US Presidents Birth States Quiz

Virginia gave us eight presidents and Ohio seven: match every president to the state he was born in.

Virginia is the birthplace of eight presidents and Ohio of seven. Match each president of the United States to the state he was born in, then check the full list with birthplaces.

How the presidents quiz works

Half the questions name a president and ask for his birth state; the other half name a state and ask which of four presidents was born there. The wrong answers are always other presidential birth states, or presidents born somewhere else, so the choices all look plausible. A few rounds also ask which state has the most presidents and how many were born in Virginia, Ohio, New York or Massachusetts.

Every president and the state he was born in

#	President	Born in
1	George Washington	Popes Creek, Virginia
2	John Adams	Braintree, Massachusetts
3	Thomas Jefferson	Shadwell, Virginia
4	James Madison	Port Conway, Virginia
5	James Monroe	Monroe Hall, Virginia
6	John Quincy Adams	Braintree, Massachusetts
7	Andrew Jackson	The Waxhaws, on the North Carolina / South Carolina border (both states claim him)
8	Martin Van Buren	Kinderhook, New York
9	William Henry Harrison	Charles City County, Virginia
10	John Tyler	Charles City County, Virginia
11	James K. Polk	Pineville, North Carolina
12	Zachary Taylor	Barboursville, Virginia
13	Millard Fillmore	Summerhill, New York
14	Franklin Pierce	Hillsborough, New Hampshire
15	James Buchanan	Cove Gap, Pennsylvania
16	Abraham Lincoln	Hodgenville, Kentucky
17	Andrew Johnson	Raleigh, North Carolina
18	Ulysses S. Grant	Point Pleasant, Ohio
19	Rutherford B. Hayes	Delaware, Ohio
20	James A. Garfield	Moreland Hills, Ohio
21	Chester A. Arthur	Fairfield, Vermont
22 and 24	Grover Cleveland	Caldwell, New Jersey
23	Benjamin Harrison	North Bend, Ohio
25	William McKinley	Niles, Ohio
26	Theodore Roosevelt	New York City, New York
27	William Howard Taft	Cincinnati, Ohio
28	Woodrow Wilson	Staunton, Virginia
29	Warren G. Harding	Blooming Grove, Ohio
30	Calvin Coolidge	Plymouth, Vermont
31	Herbert Hoover	West Branch, Iowa
32	Franklin D. Roosevelt	Hyde Park, New York
33	Harry S. Truman	Lamar, Missouri
34	Dwight D. Eisenhower	Denison, Texas
35	John F. Kennedy	Brookline, Massachusetts
36	Lyndon B. Johnson	Stonewall, Texas
37	Richard Nixon	Yorba Linda, California
38	Gerald Ford	Omaha, Nebraska
39	Jimmy Carter	Plains, Georgia
40	Ronald Reagan	Tampico, Illinois
41	George H. W. Bush	Milton, Massachusetts
42	Bill Clinton	Hope, Arkansas
43	George W. Bush	New Haven, Connecticut
44	Barack Obama	Honolulu, Hawaii
45 and 47	Donald Trump	Queens, New York City, New York
46	Joe Biden	Scranton, Pennsylvania

Andrew Jackson is not in the quiz: he was born in 1767 in the Waxhaws, a settlement on the line between the two Carolinas, and both states still claim him. Jackson himself said South Carolina.

Presidents by birth state

Virginia, 8: Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, William Henry Harrison, Tyler, Taylor and Wilson. That is why Virginia is called the Mother of Presidents.
Ohio, 7: Grant, Hayes, Garfield, Benjamin Harrison, McKinley, Taft and Harding, all born between 1822 and 1865.
New York, 5: Van Buren, Fillmore, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Trump.
Massachusetts, 4: John Adams, John Quincy Adams, Kennedy and George H. W. Bush.
Two each: North Carolina (Polk, Andrew Johnson, not counting Jackson), Pennsylvania (Buchanan, Biden), Texas (Eisenhower, Lyndon B. Johnson) and Vermont (Arthur, Coolidge).
One each: Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Missouri, Nebraska and New Hampshire, and New Jersey for Grover Cleveland.

Easy ones to mix up

Born in one state, famous in another: Lincoln was born in Kentucky, not Illinois. Eisenhower was born in Texas and grew up in Kansas. Reagan was born in Illinois before his career in California. Ford was born in Omaha, Nebraska, and raised in Michigan.
The Bushes: George H. W. Bush was born in Massachusetts and George W. Bush in Connecticut, not Texas.
Obama is the only president born in Hawaii, and Nixon the only one born in California.

Source

Birth states and towns from Wikipedia's "List of presidents of the United States by home state" (Birthplaces table), which cites the presidential birthplace sites and historical records.

Keep going

The states in the order they joined: States in Order of Statehood Quiz
Where it began: 13 Colonies Quiz
Capitals of the birth states: US Capitals Quiz

Frequently asked questions

Which state has produced the most presidents?

Virginia, the birthplace of eight: Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, William Henry Harrison, Tyler, Taylor and Wilson. Ohio is second with seven.

How many states have been the birthplace of a president?

Twenty-one, counting Andrew Jackson as born in South Carolina, the state he named himself. North Carolina also claims him.

Which president was born in Hawaii?

Barack Obama, born in Honolulu in 1961. He is the only president born outside the contiguous 48 states.

Where was Abraham Lincoln born?

Near Hodgenville, Kentucky, in 1809. He moved to Indiana as a boy and built his career in Illinois.

Is the quiz free?

Yes. There is no sign-up, and your best score for each difficulty is saved in this browser.