Which Is True About The Makeup Of Congress? Answers.com

The 117th U.S. Congress took role in January, with Democrats holding narrow majorities in the House and Senate.

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

To decide the demographics of the 117th Congress, nosotros pulled data from recently published Pew Enquiry Eye analyses and other earlier 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 easily since that fourth dimension, previously published data comes from several dates. For more information on the methodology of previously published posts, delight visit the original links, which are in the text of this post.

Information 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 only voting members of Congress, except for the assay of women in the legislature.

Growing racial and ethnic diversity in Congress

The current Congress is the most racially and ethnically diverse ever. Overall, 124 lawmakers place as Black, Hispanic, Asian/Pacific Islander or Native American – making up 23% of Congress, including 26% of the House of Representatives and 11% of the Senate. Past comparison, when the 79th Congress took office in 1945, non-White lawmakers represented just 1% of the Business firm and Senate.

Despite this growing racial and ethnic variety, Congress remains less diverse than the nation equally a whole: Not-Hispanic White Americans account for 77% of voting members in the new Congress, considerably more than their 60% share of the U.S. population.

Women make up more than a quarter of the 117th U.S. Congress' membership

The number of women in Congress is at an all-fourth dimension high.About a century after Republican Jeannette Rankin of Montana became the first adult female elected to Congress, there are 144 women in the national legislature, accounting for a tape 27% of all members across both chambers. (This includes vi nonvoting Firm members who represent the Commune of Columbia and U.S. territories, four of whom are women.)

A record 120 women are currently serving in the House, accounting for 27% of the chamber'due south full. At that place are 24 women in the Senate, one fewer than the record number of seats they held in the terminal Congress. In four states – Minnesota, Nevada, New Hampshire and Washington – both senators are women, down from six states in the previous Senate.

The Firm has seen wearisome but steady growth in the number of women members since the 1920s. Growth in the Senate has been slower: The Senate did not take more than 3 women serving at any 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 House members, or 31 lawmakers, are Millennials (born between 1981 and 1996), up from one% in the 115th Congress. A third of House lawmakers, or 144 members, are Gen X (born from 1965 to 1980), upwards from 27% 2 Congresses before.

Younger generations make up an increasing share of the U.S. Congress

This year saw the swearing-in of the commencement Millennial senator: Democrat Jon Ossoff of Georgia. The number of Gen X senators has gradually ticked upwardly from 16 in the 115th Congress to 20 this year.

While younger generations take increased their representation in Congress in recent years, older generations still business relationship for the majority of lawmakers beyond both chambers. Baby Boomers (built-in between 1946 and 1964) make upwards 53% of the House'south voting membership, in addition to 68 of the 100 senators.

The ranks of the Silent Generation (born between 1928 and 1945) have decreased in recent years, from x%, or 42 members, at the first of the 115th Congress to 6%, or 27 members, in the electric current Congress.

The share of immigrants in Congress has ticked up but remains well below historical highs.There are 18 foreign-born lawmakers in the 117th Congress, including 17 in the Firm and just ane in the Senate: Mazie Hirono, a Hawaii Democrat who was built-in in Japan.

Foreign-born share of Congress remains below historical highs

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 built-in abroad. The current share of strange-born lawmakers in Congress is as well far below the strange-born share of the U.South. as a whole, which was xiii.6% as of 2019.

While the number of strange-born lawmakers in the electric current Congress is small, more members take at least ane parent who was born in another country. Together, immigrants and the children of immigrants business relationship for at to the lowest degree fourteen% of the new Congress, a slightly higher share than in the last Congress (thirteen%).

Far fewer members of Congress now have direct armed forces experience than in the by. In the current Congress, 91 members served in the military at some betoken in their lives – the lowest number since at to the lowest degree World State of war 2, co-ordinate to Military Times. There are more than than twice as many Republican veterans (63) in the new Congress as 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 15 such lawmakers.

Looking at the longer term, there has been a dramatic decrease in members of Congress with armed services experience since the tardily 20th century. Betwixt 1965 and 1975, at least 70% of lawmakers in each legislative bedroom had military machine experience. The share of members with military 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 feel, an fifty-fifty smaller share of Americans do. In 2018, nearly 7% of U.South. adults had military experience, down from eighteen% in 1980, not long after the end of the military draft era.

Almost every member of Congress now holds a college degree

The vast majority of members of Congress accept college degrees. The share of representatives and senators with a higher caste has steadily increased over time. In the 117th Congress, 94% of Business firm members and all senators have a bachelor'due south degree or more educational activity. Two-thirds of representatives and three-quarters of senators have at least one graduate caste, too. In the 79th Congress (1945-47), by comparing, 56% of House members and 75% of senators had bachelor'due south 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'southward degree or more education, according to U.S. Census Agency data.

Congress has get slightly more religiously diverse over fourth dimension.The current Congress includes the first two Muslim women ever to serve in the Firm and has the fewest Christians (468) in 12 Congresses analyzed by Pew Research Eye dating back to 1961. Despite this turn down, Christians are still overrepresented in Congress in proportion to their share of the public: Nearly nine-in-ten congressional members are Christian (88%), compared with 65% of U.S. adults overall.

By contrast, religious "nones" are underrepresented in Congress in comparing with the U.S. population. While 26% of Americans say they are atheist, doubter or "nothing in particular," just ane lawmaker – Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz. – says she is religiously unaffiliated.