How many guests attended President Joe Biden's White House state dinners in 2021 and 2023?
Executive summary
President Joe Biden did not host a White House state dinner in 2021 — the annual ceremonial dinners were shelved during the pandemic years — and the most-cited 2023 state dinner, honoring India in June 2023, drew roughly “nearly 400” guests according to contemporary reporting [1] [2]. Public reporting and White House releases do not always publish an exact headcount for every state dinner, so those are the best-supported figures available in the record provided [3] [4].
1. What the question really seeks: counting formal state-dinner attendees
The user is asking for a straightforward tally — how many guests attended Biden-hosted state dinners in two specific years — which requires distinguishing between events that did or did not occur (and between state dinners and other large White House events such as the Correspondents’ Dinner) and relying on press reporting or official guest lists when available [1] [3].
2. 2021: no Biden state dinners due to pandemic disruptions
There were no traditional White House state dinners hosted by President Biden in 2021; major public reporting and backgrounders note that the White House Correspondents’ Dinner and several official White House social functions were canceled in 2020 and 2021 because of COVID-19 disruptions, and the administration’s first formal state dinners took place after that hiatus [1] [4]. The timeline in White House history coverage and press reporting shows Biden’s early state-dinner activity beginning in late 2022 and into 2023 rather than in 2021 [4] [5].
3. 2023: the India state dinner drew roughly “nearly 400” guests
The high-profile state dinner for Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on June 23, 2023 — covered by lifestyle and national outlets that published guest lists and photographs — was widely reported as one of the larger post‑pandemic dinners, with contemporary summaries noting an attendance high of nearly 400 guests for the India event [6] [2]. Reporting that compiled full guest lists and named dozens of celebrities and public figures supports the characterization of the 2023 India state dinner as hosting in the neighborhood of 400 attendees even though an exact headcount was not universally published [6] [4].
4. Where exact numbers come from, and where the record is thin
Official White House practice sometimes includes releasing guest lists (as with other dinners) but not always a simple numeric total; press outlets therefore reconstruct attendance from guest lists, press photos and White House statements, producing rounded figures such as “more than 300” for earlier Biden dinners and “nearly 400” for the India dinner in 2023 [4] [2]. The sources provided include an official guest list release for a 2024 dinner but do not include a White House-published numeric total for the 2023 India state dinner in the excerpts here, so the “nearly 400” figure rests on journalistic reporting and aggregation rather than a single posted tally [3] [2].
5. Bottom line and alternative framings
Bottom line: there were no Biden state dinners in 2021 because of pandemic-related cancellations and the administration’s state-dinner schedule resumed afterward [1], and the most-cited 2023 state dinner — the India event — is commonly reported as having hosted about “nearly 400” guests [2] [6]. Alternate, more conservative framings are possible: some outlets describe Biden’s early post‑pandemic dinners as drawing “more than 300” guests (a figure tied to the 2022 Macron dinner and similar events), so if one requires only fully verified White House numerical totals the safest claim is “no state dinners in 2021; 2023 state dinners drew on the order of a few hundred guests, with the India dinner reported at nearly 400” [4] [2].