What Is the Current Makeup of the House of Representatives

The 117th U.S. Congress took office in January, with Democrats holding narrow majorities in the Business firm and Senate.

Apart from its political makeup, the new Congress differs from prior ones in other ways, including its demographics. Here are seven charts that bear witness how the demographic profile of Congress has changed over time, using historical data from CQ Roll Call, the Congressional Research Service and other sources.

To determine the demographics of the 117th Congress, we pulled information from recently published Pew Enquiry Center analyses and other earlier piece of work. Because non all members of the 117th Congress were seated on Jan. 3, 2021, and because some then-filled seats are now empty or changed hands since that fourth dimension, previously published information comes from several dates. For more data on the methodology of previously published posts, delight visit the original links, which are in the text of this postal service.

Data on the educational attainment of members of Congress includes the 532 voting members of the legislature equally of March 3. Information is drawn from the U.S. Congress Biographical Directory and, when relevant, other official biographies and news reports.

All data points reflect simply voting members of Congress, except for the assay of women in the legislature.

The electric current Congress is the nigh racially and ethnically diverse ever. Overall, 124 lawmakers identify as Black, Hispanic, Asian/Pacific Islander or Native American – making up 23% of Congress, including 26% of the Business firm of Representatives and eleven% of the Senate. By comparison, when the 79th Congress took office in 1945, non-White lawmakers represented simply 1% of the House and Senate.

Despite this growing racial and ethnic diversity, Congress remains less various than the nation as a whole: Non-Hispanic White Americans account for 77% of voting members in the new Congress, considerably more than their 60% share of the U.S. population.

The number of women in Congress is at an all-time high.Well-nigh a century after Republican Jeannette Rankin of Montana became the first woman elected to Congress, in that location are 144 women in the national legislature, bookkeeping for a record 27% of all members beyond both chambers. (This includes half dozen nonvoting Firm members who correspond the Commune of Columbia and U.South. territories, iv of whom are women.)

A record 120 women are currently serving in the Firm, bookkeeping for 27% of the sleeping accommodation's full. There are 24 women in the Senate, one fewer than the record number of seats they held in the concluding Congress. In four states – Minnesota, Nevada, New Hampshire and Washington – both senators are women, downwardly from six states in the previous Senate.

The House has seen slow but steady growth in the number of women members since the 1920s. Growth in the Senate has been slower: The Senate did not have more than three women serving at whatever point until the 102nd Congress, which began in 1991. And the share of women in Congress remains far below their share in the country as a whole (27% vs. 51%).

The number of Millennials and Gen Xers in Congress has risen slightly in recent years. In the current Congress, 7% of Firm members, or 31 lawmakers, are Millennials (born betwixt 1981 and 1996), up from 1% in the 115th Congress. A third of Business firm lawmakers, or 144 members, are Gen 10 (born from 1965 to 1980), up from 27% two Congresses earlier.

This twelvemonth saw the swearing-in of the first Millennial senator: Democrat Jon Ossoff of Georgia. The number of Gen X senators has gradually ticked up from xvi in the 115th Congress to 20 this year.

While younger generations have increased their representation in Congress in recent years, older generations nonetheless account for the majority of lawmakers across both chambers. Baby Boomers (built-in between 1946 and 1964) make upwards 53% of the Firm's voting membership, in add-on to 68 of the 100 senators.

The ranks of the Silent Generation (born between 1928 and 1945) have decreased in recent years, from ten%, or 42 members, at the start of the 115th Congress to six%, or 27 members, in the current Congress.

The share of immigrants in Congress has ticked upwardly just remains well below historical highs.At that place are 18 foreign-born lawmakers in the 117th Congress, including 17 in the Business firm and merely one in the Senate: Mazie Hirono, a Hawaii Democrat who was born in Japan.

These lawmakers account for 3% of legislators, slightly higher than the share in other recent Congresses but below the shares in much earlier Congresses. In the 50th Congress of 1887-89, for example, 8% of members were born abroad. The current share of foreign-born lawmakers in Congress is also far below the foreign-born share of the U.Southward. as a whole, which was 13.half-dozen% as of 2019.

While the number of foreign-born lawmakers in the electric current Congress is small, more members have at least one parent who was born in another country. Together, immigrants and the children of immigrants account for at least 14% of the new Congress, a slightly college share than in the last Congress (xiii%).

Far fewer members of Congress now take direct military experience than in the past. In the current Congress, 91 members served in the military at some point in their lives – the everyman number since at least World State of war II, according to Military Times. There are more than twice as many Republican veterans (63) in the new Congress every bit Democrats (28). Equal shares of senators and representatives (17%) have served in the military.

While the number and share of veterans in Congress overall have decreased, the newly elected freshman grade includes xv such lawmakers.

Looking at the longer term, there has been a dramatic subtract in members of Congress with military experience since the late 20th century. Between 1965 and 1975, at least seventy% of lawmakers in each legislative chamber had military experience. The share of members with war machine feel peaked at 75% in 1967 for the House and at 81% in 1975 for the Senate.

While relatively few members of Congress today have military experience, an even smaller share of Americans exercise. In 2018, about 7% of U.S. adults had military experience, down from 18% in 1980, not long later on the stop of the military draft era.

The vast majority of members of Congress have college degrees. The share of representatives and senators with a college degree has steadily increased over fourth dimension. In the 117th Congress, 94% of House members and all senators have a bachelor's degree or more than education. Two-thirds of representatives and iii-quarters of senators have at to the lowest degree one graduate degree, too. In the 79th Congress (1945-47), by comparison, 56% of House members and 75% of senators had bachelor's degrees.

The educational attainment of Congress far outpaces that of the overall U.S. population. In 2019, effectually a third (36%) of American adults ages 25 and older said they had completed a bachelor'due south degree or more education, according to U.S. Census Bureau data.

Congress has go slightly more than religiously various over time.The current Congress includes the start two Muslim women ever to serve in the House and has the fewest Christians (468) in 12 Congresses analyzed by Pew Research Center dating dorsum to 1961. Despite this refuse, Christians are still overrepresented in Congress in proportion to their share of the public: Nearly ix-in-ten congressional members are Christian (88%), compared with 65% of U.S. adults overall.

Past contrast, religious "nones" are underrepresented in Congress in comparison with the U.S. population. While 26% of Americans say they are atheist, agnostic or "nothing in particular," but 1 lawmaker – Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz. – says she is religiously unaffiliated.

Note: This is an update to a post originally published on February. 2, 2017.

berryhorms2002.blogspot.com

Source: https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2021/03/10/the-changing-face-of-congress/