Was Biden a good president? That's a debated question — I'll pull together how historians, polls, and his record assess his term.
Whether Joe Biden was a "good" president is subjective and depends on which issues and measures you prioritize. Public opinion, historians, and policy records give a mixed picture:
How he is rated
•Historians: In the 2024 Presidential Greatness Project Expert Survey of 154 historians and presidential experts, Biden was ranked 14th out of presidents, just ahead of Woodrow Wilson and Ronald Reagan. The pollsters noted that ranking was unusually high for a presidency without military victories or institutional expansion. An earlier Siena College Research Institute survey in 2022 ranked him 19th out of 45 presidents.
•Public approval: Gallup reported Biden averaged 42.2% job approval across his four years, placing him as the second-lowest average in Gallup's post-World War II history, with his last job approval rating at 40%.
•Public view of history: 54% of U.S. adults expected that Biden will go down in history as a below-average or poor president, while 26% said average and 19% said outstanding or above average. Americans also rated progress during Biden's presidency as mostly negative across 18 economic, national and international areas.
What supporters point to as accomplishments
Taken together, one summary notes Biden's presidency combined tangible policy accomplishments — massive pandemic relief, infrastructure investment, judicial appointments, drug-pricing steps and civil-rights advances — with pronounced vulnerabilities.
Major legislation passed with slim majorities included:
•Infrastructure Investment & Jobs Act ($1.2T) in 2021
•CHIPS and Science Act ($280B) in 2022
•Inflation Reduction Act ($400B+) in 2022, which included $392 billion towards a new climate budget — the single largest investment in emissions reduction in U.S. history
Other cited acts include the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan Act for COVID-19 relief and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.
On the economy, supporters cite:
•16.6 million jobs added since he took office, and in three years and five months, 15.6 million jobs created
•Unemployment falling back toward historically low levels — reaching lows near 3.4 percent by early 2023, with unemployment under 4% for 22 months in a row at one point
•Real GDP growth at 2.8% in 2024
What critics point to
Main criticisms include concerns about inflation, border security and immigration policies, and handling of the withdrawal from Afghanistan.
Specific points:
•Inflation: Peak inflation of 9.1% in 2022, with CPI reaching 9.1% in June 2022, the largest 12-month increase since November 1981. Prices rose 19.3% since Biden took office, and one scorecard noted a 21.3% cumulative CPI increase.
•Afghanistan: The August 2021 Afghanistan withdrawal resulting in 13 U.S. service member deaths, described by critics as chaotic and labeled a foreign policy disaster.
•Border: Over 8 million migrant encounters at the southwest border from 2021 to 2024, with critics citing record encounters overwhelming systems.
•Overall vulnerabilities: Critics stress operational failures and electoral consequences that may erase or reverse parts of his agenda, while proponents emphasize durable institutional changes and recovery-era measures.
In short, historians have tended to rate Biden more favorably than the general public did during his term. Supporters emphasize legislative achievements, job recovery after COVID, and low unemployment; critics emphasize inflation, immigration, and the Afghanistan withdrawal as defining negatives.