List of United States presidential elections by popular vote margin facts for kids
In a United States presidential election, the popular vote is the total number or the percentage of votes cast for a candidate by voters in the 50 states and Washington, D.C.; the candidate who gains the most votes nationwide is said to have won the popular vote. However, the popular vote is not used to determine who is elected as the nation's president or vice president. Thus it is possible for the winner of the popular vote to end up losing the election, an outcome that has occurred on five occasions, most recently in the 2016 election. This is because presidential elections are indirect elections; the votes cast on Election Day are not cast directly for a candidate, but for members of the Electoral College. The Electoral College's electors then formally elect the president and vice president.
The Twelfth Amendment to the United States Constitution (1804) provides the procedure by which the president and vice president are elected; electors vote separately for each office. Previously, electors cast two votes for president, and the winner and runner up became president and vice-president respectively. The appointment of electors is a matter for each state's legislature to determine; in 1872 and in every presidential election since 1880, all states have used a popular vote to do so.
The 1824 election was the first in which the popular vote was first fully recorded and reported. Since then, 19 presidential elections have occurred in which a candidate was elected or reelected without gaining a majority of the popular vote. Since the 1988 election, the popular vote of presidential elections was decided by single-digit margins, the longest since states began popularly electing presidents in the 1820s.
List
The table below is a list of United States presidential elections by popular vote margin. It is sorted to display elections by their presidential term / year of election, name, margin by percentage in popular vote, popular vote, margin in popular vote by number, and the runner up in the Electoral College.
| Parties: Federalist • Democratic-Republican • National Republican • Whig • Democratic • Republican • Progressive • Independent |
| Vote outcomes: Winner did not receive a majority of the popular vote • Winner lost the popular vote • Winner chosen by the House of Representatives |
| Election | Winner and party | Electoral College | Popular vote | Runner-up and party | Turnout | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Votes | % | % | Margin | Votes | Margin | ||||||
| 1788–89 | George Washington | Ind. | 69/69 | 100% | 100% | 100% | 43,782 | 43,782 | No candidate | 11.6% | |
| 1792 | George Washington | Ind. | 132/132 | 100% | 100% | 100% | 28,579 | 28,579 | No candidate | 6.3% | |
| 1796 | John Adams | Fed. | 71/138 | 51.45% | 53.45% | 6.90% | 35,726 | 4,611 | Thomas Jefferson | D-R | 20.1% |
| 1800 | Thomas Jefferson | D-R | 73/138 | 52.90% | 61.43% | 22.86% | 41,330 | 15,378 | Aaron Burr | D-R | 32.3% |
| 1804 | Thomas Jefferson | D-R | 162/176 | 92.05% | 72.79% | 45.58% | 104,110 | 65,191 | Charles C. Pinckney | Fed. | 23.8% |
| 1808 | James Madison | D-R | 122/175 | 69.72% | 64.74% | 32.33% | 124,732 | 62,301 | Charles C. Pinckney | Fed. | 36.8% |
| 1812 | James Madison | D-R | 128/217 | 58.99% | 50.37% | 2.74% | 140,431 | 7,650 | DeWitt Clinton | D-R | 40.4% |
| 1816 | James Monroe | D-R | 183/217 | 84.33% | 68.16% | 37.24% | 76,592 | 41,852 | Rufus King | Fed. | 23.5% |
| 1820 | James Monroe | D-R | 231/232 | 99.57% | 80.61% | 64.69% | 87,343 | 69,878 | John Quincy Adams | D-R | 10.1% |
| 1824 | John Quincy Adams | D-R | 84/261 | 32.18% | 30.92% | −10.44% | 113,142 | −38,221 | Andrew Jackson | D-R | 26.9% |
| 1828 | Andrew Jackson | Dem. | 178/261 | 68.20% | 55.93% | 12.25% | 642,806 | 140,839 | John Quincy Adams | NR | 57.3% |
| 1832 | Andrew Jackson | Dem. | 219/286 | 76.57% | 54.74% | 17.81% | 702,735 | 228,628 | Henry Clay | NR | 57.0% |
| 1836 | Martin Van Buren | Dem. | 170/294 | 57.82% | 50.79% | 14.20% | 763,291 | 213,384 | William Henry Harrison | Whig | 56.5% |
| 1840 | William Henry Harrison | Whig | 234/294 | 79.59% | 52.87% | 6.05% | 1,275,583 | 145,938 | Martin Van Buren | Dem. | 80.3% |
| 1844 | James K. Polk | Dem. | 170/275 | 61.82% | 49.54% | 1.45% | 1,339,570 | 39,413 | Henry Clay | Whig | 79.2% |
| 1848 | Zachary Taylor | Whig | 163/290 | 56.21% | 47.28% | 4.79% | 1,360,235 | 137,882 | Lewis Cass | Dem. | 72.8% |
| 1852 | Franklin Pierce | Dem. | 254/296 | 85.81% | 50.83% | 6.95% | 1,605,943 | 219,525 | Winfield Scott | Whig | 69.5% |
| 1856 | James Buchanan | Dem. | 174/296 | 58.78% | 45.29% | 12.20% | 1,835,140 | 494,472 | John C. Frémont | Rep. | 79.4% |
| 1860 | Abraham Lincoln | Rep. | 180/303 | 59.41% | 39.65% | 10.13% | 1,855,993 | 474,049 | John C. Breckinridge | Dem. | 81.8% |
| 1864 | Abraham Lincoln | Rep. | 212/233 | 90.99% | 55.03% | 10.08% | 2,211,317 | 405,090 | George B. McClellan | Dem. | 76.3% |
| 1868 | Ulysses S. Grant | Rep. | 214/294 | 72.79% | 52.66% | 5.32% | 3,013,790 | 304,810 | Horatio Seymour | Dem. | 80.9% |
| 1872 | Ulysses S. Grant | Rep. | 286/352 | 81.25% | 55.58% | 11.80% | 3,597,439 | 763,729 | Thomas A. Hendricks | Dem. | 72.1% |
| 1876 | Rutherford B. Hayes | Rep. | 185/369 | 50.14% | 47.92% | −3.00% | 4,034,142 | −252,666 | Samuel J. Tilden | Dem. | 82.6% |
| 1880 | James A. Garfield | Rep. | 214/369 | 57.99% | 48.31% | 0.09% | 4,453,337 | 1,898 | Winfield Scott Hancock | Dem. | 80.5% |
| 1884 | Grover Cleveland | Dem. | 219/401 | 54.61% | 48.85% | 0.57% | 4,914,482 | 57,579 | James G. Blaine | Rep. | 78.2% |
| 1888 | Benjamin Harrison | Rep. | 233/401 | 58.10% | 47.80% | −0.83% | 5,443,892 | −90,596 | Grover Cleveland | Dem. | 80.5% |
| 1892 | Grover Cleveland | Dem. | 277/444 | 62.39% | 46.02% | 3.01% | 5,553,898 | 363,099 | Benjamin Harrison | Rep. | 75.8% |
| 1896 | William McKinley | Rep. | 271/447 | 60.63% | 51.02% | 4.31% | 7,112,138 | 601,331 | William Jennings Bryan | Dem. | 79.6% |
| 1900 | William McKinley | Rep. | 292/447 | 65.23% | 51.64% | 6.12% | 7,228,864 | 857,932 | William Jennings Bryan | Dem. | 73.7% |
| 1904 | Theodore Roosevelt | Rep. | 336/476 | 70.59% | 56.42% | 18.83% | 7,630,557 | 2,546,677 | Alton Brooks Parker | Dem. | 65.5% |
| 1908 | William Howard Taft | Rep. | 321/483 | 66.46% | 51.57% | 8.53% | 7,678,335 | 1,269,356 | William Jennings Bryan | Dem. | 65.7% |
| 1912 | Woodrow Wilson | Dem. | 435/531 | 81.92% | 41.84% | 14.44% | 6,296,284 | 2,173,563 | Theodore Roosevelt | Prog. | 59.0% |
| 1916 | Woodrow Wilson | Dem. | 277/531 | 52.17% | 49.24% | 3.12% | 9,126,868 | 578,140 | Charles Evans Hughes | Rep. | 61.8% |
| 1920 | Warren G. Harding | Rep. | 404/531 | 76.08% | 60.32% | 26.17% | 16,144,093 | 7,004,432 | James M. Cox | Dem. | 49.2% |
| 1924 | Calvin Coolidge | Rep. | 382/531 | 71.94% | 54.04% | 25.22% | 15,723,789 | 7,337,547 | John W. Davis | Dem. | 48.9% |
| 1928 | Herbert Hoover | Rep. | 444/531 | 83.62% | 58.21% | 17.41% | 21,427,123 | 6,411,659 | Al Smith | Dem. | 56.9% |
| 1932 | Franklin D. Roosevelt | Dem. | 472/531 | 88.89% | 57.41% | 17.76% | 22,821,277 | 7,060,023 | Herbert Hoover | Rep. | 56.9% |
| 1936 | Franklin D. Roosevelt | Dem. | 523/531 | 98.49% | 60.80% | 24.26% | 27,752,648 | 11,070,786 | Alf Landon | Rep. | 61.0% |
| 1940 | Franklin D. Roosevelt | Dem. | 449/531 | 84.56% | 54.74% | 9.96% | 27,313,945 | 4,966,201 | Wendell Willkie | Rep. | 62.4% |
| 1944 | Franklin D. Roosevelt | Dem. | 432/531 | 81.36% | 53.39% | 7.50% | 25,612,916 | 3,594,987 | Thomas E. Dewey | Rep. | 55.9% |
| 1948 | Harry S Truman | Dem. | 303/531 | 57.06% | 49.55% | 4.48% | 24,179,347 | 2,188,055 | Thomas E. Dewey | Rep. | 52.2% |
| 1952 | Dwight D. Eisenhower | Rep. | 442/531 | 83.24% | 55.18% | 10.85% | 34,075,529 | 6,700,439 | Adlai Stevenson II | Dem. | 62.3% |
| 1956 | Dwight D. Eisenhower | Rep. | 457/531 | 86.06% | 57.37% | 15.40% | 35,579,180 | 9,551,152 | Adlai Stevenson II | Dem. | 60.2% |
| 1960 | John F. Kennedy | Dem. | 303/537 | 56.42% | 49.72% | 0.17% | 34,220,984 | 112,827 | Richard Nixon | Rep. | 63.8% |
| 1964 | Lyndon B. Johnson | Dem. | 486/538 | 90.33% | 61.05% | 22.58% | 43,127,041 | 15,951,287 | Barry Goldwater | Rep. | 62.8% |
| 1968 | Richard Nixon | Rep. | 301/538 | 55.95% | 43.42% | 0.70% | 31,783,783 | 511,944 | Hubert Humphrey | Dem. | 62.5% |
| 1972 | Richard Nixon | Rep. | 520/538 | 96.65% | 60.67% | 23.15% | 47,168,710 | 17,995,488 | George McGovern | Dem. | 56.2% |
| 1976 | Jimmy Carter | Dem. | 297/538 | 55.20% | 50.08% | 2.06% | 40,831,881 | 1,683,247 | Gerald Ford | Rep. | 54.8% |
| 1980 | Ronald Reagan | Rep. | 489/538 | 90.89% | 50.75% | 9.74% | 43,903,230 | 8,423,115 | Jimmy Carter | Dem. | 54.2% |
| 1984 | Ronald Reagan | Rep. | 525/538 | 97.58% | 58.77% | 18.21% | 54,455,472 | 16,878,120 | Walter Mondale | Dem. | 55.2% |
| 1988 | George H. W. Bush | Rep. | 426/538 | 79.18% | 53.37% | 7.72% | 48,886,597 | 7,077,121 | Michael Dukakis | Dem. | 52.8% |
| 1992 | Bill Clinton | Dem. | 370/538 | 68.77% | 43.01% | 5.56% | 44,909,806 | 5,805,256 | George H. W. Bush | Rep. | 58.1% |
| 1996 | Bill Clinton | Dem. | 379/538 | 70.45% | 49.23% | 8.51% | 47,400,125 | 8,201,370 | Bob Dole | Rep. | 51.7% |
| 2000 | George W. Bush | Rep. | 271/538 | 50.47% | 47.87% | −0.51% | 50,455,156 | −538,179 | Al Gore | Dem. | 54.2% |
| 2004 | George W. Bush | Rep. | 286/538 | 53.16% | 50.73% | 2.46% | 62,040,610 | 3,012,171 | John Kerry | Dem. | 60.1% |
| 2008 | Barack Obama | Dem. | 365/538 | 67.84% | 52.93% | 7.27% | 69,498,516 | 9,550,193 | John McCain | Rep. | 61.6% |
| 2012 | Barack Obama | Dem. | 332/538 | 61.71% | 51.06% | 3.86% | 65,915,795 | 4,982,291 | Mitt Romney | Rep. | 58.6% |
| 2016 | Donald Trump | Rep. | 304/538 | 56.50% | 46.09% | −2.09% | 62,984,828 | −2,868,686 | Hillary Clinton | Dem. | 57.3% |
| 2020 | Joe Biden | Dem. | 306/538 | 56.88% | 51.31% | 4.45% | 81,284,666 | 7,060,347 | Donald Trump | Rep. | 66.6% |
Timeline
A gray arrow points to the name of a person who became president without having been elected as president (9 total). The double arrow indicates becoming president without having been elected as vice president as well (Ford). 5 other former vice presidents are underlined (14 total). The top line indicates the Presidency number (e.g. Reagan: 40th) with Roman numerals indicating election (and term) number.
See also
- List of United States presidential elections by Electoral College margin
- List of United States presidential elections in which the winner lost the popular vote
- List of United States presidential candidates by number of votes received
- National Popular Vote Interstate Compact
