
State of the Union address - number of viewers 1993-2023
State of the Union Address – additional information
The State of the Union Address, delivered annually by the President of the United States to a joint session of the House of Representatives and the Senate, attracts varying number of viewers, depending on the popularity of the president and the economic and social conditions in the country at the time. In the presented period, the 1993 Address, presented by Bill Clinton, gathered the largest audience with nearly 70 million viewers, whereas the official State of the Union 2023 speech, by Biden, drew the smallest number of viewers.Barack Obama delivered eight State of the Union Address speeches during his tenure, each with fewer viewers than the previous one. The first speech in 2009 gathered 52.4 million people in front of TV screens, but that figure fell to 31.33 million in 2016. The 2014 address, however, was among the most discussed TV specials on Twitter in the 2013-14 season, reaching 8.8 million users. In 2013, the most discussed issues from Barack Obama’s speech were education, minimum wage and economy.