How do we come up with our numbers? How can you crunch the numbers yourself? What are the best indicators of an economy’s well-being and what might that information mean to you individually? It’s all in the Learning Center.
Compare Any Two Presidents
Pick on any two presidents we track and compare metrics between the two presidents. We have presidential comparisons on some or all metrics from every president since Harry Truman and we continue to work hard on adding more presidents and metrics.
Select any two presidents below and hit GO or select from our most popular comparisons.
Biden
Trump
Obama
Bush
Clinton
Bush
Reagan
Carter
Ford
Nixon
Johnson
Kennedy
Eisenhower
Truman
Our Most Popular Presidential Comparisons
See how presidents stack up against any other one. You simply select two presidents and we pull the numbers.
Pick from our most popular presidential comparisons below, or visit the comparisons page to pick other combinations of presidents.
Learning Center
Why Do We Use Percentage Gain to Calculate Performance in the Stock Market and Not the Total Point Gain?
The Dow was up 150 points. S&P increased by 30 points. These are the typical headlines we see when we go over stock market news. The media seems obsessed with these point increases and decreases, but do they provide the right perspective? If the Dow gains 150 points from 25000 to 25150 and S&P gains […]
GDP Growth: What’s the Ideal GDP Growth Rate?
Gross domestic product (GDP) is one of the key economic indicators used to measure the economy and track its progress. Often, people equate a high GDP with economic prosperity and a low GDP with a failing economy. However, this isn’t always so. The correlation is not as simple as high is good and low is […]
Measuring Cumulative Performance and Annualized Performance
When analyzing presidential performance, we track various metrics including the stock market, GDP, and jobs growth. In all of these metrics, we use both cumulative and annualized performance. These are both key tools in understanding presidential performance across these key economic indicators. What is cumulative performance? Cumulative growth refers to the total percentage increase of […]
How We Calculate Our Presidential Comparison Data
We capture the data as soon as it’s available to us – stock market data after daily market close, jobs data once a month and GDP data once a quarter. After verifying the raw data, we then calculate updated cumulative and annualized performance data for the current president (the data for previous presidents have been calculated and verified in advance).
Some metrics are measured daily (like stock market performance), monthly (like jobs growth) and quarterly (like GDP growth). We start measurement of performance for a president from the first full time period after their inauguration. For stock market performance, it is the first stock market day in office. For jobs growth, it’s either first full calendar month in office (so if you are inaugurated in the middle of January, the first full month is February). This ensures a consistent starting point across all presidencies.
Also, read these articles in our Learning Center:
- What is the difference between cumulative and annualized performance?
- What’s the best way to interpret the facts and data on Facts First?
Want to share our charts but need to verify our data?
We are happy to share the raw data and methodologies we use with any media organization that wants to link to or share our charts and data. If that is of interest to you, please contact us.
(Due the amount of requests, we must limit inquiries and responses to media representatives only.)
