How Many Children Did Each President Have?

Theodore Roosevelt and family

In 1789, George Washington became the first president of the United States. Since then, 44 other individuals have served as commander in chief, each leaving a political legacy to be analyzed and judged in the course of time. But their legacies are not only political — they’re also familial. The number of children each president had is often overlooked, but on a personal level, few things could be more important. And in two cases, presidential children — John Quincy Adams and George W. Bush — went on to become presidents themselves, combining the familial with the political.

With that in mind, here’s a look at how many children each U.S. president had. For the sake of clarity, this list is ordered by the total number of known biological children only. Fostered and legally adopted children are noted but not counted in the total due to various factors, including legal adoption not existing in the United States until 1851. George Washington, for example, had no biological children but did raise Martha Washington’s two children from a previous marriage (as well as her four grandchildren and several nieces and nephews), but they were not legally adopted.

From the five presidents (including Washington) with no known biological children to the commander in chief with the most kids at 15, here’s a list of all the U.S. presidents in order of the number of children born to them.

No Children

Five presidents fathered no known biological children. In some cases, this was likely due to infertility caused by medical issues, such as the tuberculosis infection Washington suffered before he was married. James Buchanan, meanwhile, remains the only U.S. president who never married.

George Washington: 0 (2 stepchildren)
James Madison: 0 (1 stepchild)
Andrew Jackson: 0 (1 unofficially adopted child)
James K. Polk: 0
James Buchanan: 0

1 to 3 Children

In recent decades, the average number of children per U.S. family has hovered around two — a big difference from a century ago, when that number was closer to seven. It’s perhaps no surprise, then, to see some more modern presidents in this range of one to three children, including Richard Nixon, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama.

Harry S. Truman: 1
Warren G. Harding: 1
Bill Clinton: 1
Millard Fillmore: 2
William McKinley: 2
Calvin Coolidge: 2
Herbert Hoover: 2
Dwight D. Eisenhower: 2
Lyndon B. Johnson: 2
Richard Nixon: 2
George W. Bush: 2
Barack Obama: 2
William Howard Taft: 3
Franklin Pierce: 3
Chester A. Arthur: 3
Woodrow Wilson: 3
Benjamin Harrison: 3
James Monroe: 3

4 to 6 Children

Many presidents fathered four or more children, but many also suffered the loss of a child. Child mortality rates were once far higher than they are now, and this difficult loss was not uncommon even among presidents. Abraham Lincoln, Martin Van Buren, Zachary Taylor, Theodore Roosevelt, and Franklin D. Roosevelt are among the presidents who lost a child. Lincoln lost two sons during his lifetime, which may have caused his “melancholy” — a condition now thought to be clinical depression.

John Quincy Adams: 4
Abraham Lincoln: 4
Ulysses S. Grant: 4
Gerald Ford: 4
Jimmy Carter: 4
Ronald Reagan: 4 (and 1 adopted)
Joe Biden: 4
John F. Kennedy: 4
Andrew Johnson: 5
Grover Cleveland: 5 (and possibly 1 additional child out of wedlock)
Donald Trump: 5
John Adams: 6
Theodore Roosevelt: 6
Franklin D. Roosevelt: 6
George H.W. Bush: 6
Zachary Taylor: 6
Martin Van Buren: 6

7 or More Children

One president stands head and shoulders above the rest when it comes to procreating: John Tyler, who fathered 15 children across two marriages. Another notable figure here is Thomas Jefferson, who had six children with his wife of 10 years, Martha Jefferson, and likely also fathered six more children with the enslaved woman Sally Hemings. Jefferson’s alleged relationship with Hemings has been debated for more than two centuries, but DNA evidence strongly suggests that Jefferson fathered at least one of Hemings’ sons, and it’s possible that he was the biological father of all of her children.

Thomas Jefferson: 6 (and possibly 6 additional children with Hemings)
James A. Garfield: 7
Rutherford B. Hayes: 8
William Henry Harrison: 10
John Tyler: 15