U.S. President Barack Obama delivered his eighth and final State of the Union address on Tuesday, discussing the economy, education, climate change and terrorism among other issues.
And while his message didnāt deviate significantly from his other speeches, one standout was the brevity of his writing. āIām going to try to make it shorter,ā he joked -- and he did. His 2016 transcript came in at just over 5,400 words -- more than 1,200 words short of his average State of the Union address.
But despite that, Obama still clocks in as the second-wordiest president of the past 50 years:
Among those thousands of words Obama has delivered, a few themes have developed. Like nearly every president for the past half century, āAmericaā was the most-frequently uttered word in Obamaās speeches. But ignoring words like āAmerica,ā āAmericansā and āStatesā (as well as common words like ātheā and āandā), Obama most often talked about the theme of employment and the economy -- not unexpected for the president who took power during the 2008 recession.
These standout words highlight each presidentās focuses and challenges during their times in office -- for example, George W. Bush most frequently used the word āIraq,ā while Lyndon B. Johnson used āVietnam.ā
Hereās a breakdown of every presidentās State of the Union speech over the past 50 years:
Speech data from . Text analyzed using .
