About This Quiz
Presidents have been born in Virginia, but what about Florida?
While the United States consists of fifty states, not all of them can be proud to say that they have served as the home state for a president. In fact, even if we take into account the reality that there have only been 45 presidents of the United States - 44 men in total as of 2018 - the number of home states is actually still less than half of that number! Only 21 states have had the honor of being the birth state of a United States president. Another fun fact worth mentioning is that there is a clear East Coast (and in general Easterly) bias when it comes to presidential home states, with the vast majority being born in the eastern half of the country!
In this quiz we've taken 40 of the past United States presidents and created the ultimate test to see if you can match them to their home states. Some states have been the home of only one U.S. president. However, there are many others, like New York, Massachusetts, Ohio and Virginia, that have had multiple presidents. In fact, Virginia has had the most, with eight presidents in total, earning itself the nickname, "Mother of Presidents."
Let's test your patriotism and see if you can match all of these correctly!
Arkansas is the home state of the 42nd president of the United States, Bill Clinton. Prior to the presidency, he was the governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and from 1983 to 1992.
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Connecticut is the home state of the 43rd president of the United States, George W. Bush. He was also the 46th Governor of Texas, from 1995 to 2000.
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Hawaii is the home state of the 44th president of the United States, Barack Obama. He was previously a United States senator from Illinois and a member of the Illinois State Senate.
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Illinois is the home state of the 40th president of the United States, Ronald Reagan. He was a Hollywood actor and trade union leader before serving as the governor of California from 1967 to 1975.
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Kentucky is the birth state of the 16th president of the United States, Abraham Lincoln, although he is usually associated with Illinois. He notably led the United States through the American Civil War and served as president until his assassination.
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Virginia is the home state of the first president of the United States, George Washington. He was commander-in-chief of the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War and has been commonly referred to as the "Father of our Country" during his time in office and still to this day.
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Virginia is the home state of the 28th president of the United States, Woodrow Wilson. He served as the president of Princeton University from 1902 to 1910, and as governor of New Jersey from 1911 to 1913.
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New York is the home state of the 13th president of the United States, Millard Fillmore. He was actually the 12th vice president and was elevated to the presidency by the death of Zachary Taylor.
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North Carolina is the home state of the 11th president of the United States, James K. Polk. Before this he was speaker of the House of Representatives (1835–1839) and Governor of Tennessee (1839–1841).
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Virginia is the home state of the 12th president of the United States, Zachary Taylor. His term in office was short lived - only 16 months before his death from medical complications.
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North Carolina is the home state of the 17th president of the United States, Andrew Johnson. He became president because he was vice president at the time of the assassination of Abraham Lincoln.
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Ohio is the home state of the 20th president of the United States, James A. Garfield. Less than four months into his term as president he was shot, and he died 79 days later while still struggling to recover from the attack.
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Ohio is the home state of the 19th president of the United States, Rutherford B. Hayes. He was also a congressman and governor of Ohio.
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Massachusetts is the home state of the second president of the United States, John Adams. He was a Founding Father who served as the first vice president as well.
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Virginia is the home state of the tenth president of the United States, John Tyler. He ascended to the presidency after being the tenth vice president for only a month, since President William Henry Harrison died 31 days after being in office.
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New York is the home state of the 32nd president of the United States, Franklin D. Roosevelt. He notably won a record four presidential elections and is the only U.S. president to have served more than two terms.
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Massachusetts is the home state of the 41st president of the United States, George H. W. Bush. He is the United States' oldest living president and vice president as of 2018, as well as the longest-lived president in history.
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California is the home state of the 37th president of the United States, Richard Nixon. He served as the 36th vice president of the United States and is notably the only U.S. president to resign from office.
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New Jersey is the home state of the 22nd and 24th president of the United States, Grover Cleveland. He is notably the only president in American history to serve two non-consecutive terms in office.
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Pennsylvania is the home state of the 15th president of the United States, James Buchanan. He was also the 17th United States secretary of state and served in the Senate and House of Representatives before becoming president.
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Ohio is the home state of the 29th president of the United States, Warren G. Harding. He was extremely popular during his presidency, but after his death, the exposure of scandals that took place under his administration has made him now rated among the worst presidents.
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Georgia is the home state of the 39th president of the United States, Jimmy Carter. He previously was the governor of Georgia. In 2002 he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his work in co-founding the Carter Center.
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Ohio is the home state of the 23rd president of the United States, Benjamin Harrison. He was a grandson of the ninth president, William Henry Harrison; as of 2018, they are the only grandfather-grandson duo to have held the office.
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Missouri is the home state of the 33rd president of the United States, Harry S. Truman. He assumed the presidency during the ending months of World War II and the beginning of the Cold War,
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Ohio is the home state of the 27th president of the United States, William H. Taft. He was also the tenth chief justice of the United States and is to this day the only person to have held both offices.
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Virginia is the home state of the third president of the United States, Thomas Jefferson. He was also the principal author of the Declaration of Independence and the second vice president of the United States.
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Massachusetts is the home state of the 35th president of the United States, John F. Kennedy. He held the position until his assassination in November 1963.
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Nebraska is the home state of the 38th president of the United States, Gerald Ford. His presidency is the shortest (895 days) in U.S. history for any president who did not die in office.
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Vermont is the home state of the 21st president of the United States, Chester A. Arthur. He attained the title of president after his predecessor, James A. Garfield, was assassinated.
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Texas is the home state of the 36th president of the United States, Lyndon B. Johnson. He also served as the 37th vice president of the United States and as a United States representative.
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Vermont is the home state of the 30th president of the United States, Calvin Coolidge. He was the 29th vice president of the United States and succeeded to the presidency upon the sudden death of Warren G. Harding.
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New York is the home state of the eighth president of the United States, Martin Van Buren. He was a founder of the Democratic Party, the ninth governor of New York, the tenth U.S. secretary of state and the eighth vice president of the United States.
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Virginia is the home state of the fourth president of the United States, James Madison. He was a Founding Father and had a key role in drafting and promoting the United States Constitution and the Bill of Rights.
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Ohio is the home state of the 18th president of the United States, Ulysses S. Grant. He was also a United States Army general during the American Civil War, leading the Union Army to victory over the Confederacy.
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New York is the home state of the 26th president of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt. His face is depicted on Mount Rushmore, alongside those of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln.
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Massachusetts is the home state of the sixth president of the United States, John Quincy Adams. He was the eldest son of second president John Adams and the eighth United States secretary of state.
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Texas is the home state of the 34th president of the United States, Dwight D. Eisenhower. During World War II, he was a five-star general in the United States Army.
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New Hampshire is the home state of the 14th president of the United States, Franklin Pierce. Historians and scholars generally rank Pierce as one of the worst and least memorable U.S. presidents.
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Iowa is the home state of the 31st president of the United States, Herbert Hoover. He also notably served as the third United States secretary of commerce.
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Ohio is the home state of the 25th president of the United States, William McKinley. He was assassinated six months into his second term, in September of 1901.
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