The document analyzes inaugural addresses from U.S. presidents, noting that George Washington's is the shortest at 135 words while William Henry Harrison's is the longest at 8,460 words. It also reveals that Republicans tend to use more words than Democrats on average and that the readability of these speeches has improved over time, trending towards a 10th-grade reading level. Additionally, both George Washington and John Adams had the most complex speeches targeted at an educated audience.

1. Number of words in
George Washington’s
second inaugural address,
the shortest in history
135 Number of words in
William Henry Harrison’s
inaugural address, the
longest in history
8,460
Number of presidents who
gave more than one
inaugural speech
Number of inaugural
speeches given by
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Democrats & Republicans
Breaking it down by party affiliation, you can see that the
two most prominent U.S. political parties of the modern era
have given almost the exact same number of speeches.
One small difference?
Republicans tend to be slightly more wordy—at a median
of about 2,400 words per speech compared to the
Democrats’ 1,700.
The Flesch-Kincaid grade score is used to determine the
“readability” of a passage. The lower the grade score, the
easier it is to understand. Recent speeches have trended
around a 10th grade reading level, which means most 10th
graders would understand the speech. Here, you can see
that the grade score for inaugural addresses decreased
steadily from 1789 until the 1930’s. From that point until
today, it has remained relatively stable. So, presidents are
making their speeches more colloquial and concise.
Reading Level Across Time
George Washington* and
John Adams tie for
“most difficult to
understand” speech.
Their talks were aimed
at college graduates
and above.
*first term
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Federalist
1
INAUGURAL
ADDRESSES
We looked at the data. Here’s a
breakdown of some key statistics
about the nation’s incoming
presidents’ addresses, how long they
spoke, how well, and more.
Number of
inaugural addresses
57
17
4
Inaugural Speeches are Trending Easier to Read
Flesch-KincaidGradeLevel
Year
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
1789
1797
1805
1813
1821
1829
1837
1845
1853
1861
1869
1877
1885
1893
1901
1909
1917
1925
1933
1941
1949
1957
1965
1973
1981
1989
1997
2005
2013
Presidents who’ve given
inaugural addresses
38
Republican
23
Whig
2
None
2
Democrat
22
Democratic-
Republican
7