QUESTION Which U.S. states have produced the most and the fewest presidents?

IN ALL, 21 states can boast of being the birthplace of a president. This leaves 29 without, including the third most populous state, Florida. There is a bias favouring the East to the West Coast, as that was the direction of U.S. expansion and admission to the union.

Virginia has been the birthplace of most presidents, boasting eight, including four of the nation’s first five: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and James

Monroe. The second president, John Adams, was born in Massachusetts. The other four were William Henry Harrison, Zachary Taylor, John Tyler and Woodrow Wilson. This is not surprising as Virginia was the first, largest and most prosperous of the British colonies in America.

Ohio was the birthplace of seven U.S. presidents: Ulysses S. Grant, Rutherford B. Hayes, James A. Garfield, Benjamin Harrison, William McKinley, William Howard Taft and Warren G. Harding. In the early 19th century, Ohio was a populous and central state known for its consensus-building style of politics which favoured savvy political operators. New York comes next with five.

Vermont is the second smallest state by population but still boasts two presidents, being the birthplace of both Chester A. Arthur and Calvin Coolidge. California, the most populous, has produced just one president, Richard Nixon.

Interestingly, Texas’s two presidents were neither George H. W. Bush (Massachusetts) nor George W. Bush (Connecticut). They were Dwight D. Eisenhower and Lyndon B. Johnson.

liz Bowen, Chertsey, surrey.