The changing face of Congress in 8 charts
The 118th Congress achieved a variety of demographic milestones when its members took office, though it still remains out of step with the U.S. population.
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The 118th Congress achieved a variety of demographic milestones when its members took office, though it still remains out of step with the U.S. population.
In the 118th Congress, 94% of representatives and all but one senator hold at least a bachelor’s degree, according to a Pew Research Center analysis.
House Freedom Caucus members and their allies produced 28% of all tweets from GOP House members between September 2022 and mid-January 2023.
In the U.S. House, Freedom Caucus members and allies have less seniority than other Republicans and are more likely to come from the South.
Thirteen voting members of the 118th Congress identify as lesbian, gay or bisexual – the highest number of openly LGB members in history.
A quarter of voting members of the 118th U.S. Congress identify their race or ethnicity as something other than non-Hispanic White.
While there has been a decades-long decline in the Christian share of U.S. adults, 88% of the voting members in the new 118th Congress identify as Christian. That is only a few points lower than their share in the late 1970s.
Women make up 28% of all members of the 118th Congress, a considerable increase from where things stood even a decade ago.
The new House will have 80 members who’ve served in the military, or 18.4% of members. That’s up from 75, or 17.2%, in the 117th Congress.
Most U.S. adults say President Joe Biden (65%) and Republican leaders in Congress (61%) will be unsuccessful getting their agendas enacted in the next two years; only about a third say the president and GOP leaders will be successful. Republicans are less confident than Democrats in midterm vote counts – but more confident than they were after the 2020 election.
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