[OC] The aging of the U.S. Congress (and everyone else)

[OC] The aging of the U.S. Congress (and everyone else)

**Gist:**

Members of the U.S. Congress have long been the elders of the population they represent. While both have aged over time, the gap remains substantial and seems particularly noticeable in recent decades, though perhaps because elder states-people are hitting the ceiling of life expectancy.

**Detail:**

Each row shows the age distribution of Senators and House members at the start of grouped Congress terms (e.g., 1–9, 10–19, …, 110–119). The colored shapes represent the full distribution, with the white bar marking the interquartile range and the central tick indicating the median age of legislators. Open circles show the median age of the U.S. population for the same period, interpolated from decennial Census data. The persistent separation between these markers highlights a long-standing representational age gap, particularly noticeable in the modern era.

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**Tools:**

* R (ggplot2, dplyr, tidyr, purrr, lubridate, svglite)
* Adobe Illustrator (final layout, typography, annotation)

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**Sources:**

* Legislator data:
[https://github.com/unitedstates/congress-legislators](https://github.com/unitedstates/congress-legislators)

* U.S. population median age (decennial Census):
[https://www.census.gov/data/tables/time-series/demo/popest/2010s-national-detail.html](https://www.census.gov/data/tables/time-series/demo/popest/2010s-national-detail.html)
(historical series compiled from Census reports, 1820–2020)

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**Methods:**

* Legislator ages are calculated at the **start date of each Congress** using birthdates and term records.
* Only **voting members (House + Senate)** are included; delegates are excluded.
* Congresses are grouped into ranges (e.g., 1–9, 10–19, …, 110–119) to stabilize distributions.
* Age distributions are visualized as kernel densities; medians and interquartile ranges are overlaid.
* U.S. population median age is estimated at the midpoint year of each group’s time span by linearly interpolating between decennial Census values.
* Minor rounding applied.

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**Data (Medians & Quartiles only):**

“`markdown
| group | Median_Leg | Q1_Leg | Q3_Leg | Median_US |
|———|————|——–|——–|———–|
| 1-9 | 42 | 35.25 | 49 | 16.7 |
| 10-19 | 43 | 36 | 50 | 16.7 |
| 20-29 | 42 | 37 | 49 | 17.62 |
| 30-39 | 43 | 37 | 49 | 19.15 |
| 40-49 | 47 | 41 | 53 | 20.69 |
| 50-59 | 48 | 42 | 55 | 22.63 |
| 60-69 | 50 | 44 | 57 | 24.94 |
| 70-79 | 52 | 44 | 60 | 28.25 |
| 80-89 | 51 | 44 | 59 | 29.85 |
| 90-99 | 50 | 42 | 57 | 29.05 |
| 100-109 | 52 | 45 | 59 | 34.1 |
| 110-119 | 57 | 49 | 65 | 38.32 |

So relative to the general population congress is about as young as ever

Since pay is for life you’d think they would move on after their first term. But NOOO. Theres too much unethical money to be made. Wish that wasn’t true

Makes sense.

Federal level congressional offices are likely the end of someone’s political career. It’s goimg to (should) require experience and well…the wisdom that comes with age.

Just so happens that as modern medicine has advanced… we also get some… “some” legislators that are also on the mental decline.