While the average age of members of Congress in the United States has gradually risen in recent years, this number decreased slightly with the beginning of the 119th Congress in 2025. This Congress first convened on January 3rd, 2025, and will end on January 3, 2027. In this Congress, the average age in the House of Representatives was ** years, and the average age in the Senate was ** years.

As of 2025, the average age of senators in the 119th Congress was **. Of the total 100, ** members of the U.S. Senate were between the ages of ** and ** - more than any other age group. The minimum age requirement to be a member of the Senate is **, opposed to the House of Representatives which has a minimum age requirement of **. The average age of members of Congress from 2009 to 2023 can be found here.

In the 119th Congress which began in January 2025, almost ** percent of members of the House of Representatives were between the ages of ** and ** in 2025- more than any other age group.

As of 2024, the average age of staffers in U.S. Senate was **. Over half of those working for the U.S. Senate were between the ages of ** and ** - more than any other age group. The average age of members of Congress from 2009 to 2023 can be found here.

The 119th Congress began in January 2025. In this Congress, there were 26 women serving as Senators, and 74 men. The number of women has increased since the 1975 when there were no women in the Senate. The first female Senator was Rebecca Felton of Georgia who was sworn in 1922. A breakdown of women Senators by party can be found here.

This graph shows the median wealth of US lawmakers in Congress from 2008 to 2018, for both chambers. In 2018, the median wealth in the Senate amounted to 1.76 million U.S. dollars.

The most recent polling data from February 2025 puts the approval rating of the United States Congress at 29 percent, reflecting a significant increase from January. The approval rating remained low throughout the 118th Congress cycle, which began in January 2025. Congressional approval Congressional approval, particularly over the past few years, has not been high. Americans tend to see Congress as a group of ineffectual politicians who are out of touch with their constituents. The 118th Congress began in 2023 with a rocky start. The Democratic Party maintains control of the Senate, but Republicans took back control of the House of Representatives after the 2022 midterm elections. The House caught media attention from its first days with a contentious fight for the position of Speaker of the House. Representative Kevin McCarthy was eventually sworn in as Speaker after a historic fifteen rounds of voting. Despite the current Congress having a historic share of women and being the most diverse Congress in American history, very little has been done to improve the opinion of Americans regarding its central lawmaking body. Ye of little faith However, Americans tend not to have much confidence in many of the institutions in the United States. Additionally, public confidence in the ability of the Republican and Democratic parties to work together has decreased drastically between 2008 and 2022, with nearly 60 percent of Americans having no confidence the parties can govern in a bipartisan way.

The annual salary received by members of the United States Congress in 2025 is ******* U.S. dollars. This has been the case since 2009. The Government Ethics Reform Act of 1989 provides an automatic cost of living adjustment increase in line with the

45 men have served as the President of the United States. Of these 45 men, 31 have had a military background, with ranks ranging from a militia private to five-star generals. There is some correlation between the ages of the presidents and major wars in U.S. history; explaining why none of those in office between 1909 and 1945 had any military background, and why six of the ten veteran presidents since then served in the National Guard or Naval Reserve. Three US presidents have held the highest position in the U.S. military, they were; George Washington, Commander in Chief of the Continental Army during the War of Independence; Ulysses S. Grant, Commanding General of the US Army during the American Civil War; and Dwight D. Eisenhower, Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force in Europe in the Second World War. Popular professions In terms of non-military roles, the most common profession for U.S. presidents before taking office was that of a lawyer. 27 U.S. presidents studied and practiced law before entering the world of politics, while Harry S. Truman met all the criteria to become a lawyer, before political and personal circumstances prevented this (although he was posthumously awarded an honorary law license in 1996). Joe Biden is the most recent U.S. president to have held this job; however, the profession was most common in earlier years, as 22 of the first 32 presidents had been lawyers. Eight presidents had also worked in the education sector, with four schoolteachers, three college professors and one university dean being elected to office, and a number went on to teach or serve on university boards after their time in office. More uncommon jobs for U.S. presidents include Hollywood actor (Ronald Reagan), inventor (Thomas Jefferson), peanut farmer (Jimmy Carter) and reality TV host (Donald Trump). Donald Trump was the only U.S. President without any military or political background before assuming office. Political roles A total of 15 vice presidents have ascended to the presidency; eight were due to the death of their respective president, six were elected for their first term, and Gerald R. Ford assumed the presidency following the resignation of Richard Nixon. Of the nine men who assumed the presidency following a death or resignation, five were re-elected to serve a full term. Thomas Jefferson and Richard Nixon are the only vice presidents to have won two presidential elections, and Jefferson is the only one to have completed both full terms. The most common political background of a U.S. president is that of a Congressman in the House of Representatives, with 18 presidents having served in this role, while 17 also served in the U.S. Congress as Senators. Additionally, 17 U.S. presidents had served as state governors, and William Howard Taft was the Governor-General of the Philippines from 1901 to 1903, when it was a U.S. territory. Six U.S. Presidents had previously served as Secretaries of State, while Taft and Grant had served as Secretaries of War, and Herbert Hoover had been the Secretary of Commerce.