What is the average age of a US Senator?

Written By Jonathan Milner

Critical Analysis

Find answers to the following questions using the visual above, any links below, your big brain, and your knowledge of American government and politics:

  1. According to the data from the visual above, which chamber of Congress has the higher current average age

  2. According to the data from the visual above, since 1901, what has happened to the average age of Congress?

  3. The median age of senators has risen over the last several Congresses. According to the visual below, the median age in the current 118th Congress is 60.8 years old. 100 years ago, the median age of Congress was 53. 200 years ago, the median age of Congress was 43.2. Why do you think the median age of Congress continues to climb?

  4. The median age of all members of Congress is 59. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the median age of Americans is 38.1. What explains this difference?

  5. Insider’s special investigation, “Red, White, and Gray” describes the United States as a gerontocracy - government by the old. Describe one political consequence of electing a Congress that is more than 20 years older than the average American citizen.

  6. Imagine the next Congress had a median age of 30! Describe two policy changes which you imagine would result from this age change:

  7. The youngest member of the 118th Congress is twenty-five-year-old Maxwell Frost, Democrat of Florida, the first Gen Z member of Congress. Given the age requirements of the U.S. Constitution, which chamber must the 25 year-old Congressperson be a member of: the House or the Senate?

  8. The oldest known representative, Grace Napolitano, D-Calif., is 86 years old. In the Senate, 90 years, 6 months and 9 days Chuck Grassley, R-IA., is the oldest. We have age minimums for Congress. Explain whether you would support an age maximum for the U.S. Congress.

  9. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga., 35, is the youngest Senator. If you were to rewrite the age requirements for the U.S. Congress for today, what would the age minimums be?

  10. In 1776, the American colonists left England because of “taxation without representation.” Would it be fair to say that people under the voting age have taxation without representation?

Write and Discuss

Take ten minutes to write about the question at the top of the page and then discuss with your classmates.

Act on your Learning

Look up your Congressional representative and Senators and share their ages with class.

Get Creative

If a congress were a musical genre (jazz, hip hop, country, blues, samba, zydeco, ragtime, classical) what would it be?

Learning Extension

Read the Insider analysis of age and the 118th Congress.

 
 

Glossary

Jonathan Milner

Civics Maven!

https://www.gopopro.com/
Previous

Ch ch ch changes
Next

What percent of American counties do not have a local newspaper?