YOU DECIDE · AN INTERACTIVE COMPARISON
See the record.
Then the name.
Set aside the familiar faces. Meet twelve economic records, find what matters to you, and make your own choice.
First, set your lens.
Same records. Two ways to look.
You decide what deserves a closer look.
How would you like to compare?
Average annual growth, average annual inflation and the average unemployment rate across each completed four-year term.
What do you want to see first?
- —Economic growth
- —Consumer prices
- —Unemployment
Your priorities change how the records are presented. You make the choice. All three measures stay visible.
Take your time. There is no right answer.
Three economic measures offer one limited view of a presidency. These figures describe outcomes during the period; they do not isolate a president’s causal contribution. Records may be recognizable from economic patterns or source data.
Archived data edition v1 · Three official statistical series
How to read these records
A common window.
Each record covers four completed calendar years. Consecutive terms are separate records. The ongoing term is not mixed into this comparison.
Term average: the mean of four annual real GDP growth rates; the mean of four inflation rates calculated from annual average CPI indexes; and the mean of 48 monthly unemployment rates.
Change during term: cumulative real GDP change using annual levels; cumulative CPI change from the preceding December to the final December; and the unemployment change between those December observations, in percentage points.
GDP and consumer price changes are percentages. The change view is not annualized. Rounding happens only for display.
One frozen edition.
Official BEA real GDP data, republished by the Federal Reserve, and BLS consumer price and unemployment series. Source dates appear after reveal or in the linked archive.
Priority order changes presentation only. No weights, combined scores, automatic rankings or winning record are calculated.
Cards are shuffled once for a new comparison. Their letters stay attached when you change view, reorder measures or explicitly sort a column.
Your choices stay in this page’s memory. Only your priority order is stored if you choose to remember it.
Sources, original observations & edition
The evidence behind the cards.
Source dates and original observations may reveal the identities. Opening a source is allowed, and your result will note that source review.
Archived data edition v1. This is a preserved data edition, not a claim to the latest statistics.
Open the frozen data & calculations- U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis; republished by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis · GDPCA
Annual real GDP levels, used to calculate growth.
Open source - U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics · CUUR0000SA0
CPI-U, all items, U.S. city average; not seasonally adjusted.
Open source - U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics · LNS14000000
U-3 civilian unemployment rate; seasonally adjusted.
Open source