Does word-count matter? And what if it’s an Inaugural Address? It’s one of the most important speeches since this speech informs the people of the president’s intentions as a leader. Let’s take a look at the inauguration speeches of US presidents from a word-count perspective.
William Henry Harrison delivered the longest Inaugural Address in 1841. The speech lasted 1 hour and 45 minutes despite a snowstorm. How many words did he say? The word count was 8,445 words. Unfortunately, the president died one month later. It was the shortest presidential term in the White House.
George Washington delivered the shortest Inaugural Address in 1793, at just 135 words. An interesting fact that the most concise administration started with the longest inaugural address in US history and the shortest inaugural address happened at the midpoint of one of the most essential administrations in US history.
Here are all the Inaugural Addresses of Presidents in the United States’ history with their word count results.
Word Count of the Inaugural Addresses of the US Presidents
Year
President
Word Count
1841
William Henry Harrison
8445
1909
William Howard Taft
5428
1845
James Knox Polk
4802
1821
James Monroe
4459
1889
Benjamin Harrison
4393
1897
William McKinley
3965
1837
Martin van Buren
3833
1929
Herbert Hoover
3754
1925
CALVIN COOLIDGE
3746
1861
Abraham Lincoln
3633
1817
James Monroe
3366
1853
Franklin Pierce
3331
1921
Warren G. Harding
3328
1881
JAMES A. GARFIELD
2976
1825
John Quincy Adams
2913
1857
JAMES BUCHANAN
2608
1985
Ronald Reagan
2563
1877
Rutherford B. Hayes
2534
1953
Dwight D. Eisenhower
2454
1981
Ronald Reagan
2439
2013
Barack Obama
2403
2009
Barack Obama
2402
1797
John Adams
2318
1989
George Bush
2317
1949
Harry S. Truman
2273
1901
William McKinley
2217
1997
William J. Clinton
2159
1805
Thomas Jefferson
2151
1969
Richard Milhous Nixon
2124
2005
George W. Bush
2056
1893
Grover Cleveland
2014
1933
Franklin D. Roosevelt
1880
1937
Franklin D. Roosevelt
1808
1973
Richard Milhous Nixon
1802
1801
Thomas Jefferson
1721
1913
Woodrow Wilson
1699
1885
Grover Cleveland
1682
1957
Dwight D. Eisenhower
1659
1993
William J. Clinton
1584
2001
George W. Bush
1579
1917
Woodrow Wilson
1529
1965
Lyndon Baines Johnson
1492
2017
DONALD J. TRUMP
1444
1789
George Washington
1429
1961
John F. Kennedy
1364
1941
Franklin D. Roosevelt
1341
1873
Ulysses S. Grant
1338
1977
Jimmy Carter
1229
1813
James Madison
1210
1809
James Madison
1173
1833
Andrew Jackson
1173
1869
Ulysses S. Grant
1127
1829
Andrew Jackson
1126
1849
Zachary Taylor
1088
1905
Theodore Roosevelt
983
1865
Abraham Lincoln
698
1945
Franklin D. Roosevelt
558
1793
George Washington
135
Thanks to Anycount, we did a speeches word count with a couple of clicks. Try Anycount free here.
It took Anycount just a minute to count words in 58 Inaugural Addresses. Speeches word count amounted to more than 135 thousand words. Impressive, right?