Reading Level of State of the Union Addresses
Using the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level readability test1, datascience@berkeley collected the grade level of each presidents’ first State of the Union address.| President | Party | Year | Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level |
|---|---|---|---|
| Donald J. Trump | Republican | 2018 | 8.1 |
| Barack Obama | Democrat | 2010 | 8.7 |
| George W. Bush | Republican | 2002 | 9.8 |
| Bill Clinton | Democrat | 1994 | 8.9 |
| George Bush Sr. | Republican | 1990 | 9.0 |
| Ronald Reagan | Republican | 1982 | 11.1 |
| James Carter, Jr. | Democrat | 1978 | 9.8 |
| Gerald Ford | Republican | 1975 | 10.9 |
| Richard Nixon | Republican | 1970 | 10.8 |
| Lyndon B. Johnson | Democrat | 1964 | 11.4 |
| John F. Kennedy | Democrat | 1961 | 12.8 |
| Dwight D. Eisenhower | Republican | 1953 | 12.4 |
| Harry S. Truman | Democrat | 1946 | 12.7 |
| Franklin D. Roosevelt | Democrat | 1934 | 15.5 |
| Herbert Hoover | Republican | 1929 | 14.5 |
| Calvin Coolidge | Republican | 1923 | 10.9 |
| Warren Harding | Republican | 1921 | 14.7 |
| Woodrow Wilson | Democrat | 1913 | 15.6 |
Transcripts: https://presidency.ucsb.edu/sou.php
1The Flesch-Kincaid readability tests are designed to indicate how difficult a passage in English is to understand.↑
