proclaim and affirm that it is only right for people to be elected into public offices based on what they can offer, researchers have found that the height of a politician can determine how far they can go with their political career.
One of these studies which appraised the importance of heights of US presidents concluded that height is a crucial factor in evaluating and electing political leaders. In its abstract, the research paper sustained that taller candidates have an advantage over their opponents and explained that the advantage revolves around the perceptions associated with height. That is, taller candidates are often rated by analysts to have more leadership and communication skills.
A similar study carried out at the University of Wroclaw in Poland also confirmed that height is correlated with the public image of electoral candidates. This study, like many others, validated the claims that height is an asset to political candidates, affirming that it correlates with electoral outcome. Given that, one can conclude that Joe Biden’s height has helped his political career in some ways. His electoral history shows that he has enjoyed more wins than losses. But then, one can’t completely attribute his successes to having a good height. After all, he faced a taller candidate and triumphed in the zenith of his political career.
How Tall is Biden Compared to The Average Joe?
As you’d easily find, the average height of adult men differs across the nations of the world. Several reports have it that the tallest men in the world are from the Netherlands where the average height is 5 feet 11 1⁄2 inches (182 cm). This means that most of the men in the northwestern European country are as tall as the United States president. Across the globe, the tallest men are in Central Asia and Europe and the average height is 177 cm. So, it wouldn’t be out of place for one to assert that Biden is taller than the average man in the world.
The shortest of men, on the other hand, are found in South Asia (165 cm), especially in Timor-Leste, a Southeast Asian country where the average height for men is 160 cm. It is said that North Americans were the tallest in the world in the 19th century. This has changed as Europe and Central Asia take the lead with the United States left behind because of several factors that have been attributed to medical care, poverty rate, and lack of nutrition. Be that as it may, the United States of America is still ranked among countries with the tallest people in the world.
At the moment, about 14.5 percent of all men in the United States measure six feet in height or taller. It is said that the average Joe in America stands at 5 feet 9.3 inches (176 cm). In essence, Joe Biden is about 5 cm taller than the average man in his country. While there is no doubt he is a tall man, many former presidents of the United States are taller than him.
Joe Biden’s Height Compared With The Heights of Former Presidents of America
Joe Biden, as stated earlier, is the current and 46th president of the United States of America. This means the country has had 46 presidencies with 45 different people who have served as president of the country, including Biden. The count is 45 individuals and not 46 because Grover Cleveland nonconsecutively served twice as the president of the country, first as the 22nd president from 1885 to 1889 and then as the 24th president from 1893 to 1897.
Over the years, the United States presidential elections have had political pundits comparing the heights of the candidates from the two major parties in America’s multi-party system – the Democratic Party and the Republican Party. This is so because of the widespread belief that the taller candidate is most likely to win. Facts seem to support this sentiment as most of the candidates who prevailed in the presidential elections of the United States are taller than their opponents.
For instance, from 1900 to 2020, the country has had 31 presidential elections. Out of those, taller candidates emerged the winner 20 times. Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 presidential election is one of the cases that went the other way. Compared with other past presidents of the country, Biden ranks among the top 20 tallest presidents of America. He is 11 cm shorter than Abraham Lincoln, the tallest president in U.S history, and 19 cm taller than the shortest president in America’s history, James Madison. While Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president of the country was 6 feet 4 inches (193 cm), James Madison, the 4th president of the U.S was 5 feet 4 inches (163 cm).
Barack Obama vs Donald Trump vs Joe Biden: Who Among Them is The Tallest?
Barack Obama, Donald Trump, and Joe Biden are respectively the 44th, 45th, and 46th presidents of the United States. Biden and Obama belong to the Democratic Party and they respectively served as the vice president and president of the country from January 2009 to January 2017. Trump is a Republican and he led the country from 2017 to 2021.
Of the three, Donald Trump is the tallest and Joe Biden the least tall. In the established order, their heights measure 6 feet 3 inches (191 cm) and 5 feet 11 1⁄2 inches (182 cm) whereas Obama is 6 feet 1 1⁄2 inches (187 cm) tall. Donald Trump is 4 cm taller than Barack Obama and 9 cm taller than Joe Biden.
If anything, the 2020 presidential election proves that it takes more than being taller than your opponent to prevail. Donald was the taller candidate and he lost to Biden.
Other Former Presidents Taller Than Biden
Apart from Donald Trump and Barack Obama, a handful of other former presidents of the United States were/are taller than Joe Biden. In no particular order, they include James Monroe, John Tyler, James Buchanan, James A. Garfield, Warren G. Harding, and Gerald Ford who were all 6 feet (183 cm) tall.
There were also Andrew Jackson, John F. Kennedy, and Ronald Reagan who were 6 feet 1 inch (185 cm); and then Bill Clinton, George H. W. Bush, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Chester A. Arthur, and George Washington, all of whom were 6 feet 2 inches (188 cm).
Thomas Jefferson, Lyndon B. Johnson, and of course Abraham Lincoln were equally taller than Joe. The table below covers all the former presidents of the United States that were taller than Joe Biden.
| Name of Presidents | Heights |
| Abraham Lincoln | 6 feet 4 inches (193 cm) |
| Lyndon B. Johnson | 6 feet 3 1⁄2 inches (192 cm) |
| Donald Trump | 6 feet 3 inches (191 cm) |
| Thomas Jefferson | 6 feet 2 1⁄2 inches (189 cm) |
| George Washington | 6 feet 2 inches (188 cm) |
| George H. W. Bush | 6 feet 2 inches (188 cm) |
| Franklin D. Roosevelt | 6 feet 2 inches (188 cm) |
| Bill Clinton | 6 feet 2 inches (188 cm) |
| Chester A. Arthur | 6 feet 2 inches (188 cm) |
| Barack Obama | 6 feet 1 1⁄2 inch (187 cm) |
| Ronald Reagan | 6 feet 1 inch (185 cm) |
| John F. Kennedy | 6 feet 1 inch (185 cm) |
| Andrew Jackson | 6 feet 1 inch (185 cm) |
| Gerald Ford | 6 feet (183 cm) |
| Warren G. Harding | 6 feet (183 cm) |
| James A. Garfield | 6 feet (183 cm) |
| James Buchanan | 6 feet (183 cm) |
| John Tyler | 6 feet (183 cm) |
| James Monroe | 6 feet (183 cm) |
Former Presidents With The Same Height as Biden
The current president of the United States isn’t the only leader of the North American nation that is/was as tall as he is. Again, Joe Biden’s height is 5 feet 11 1⁄2 inches (182 cm), and a few past presidents of the country had the same height. They include George W. Bush, a Republican that served as the 43rd president of the United States, Richard Nixon of the same party who was the 37th president, and Herbert Hoover, the 31st president who was also a member of the Republican Party.
The 27th president of the United States, William Howard Taft, was also as tall as Joe Biden. Taft was also a member of the Republican Party and served as the tenth Chief Justice of the United States. If it means anything, Biden is the first president from the Democratic Party that’s exactly as tall as he is.
| Name of Presidents | Heights |
| George W. Bush | 5 feet 11 1/2 inches (182 cm) |
| Richard Nixon | 5 feet 11 1/2 inches (182 cm) |
| Herbert Hoover | 5 feet 11 1/2 inches (182 cm) |
| William Howard Taft | 5 feet 11 1/2 inches (182 cm) |
Former U.S Presidents That Weren’t As Tall As The Current President
Joe Biden’s height leaves him among the United States presidents who are not up to 6 feet tall. But among the 5-foot US presidents, he is one of the tallest as he is only ½ an inch shy of 6 feet. As such, he is taller than many of the individuals who have served as the president of America, including Jimmy Carter, Calvin Coolidge, Theodore Roosevelt, Andrew Johnson, Franklin Pierce, and Dwight D. Eisenhower who all missed the 6 feet mark by a few inches.
Joe is also taller than Ulysses S. Grant, Zachary Taylor, James K. Polk, William Henry Harrison, Rutherford B. Hayes, Harry S. Truman, and Millard Fillmore whose heights ranged from 5 feet 9 inches (175 cm) to 5 feet 8 inches (173 cm). As shown in the table below, the current president is also taller than John Quincy Adams, John Adams, William McKinley, Martin Van Buren, Benjamin Harrison, and James Madison.
| Name of Presidents | Heights |
| James Madison | 5 feet 4 inches (163 cm) |
| Benjamin Harrison | 5 feet 6 inches (168 cm) |
| Martin Van Buren | 5 feet 6 inches (168 cm) |
| William McKinley | 5 feet 7 inches (170 cm) |
| John Adams | 5 feet 7 inches (170 cm) |
| John Quincy Adams | 5 feet 7 ½ inches (171 cm) |
| William Henry Harrison | 5 feet 8 inches (173 cm) |
| Ulysses S. Grant | 5 feet 8 inches (173 cm) |
| James K. Polk | 5 feet 8 inches (173 cm) |
| Zachary Taylor | 5 feet 8 inches (173 cm) |
| Rutherford B. Hayes | 5 feet 8 ½ inches (174 cm) |
| Millard Fillmore | 5 feet 9 inches (175 cm) |
| Harry S. Truman | 5 feet 9 inches (175 cm) |
| Jimmy Carter | 5 feet 9 ½ inches (177 cm) |
| Franklin Pierce | 5 feet 10 inches (178 cm) |
| Calvin Coolidge | 5 feet 10 inches (178 cm) |
| Andrew Johnson | 5 feet 10 inches (178 cm) |
| Theodore Roosevelt | 5 feet 10 inches (178 cm) |
| Dwight D. Eisenhower | 5 feet 10 ½ inches (179 cm) |
| Grover Cleveland | 5 feet 11 inches (180 cm) |
| Woodrow Wilson | 5 feet 11 inches (180 cm) |
Joe Biden’s Height Compared With That of The First Lady and Vice President
Jill Biden is the second wife of Joe Biden and thus, the current first lady of the United States. Joe lost his first wife Neilia, alongside his one-year-old daughter, in a December 1972 accident. A few years later, sometime in 1975, he met Jill on a blind date and they got married on the 17th of June 1977.
Jill is an educator and a bit of an actress. She is 5 feet 6 inches (168 cm) which means that her husband is 14 cm taller than her.
Kamala Harris made history as the 49th vice president of America. Apart from becoming the first female vice president, the first Asian American/African American vice president, she also became the highest-ranking female official in the history of the country.
Since the 2020 presidential campaign, Kamala Harris has made multiple appearances in the public with Joe. From the pictures, one could tell that Biden is taller than the vice president. Records have it that Kamala is 5 feet 3 ½ inches (162 cm) tall.
Key Takeaways
- The current president of the United States, Joe Biden, is 5 feet 11 1⁄2 inches (182 cm) tall.
- He ranks 20th among the tallest presidents of the United States.
- Joe is 11 cm less tall than Abraham Lincoln, the tallest president in U.S history, and 19 cm taller than the shortest president in America’s history, James Madison.
- Joe Biden is taller than the average man in the United States and the world at large.
- The tallest men in the world are from the Netherland and most of them are as tall as Biden.
