Joe Biden’s presidency will come to an end on Monday when Donald Trump is sworn in for a second term in the White House.
Of course, this wasn’t how Biden wanted things to end. He stayed true to his belief that he could win reelection for years, until a poor debate performance prompted him to drop out of the race just a few months before Election Day. Biden’s departure from the campaign, which paved the way for Trump’s victory over Vice President Kamala Harris in November, will undoubtedly color how his presidency is remembered.
But much more has happened in the past four years. As we look ahead to the next administration, here are nine charts that illustrate some of the key numbers that tell at least part of the story of the Biden presidency.
COVID
Biden took office during the deadliest phase of the coronavirus pandemic. More than 25,000 people in the United States died from COVID-related infections during the week he was sworn in. These numbers declined rapidly over the following months as the Biden administration worked to coordinate the initial vaccine rollout to the American people. COVID deaths rose twice more over the course of that year before dropping precipitously. The coronavirus hasn’t gone away — it’s still killing a few hundred people in the U.S. every week — but it’s far from the nationwide crisis it was when Biden’s presidency began.
The economy
By many measures, the economy is in a much better position than when Biden took office. The unemployment rate has recovered from its pandemic-era peak and has remained below 4.5% for more than three years. The stock market has soared, hitting record highs repeatedly. The US has outpaced the rest of the world in economic growth.
The major exception to these positive trends is inflation. Prices rose rapidly during Biden’s first two years in office, reaching the highest rate in more than four decades in the summer of 2022. Inflation has gradually cooled since its peak, to the point where the Federal Reserve felt comfortable cutting rates modestly, but the cost of living has remained high.
Some of the key consumer goods often used as a measure of economic health simply cost more than they did four years ago. Those direct additional costs clearly overshadowed Biden’s other successes in the eyes of voters. About 60% of Americans now disapprove of the way he has handled the economy.
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Age
Perhaps more than any other problem, his age plagued Biden in the White House. He was 78 years old when he was inaugurated and could never shake the perception that he was incapable of serving a second term. Those long-simmering concerns reached a boiling point after his weak debate performance in June 2024, which ultimately led to his dropping out of the race. At 82, Biden is the oldest person to serve as president of the United States, although Trump would claim that title if he were to serve his full four-year term.
Important legislation
In 2020, Biden campaigned on an ambitious policy platform aimed at reviving an economy still reeling from the pandemic, investing in US infrastructure and paving the way for the green energy transition. Democrats held narrow majorities in both houses of Congress during their first two years in office, allowing them to pass a handful of bills totaling more than $3 trillion in additional spending.
Student loans
One of Biden’s signature promises when he was elected was to help reduce Americans’ student debt, which today totals about $1.6 trillion. In the summer of 2022, he announced a plan that would have provided 20 million borrowers with up to $20,000 in student debt relief. The Supreme Court ultimately stopped him from fulfilling that promise.
Since then, Biden has continued to pursue a less ambitious debt relief strategy. Through a series of incremental steps, carried out with very little fanfare, his administration has forgiven a total of nearly $189 billion in debt owed to 5.3 million borrowers.
Foreign policy
Presidents, of course, do not have the luxury of focusing solely on domestic affairs; they are also responsible for how the US interacts with the rest of the world. Over the past four years, Biden has faced several major challenges abroad.
The first was his choice to proceed with the planned withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan, which would ultimately end the twenty-year occupation of the US military. Although Biden stands by the decision, America’s chaotic departure and the Taliban’s rapid rise to power led to heavy criticism.
Then came Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which led to a protracted war that tested America’s willingness to support an ally’s militarity without becoming directly involved in the conflict.
Biden has also been condemned by many on the left for his continued support of Israel during the war in Gaza, which has left an estimated 46,000 Palestinians dead.
Public opinion
There is no way to know how the history of Biden’s presidency will be viewed. There are some examples of how public opinion turned in favor of former presidents decades after they left office, including the recently deceased Jimmy Carter.
What is clear today, however, is that the American people have a significantly lower opinion of Biden than when he became president four years ago.