The news media are making a big point out of how rich Mitt Romney is. He’s worth about $200 million from successful companies he has created. How rich is that with respect to other former presidents? Would he be the richest?

The story yesterday was that he was twice as rich as the net worth of the last eight presidents combined. Yes, add up the net worth of Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush, Clinton, Bush and Obama, and it’s half of Romney’s wealth.

Interestingly, add in Johnson, the ninth, and it’s about even, since Johnson, with a reputed almost $100 million, was surprisingly wealthy.

Doing some research into this, I found one site, the Atlantic, that does a nice job putting this information together and providing background information.

There are two odd facts I did not expect. George Washington, with over $500 million, was one of the very richest people in the United States in his time and therefore by far the richest president. The other was about Kennedy. He is listed with $1 billion, twice Washington’s worth, but his fortune was tied up in a family trust, so it’s not possible to attribute it directly to Kennedy. Kennedy’s father was also one of the richest people in the country in his time, so Kennedy was immensely wealthy.

So you don’t have to read the entire story and flip through all the pages, I have put it all together for you in a chart below. Those listed as “under $1 million” I am showing as “zero”, not because it’s really zero, of course, but as an indicator of folks like me. I don’t count my money with seven figures.

Here is the list  in order of net worth, with Kennedy being the odd man out, as mentioned above.