How many US politicians have been killed or injured in assassination attempts since 1900?

1. What the main databases and lists cover — and their limits

Wikipedia maintains a “List of assassinated American politicians” that documents individual cases across U.S. history but does not present a simple, single-number total for 1900–present; it aggregates cases and links to subtopics such as presidential attempts and category pages ^{[1] [5]}. Similarly, the Wikipedia page “List of United States Congress members killed or wounded in office” records congressional deaths and injuries across centuries but is organized as a roster rather than a neat summary statistic for the 20th and 21st centuries specifically ^[3]. These resources are useful for named cases and patterns but stop short of producing an indisputable total for “how many” since 1900 ^{[1] [3]}.

2. High‑profile examples that shape public perception

Reporting and historical roundups repeatedly return to high‑visibility incidents: presidential assassinations (Lincoln, Garfield, McKinley, Kennedy) and attempted presidential killings (Ford, Reagan, others), plus shootings that wounded members of Congress or state officials such as the 2011 Tucson shooting that critically wounded Rep. Gabrielle Giffords ^{[2] [4]}. Media timelines and history outlets spotlight these cases because they are politically consequential and well documented; that emphasis can obscure more numerous lower‑profile attacks on local officials or candidates ^{[2] [4]}.

3. Congress members: a narrower, better‑documented subset

For U.S. Congress members specifically, there is a dedicated list that records members killed or wounded in office going back to the 19th century; it names individual cases and notes the circumstances (duels, plane shootdowns, the 1954 Capitol shooting, etc.) but does not present a pre‑computed count for 1900–present in the excerpts provided ^[3]. The Congressional list is probably the best single starting point if you want a verifiable roster for one class of officeholders, but you still must extract and sum entries by year range yourself ^[3].

4. Scholarly and journalistic treatments emphasize narrative, not totals

Outlets such as LiveScience, RFE/RL, History.com and Britannica provide narratives and timelines of “major” political assassinations and attempts—useful for context and chronology—but they focus on the most momentous cases rather than exhaustive enumeration ^{[6] [7] [4] [8]}. That editorial choice means different outlets may list overlapping but non‑identical sets of incidents, producing variation if one tries to compile a single national total from journalism alone ^{[6] [7]}.

5. Why producing a single authoritative number is hard

Differences in definitions drive variation: do you count only successful assassinations or also failed attempts and plots? Do you include local officeholders, candidates, federal judges, activists targeted for political reasons, or only elected officials while in office? The provided sources show divergent scopes (national presidents, members of Congress, state and local figures), and none supplies a definitive, de‑duped tally for all U.S. politicians since 1900 ^{[1] [3] [4]}.

6. How you could build a defensible total using available sources

A rigorous approach would (a) adopt clear inclusion rules (who counts: incumbents, candidates, appointees, judges?), (b) use the specialized lists as primary datasets (Wikipedia’s assassinated politicians and Congress members lists) and supplement them with vetted news timelines and historical accounts ^{[1] [3] [4] [2]}. Then you would extract entries dated 1900–present, de‑duplicate overlaps, and document borderline cases. The excerpts provided show that the source material exists to assemble such a count, but that work is nontrivial and not already done in the cited sources ^{[1] [3] [4]}.

7. Alternative viewpoints and caveats to watch

Some outlets emphasize long‑view historical patterns of political violence; others concentrate on recent spikes and notable modern incidents (for example, reporting around 2011 Giffords or later incidents). These different emphases reflect editorial choices: historical completeness versus present‑day impact ^{[4] [8]}. Be wary of relying on single lists without cross‑checking—some compilations include candidates and appointees, others limit to officeholders—which creates variation in any final count derived from them ^{[1] [5]}.

If you want, I can (A) attempt to extract and sum entries dated 1900–present from the Wikipedia pages and major timelines cited here and present a documented count with a clear inclusion rule set, or (B) prepare a narrower tally limited to members of Congress using the congressional list as the primary source ^{[3] [1]}. Which would you prefer?