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Presidential deaths have been rare in America lately. President Reagan's was only the second in more than 31 years, the longest such stretch in history. A baby born the day President Johnson died would have already been old enough to drink by the time the nation next mourned, that time for President Nixon.

Because President Reagan broke the record for longest-lived President, few have noticed that President Ford is right up there with him. On March 18 of this year, he also surpassed President John Adams' mark of 90 years 247 days, moving into second place on the all-time list. President Bush (41) has just yesterday become the tenth President to celebrate the 41st anniversary of his 39th birthday, and in October President Carter would become the eleventh.

Until last Saturday we had five living former Presidents for the second time, which is the most we've ever had. There were five (Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush) between President Clinton's first inauguration and President Nixon's death one year, ninety-two days later, and five (Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush, Clinton) between President George W. Bush's inauguration and the death of President Reagan three years, one hundred thirty-seven days later. 

The most living former, current, and future Presidents? Obviously we don't know how many there are now, but the most there have definitely ever been was 18, which happened four times (1822-1826, 1833-1836, 1837-1841, 1843-1845). The fewest living former, current, and future Presidents between the first Presidential inauguration (1789) and the latest someone eligible for President could be born (1969) there have ever been at one time? Nine, between the death of Grover Cleveland (June 24, 1908) and the birth of Lyndon Johnson (August 27, 1908).  The number has been going down ever since the birth of the most recently born President, Bill Clinton, in August 1946, when there were twelve. It will next rise upon the inauguration of the nation's 44th President.

Presidential deaths tend to come in fits and starts. Like President Nixon's, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's death was the only one in a span of more than 30 years. Then we lost five President over the next decade: President Kennedy, 1963; President Hoover, 1964; President Eisenhower, 1969; President Truman, 1972; and President Johnson, 1973.  That was it until President Nixon in 1994.

President is both a job and a role; the President is both head of government and head of state. It is for this important reason that we are intrigued about Presidential trivia and not, say, Senate Majority Leader trivia or Chairman of the Ways and Means Committee trivia.

When President Johnson died in 1973, there were no living former Presidents. Out of curiosity I wanted to find out how many times that had happened. It's pretty rare, having happened four other times (not including when President Washington was in office and there were no former Presidents, living or otherwise).

What follows are some useless but interesting statistics on Presidential ages and deaths. I computed them using Excel, so some of the stats may be off by one day because of the leap-year rules in century years and because Excel doesn't work with dates before 1900. Grover Cleveland's non-consecutive terms made things much more confusing too.

Times with no living former Presidents:

Had Presidents Adams, Grant, Roosevelt, Hoover, or Nixon died during those intervals, for a brief instant it would have been the first time since the morning of April 30, 1789, that not a single person on the face of the earth could say that he either was or had once been President of the United States.

Times with no or only one living former President. The number would become one either 1) upon the death of the other living former President when there were only two, or 2) upon a President's leaving office when there were no other living former Presidents. It would change either 1) upon his death or 2) upon the incumbent President's becoming a former President himself.

President Johnson died less than a month after President Truman. Here are the only Presidents to die less than two years apart:

Here are the only times that consecutive Presidential deaths were more than 10 years apart:

Shortest spans between multiple Presidential deaths:

Longest spans between multiple Presidential deaths:

Most and fewest Presidential deaths over a given timespan:

For most deaths, the spans are inclusive; i.e. the span 1826-1924 under "100 years" begins July 4, 1826, the day of President Adams' and President Jefferson's deaths, and ends February 3, 1924, the day of President Wilson's death. While actually less than 100 years, adding a number of days before and/or after these dates to total one hundred years will result in the 100-year span with the most Presidential deaths.

Presidential Deaths by decade:

Longest Presidential retirements, 15 years or more (those still living in bold; fl. is the abbreviation of the Latin flourit, meaning still alive as of that date):

President Ford would pass President Hoover as the longest-retired President on Sept. 8, 2008. President Carter would pass President Hoover on Sept. 8, 2012.

Shortest Presidential retirements, 10 years or less (those still alive excluded; Grover Cleveland's first retirement excluded; 1) did not outlive successor; 2) successor died in office but would not have had successor completed his term; 3) outlived successor's first term but not second term):

Longest-lived Presidents (those still living in bold):

President Ford would pass President Reagan the longest-lived President on November 12, 2006. President Bush would pass President Reagan on October 11, 2017.  President Carter would pass President Reagan on January 30, 2018.

Shortest-lived Presidents (1. assassinated in office; 2. died naturally in office):

Oldest Presidents

Youngest Presidents

Oldest Former Presidents (1. died in office)

Youngest Former Presidents (those who were assassinated excluded; 1. after first of two non-consecutive terms)