It can be tricky to evaluate attendance at events based solely on photos. Perspective matters, as does the time at which the photos were taken. Take the images below, from the inaugurations in 2009 and 2017.

2009

2017

The latter certainly seems to include fewer people — but when was it taken?

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This tweet, from the Boston Globe's Matt Viser, offers a different perspective.

That ABC News screen capture was from a bit before the event itself. Below is a still from CNN, taken only a few minutes before Trump took the oath of office. The crowd looks similarly sparse.

Side-by-side, from our Matt Callahan.

Washington's public transit system offered its own assessment of how the crowds compared.

Put visually:

So we can assume that Trump's inauguration was not quite as popular as Obama's.

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How does it stack up to other presidents?

Again, comparisons can be tricky. Here are similar scenes from 2001, when George W. Bush was inaugurated, and 1993, Bill Clinton's day.

2001

1993

Again: Hard to tell!

To a large extent, such comparisons are simply a form of partisan competitiveness. It would, however, be very on-brand for Trump to assert that the crowd at his inauguration was one of the largest of all time. (He's already claimed that the day would see “unbelievable, perhaps record-setting turnout.") Or perhaps he will blame the weather for lower-than-expected turnout. Possible.

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Though in 2009, the temperature was four degrees below freezing — one of the coldest inaugurations on record. Perhaps the larger crowds that year were simply an effort to utilize body heat.

In at least one sense, Trump seems to acknowledge the impressive size Obama enjoyed eight years ago.