State of the Union Speeches -- By the Numbers

Unless you're a political junkie, you'd be excused from not caring too much about the president's annual State of the Union address. After all, the speeches tend to drag on interminably, with endless lists of policy prescriptions, bromides and ovations. The priorities outlined often get completely overlooked over the course of the year. And, with few exceptions, there's little if anything in these speeches that could really be called new.

However, the SOTU -- as Washington insiders like to call it -- is an opportunity to engage in a little presidential trivia. And thanks to the amazing SOTU data collected by the American Presidency Project, there's plenty from which to choose.

A bit of history first.

The State of the Union messages are mandated by Article II, Section 3 of the Constitution, which states that the president "shall from time to time give to the Congress information of the state of the union, and recommend to their consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient."

But the Constitution said nothing about making a speech. And while the first two presidents -- George Washington and John Adams -- delivered their SOTU messages orally, subsequent presidents delivered them in writing. It wasn't until Woodrow Wilson in 1913 that the message was delivered orally again. And with a couple of exceptions, speeches have been the SOTU rule ever since.

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Some SOTU trivia:

The shortest speech: Appropriately enough, the shortest SOTU message was also the first. Delivered by Washington in 1790, it clocked in at just 1,089 words.

The longest speech: Bill Clinton holds the record for the longest SOTU speech. It was the one he gave in 1995, shortly after his party lost control of Congress. Apparently, he felt he had a lot of explaining to do. That speech weighed in at a hefty 9,190 words.

The longest SOTU message: That honor goes to Jimmy Carter, whose last message, delivered in writing just before he relinquished the presidency in 1981, came in at an encyclopedic 33,667 words. To be sure, the state Carter left the country in was pretty bad.

The wordiest president: The fattest president in history, William Howard Taft, also delivered the fattest state of the union messages. His SOTU messages, all delivered in writing, averaged 22,614 words.

Most sparing president: That honor goes to John Adams, whose SOTU speeches averaged just 1,790 words.

Below is the average SOTU word count for all the presidents who delivered SOTU messages. A couple of notes on the data: Some presidents delivered some of their SOTUs in writing and some orally, so the averages for these presidents reflect the most common form they used. Also, two presidents -- William Henry Harrison and James Garfield -- didn't deliver any State of the Union message during their times in office.

State of the Union Address Word Counts