How many state dinners has the White House hosted each decade since 1950?

1. What claim sets are on the table and where they come from — sorting the evidence by source character

The analyses present two distinct claim sets: one asserts specific decade tallies for the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s (34, 56, 45 respectively) and references a compiled list of state dinners from 1874 to 1973 with 175 entries; that claim set is tied to a Wikipedia list used as a primary quantitative source ^[1]. The contrasting set, drawn from multiple White House Historical Association and archival summaries, emphasizes qualitative history—menus, notable guests, and the cumulative figure of “over 300” state dinners—without producing a decade-by-decade breakdown, and records Reagan’s total of 59 as the presidential high-water mark ^{[3] [4]}. Several analytic notes explicitly state no decade-by-decade data is available in the cited narrative sources ^{[2] [4] [5]}.

2. Where the numbers come from and why they diverge — method and source limitations

The numeric counts offered for early decades appear to originate from a compiled list (a Wikipedia page aggregating state-dinner entries) that enumerates dinners by date and guest, producing decade subtotals for mid-20th-century decades ^[1]. By contrast, institutional narratives from the White House Historical Association and other historical overviews prioritize illustrative examples and thematic interpretation over exhaustive enumeration, so they do not report consistent decade totals ^{[2] [4]}. The divergence stems from differences in methodology: one source is a chronological catalog amenable to counting, while the others are narrative histories that record notable dinners and trends but omit comprehensive tabulations ^{[1] [3]}.

3. What is certain and uncontested across the materials — the firm facts

Across all analyses, two facts are consistent: state dinners are a long-standing ceremonial practice beginning in the 19th century with hundreds of events documented since 1874, and Ronald Reagan is credited with hosting the largest number of state dinners in modern presidencies (59 over two terms) ^{[3] [6]}. The compiled Wikipedia list is presented as having tallied 175 dinners between 1874 and 1973, supporting the claim that counting by year is feasible when a complete chronicle is assembled ^[1]. The narrative sources corroborate the centrality of state dinners to diplomatic and culinary history while stopping short of offering exhaustive counts by decade ^{[2] [4]}.

4. What remains missing and why readers should treat partial counts cautiously

No provided analysis offers a full, independently verified decade-by-decade series from 1950 through the 2020s; the only decade subtotals given stop at the 1970s. The narrative sources explicitly indicate the absence of such a breakdown in their content, creating a coverage gap for the 1980s–2020s ^{[2] [7]}. Because one primary numeric claim relies on a crowd-curated list (Wikipedia) rather than a single archival catalogue, counts could differ depending on inclusion criteria (what counts as a “state dinner” versus other formal dinners), record completeness, and editorial decisions—factors not adjudicated by the supplied analyses ^[1].

5. Bottom line and what a definitive answer would require next

The synchronized reading of the provided materials yields partial counts for the 1950s–1970s ^{[8] [9] [10]} and robust qualitative confirmations that over 300 state dinners have occurred since 1874 and that Ronald Reagan led modern presidents with 59 dinners, but no authoritative decade-by-decade series from 1950 to the present is present in these analyses ^{[1] [3]}. A definitive, verifiable decade-by-decade tally would require consulting the complete chronological list referenced (the compiled dinner list), cross-checking with White House Historical Association archives, and clarifying inclusion rules; the Wikipedia-derived tally is the only explicit numeric scaffold in the supplied analyses and thus the best starting point ^[1].