List of vice presidents of the United States by age
This is a list of vice presidents of the United States by age. The first table charts the age of each vice president of the United States at the time of their inauguration, at the time they left office, and at the time of their death. Each vice president's age at death, their lifespan, is measured in two ways; this is to allow for the differing number of leap days occurring within each one's life. The first figure is the number of days between date of birth and date of death, allowing for leap days; in parentheses the same period given in years and days, with the years being the number of whole years that the vice president lived, and the days being the number of days after their last birthday. Where the vice president is still living, lifespan is calculated up to. The second table includes those vice presidents who had the distinction among their peers of being the [|oldest living vice president], and charts both when they became and ceased to be oldest living.
Age of vice presidents
The median age upon accession to the vice presidency is around 53 years and 7 months. This is about how old John Adams and Hubert Humphrey were at the time they entered office. The youngest person to assume office was John C. Breckinridge, at the age of. Serving only one term, he became and remains the youngest at the time of leaving office; the oldest at the time of entering office was Alben W. Barkley, at the age of. He was also the oldest in office when he left office. Born on January 16, 1821, John C. Breckinridge was younger than five of his successors, the greatest number to date: Andrew Johnson ; Hannibal Hamlin ; Henry Wilson ; William A. Wheeler ; and Thomas A. Hendricks. Born on July 8, 1908, Nelson Rockefeller was older than five of his predecessors, the greatest number to date: Lyndon B. Johnson ; Hubert Humphrey ; Richard Nixon ; Gerald Ford ; and Spiro Agnew. Three vice presidents—Hannibal Hamlin, Charles G. Dawes, and Lyndon B. Johnson—were born on August 27. This is the only day of the year having the birthday of multiple vice presidents. The oldest living vice president is Walter Mondale, born on January 5, 1928. He also has the distinction of having the longest post-vice presidency in U.S. history, currently at. The youngest living vice president is the incumbent, Mike Pence, born on June 7, 1959. The shortest-lived vice president was Daniel D. Tompkins, who died at the age of, only 99 days after leaving office. The longest-lived was John Nance Garner, who died on November 7, 1967 at the age of. Six U.S. vice presidents have lived into their 90s. The first to do so, John Adams, was the longest-lived vice president from the time he first took office in April 1789 until Levi Morton surpassed his lifespan in January 1915. The six vice presidents are:
Of the 48 persons who have served as vice president, 21 have become the oldest such individual of their time, with one, Charles Dawes doing so twice. John Adams, the first vice president, held this distinction for the longest period of any, from when he assumed the office in April 1789, until his death 37 years later. Lyndon B. Johnson held it for the shortest, from the death of Harry S. Truman in December 1972 until his own death only 27 days later. Adams, at age 53, was the youngest individual ever to become the oldest living vice president; Walter Mondale is the oldest individual to acquire this distinction, at the age of 90. Nine of these individuals have also had the distinction of being the oldest living president: John Adams, Martin Van Buren, Millard Fillmore, Andrew Johnson, Harry S. Truman, Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, and George H. W. Bush. On three occasions the oldest living vice president lost this distinction, not by his own death, but by the inauguration of a vice president who was older. John C. Calhoun lost this distinction when Richard M. Johnson was inaugurated. Charles G. Dawes lost it when Charles Curtis was inaugurated. Dawes subsequently regained the honor, as he outlived the older Curtis. More recently, Hubert Humphrey ceased being the oldest living when Nelson Rockefeller was sworn into office. Altogether, six vice presidents acquired this distinction while in office: Richard M. Johnson, Levi P. Morton, Thomas R. Marshall, Charles G. Dawes, Charles Curtis, and Nelson Rockefeller. By contrast, the individual to become the oldest living vice president furthest from his time in office is Walter Mondale, who had been retired for.
