In the 119th Congress, 28 percent of congressional representatives were women, an increase from six percent of members in 1991. The biggest increases in female representation were seen between 2018 and 2019, as well as 2020 and 2021.

The 118th Congress of the United States began in January 2025. In that year, there were 125 female members in the House of Representatives, and 310 male representatives. A breakdown of women in the House by party 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.

The share of women in the United States House of Representatives has increased significantly since 1965. In that year, only 2.3 percent of Representatives were women. In 2025, that number had increased to 28.7 percent of the House. Despite the significant progress made to female representation in politics, there is still work to be done given that women actually outnumber men in the United States.

About this dataset

Context

The dataset tabulates the population of Congress by gender, including both male and female populations. This dataset can be utilized to understand the population distribution of Congress across both sexes and to determine which sex constitutes the majority.

Key observations

There is a considerable majority of female population, with 66.28% of total population being female. Source: U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey (ACS) 2019-2023 5-Year Estimates.

Content

When available, the data consists of estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey (ACS) 2019-2023 5-Year Estimates.

Scope of gender :

Please note that American Community Survey asks a question about the respondents current sex, but not about gender, sexual orientation, or sex at birth. The question is intended to capture data for biological sex, not gender. Respondents are supposed to respond with the answer as either of Male or Female. Our research and this dataset mirrors the data reported as Male and Female for gender distribution analysis. No further analysis is done on the data reported from the Census Bureau.

Variables / Data Columns

• Gender: This column displays the Gender (Male / Female)
• Population: The population of the gender in the Congress is shown in this column.
• % of Total Population: This column displays the percentage distribution of each gender as a proportion of Congress total population. Please note that the sum of all percentages may not equal one due to rounding of values.

Good to know

Margin of Error

Data in the dataset are based on the estimates and are subject to sampling variability and thus a margin of error. Neilsberg Research recommends using caution when presening these estimates in your research.

Custom data

If you do need custom data for any of your research project, report or presentation, you can contact our research staff at research@neilsberg.com for a feasibility of a custom tabulation on a fee-for-service basis.

Inspiration

Neilsberg Research Team curates, analyze and publishes demographics and economic data from a variety of public and proprietary sources, each of which often includes multiple surveys and programs. The large majority of Neilsberg Research aggregated datasets and insights is made available for free download at https://www.neilsberg.com/research/.

Recommended for further research

This dataset is a part of the main dataset for Congress Population by Race & Ethnicity. You can refer the same here

Significant scholarship indicates that female legislators focus their attention on “women’s issues” to a greater extent than do male lawmakers. Drawing on over forty years of bill sponsorship data from the U.S. House of Representatives, we define women’s issues in terms of those sponsored at a greater rate by women in Congress. Our analysis reveals that most (but not all) of the classically considered women’s issues are indeed raised at an enhanced rate by congresswomen. We then track the fate of those issues. While 4% of all bills become law, that rate drops to 2% for women’s issues and to only 1% for women’s issue bills sponsored by women themselves. This pattern persists over time – from the early 1970s through today – and upon controlling for other factors that influence bills success rates. We link the bias against women’s issues to the committee process, and suggest several avenues for further research.

There are 435 members that serve in the United States House of Representatives at any given time. As of the first day of the 119th Congress, there were a total of 125 female Representatives. Of those, 31 were Republicans.

In 2025, there were 125 women serving in the U.S. House of Representatives. Of those, 27 identify as black, and an additional 18 identify as Latina.

The statistic presents the results of a survey conducted in January and February 2018 to find out about the situation of women and gender (in)equality across 27 countries. In Mexico, male respondents guessed that approximately 29 percent of members of the Mexican Congress were women. According to the source, around 43 percent of representatives in the Mexican legislature were, in fact, women.

In 2023, there were 106 Democratic women in the 118th U.S. Congress. This is the highest number of women ever to serve in a U.S. Congress.

The statistic presents the results of a survey conducted in January and February 2018 to find out about the situation of women and gender (in)equality across 27 countries. In Brazil, male respondents guessed that approximately 18 percent of members of Congress were women. According to the source, around 11 percent of representatives in the Brazilian legislature were, in fact, women.

The share of seats occupied by women in the United States Senate has increased significantly since 1965. In that year, two percent of seats were held by women. By 2019, this number had grown to 25 percent of seats.

The statistic presents the results of a survey conducted in January and February 2018 to find out about the situation of women and gender (in)equality across 27 countries. In Argentina, male respondents guessed that approximately 29 percent of members of Congress were women. According to the source, around 39 percent of representatives in the Argentinean legislature were, in fact, women.

The module was administered as a post-election interview. The resulting data are provided along with voting, demographic, district and macro variables in a single dataset.

CSES Variable List The list of variables is being provided on the CSES Website to help in understanding what content is available from CSES, and to compare the content available in each module.

Themes: MICRO-LEVEL DATA:

Identification and study administration variables: weighting factors;election type; date of election 1st and 2nd round; study timing (post election study, pre-election and post-election study, between rounds of majoritarian election); mode of interview; gender of interviewer; date questionnaire administered; primary electoral district of respondent; number of days the interview was conducted after the election

Demography: age; gender; education; marital status; union membership; union membership of others in household; current employment status; main occupation; employment type - public or private; industrial sector; occupation of chief wage earner and of spouse; household income; number of persons in household; number of children in household under the age of 18; attendance at religious services; religiosity; religious denomination; language usually spoken at home; race; ethnicity; region of residence; rural or urban residence

Survey variables: respondent cast a ballot at the current and the previous election; respondent cast candidate preference vote at the previous election; satisfaction with the democratic process in the country; last election was conducted fairly; form of questionnaire (long or short); party identification; intensity of party identification; political parties care what people think; political parties are necessary; recall of candidates from the last election (name, gender and party); number of candidates correctly named; sympathy scale for selected parties and political leaders; assessment of the state of the economy in the country; assessment of economic development in the country; degree of improvement or deterioration of economy; politicians know what people think; contact with a member of parliament or congress during the past twelve months; attitude towards selected statements: it makes a difference who is in power and who people vote for; people express their political opinion; self-assessment on a left-right-scale; assessment of parties and political leaders on a left-right-scale; political information items

DISTRICT-LEVEL DATA:

number of seats contested in electoral district; number of candidates; number of party lists; percent vote of different parties; official voter turnout in electoral district

MACRO-LEVEL DATA:

founding year of parties; ideological families of parties; international organization the parties belong to; left-right position of parties assigned by experts; election outcomes by parties in current (lower house/upper house) legislative election; percent of seats in lower house received by parties in current lower house/upper house election; percent of seats in upper house received by parties in current lower house/upper house election; percent of votes received by presidential candidate of parties in current elections; electoral turnout; electoral alliances permitted during the election campaign; existing electoral alliances; most salient factors in the election; head of state (regime type); if multiple rounds: selection of head of state; direct election of head of state and process of direct election; threshold for first-round victory; procedure for candidate selection at final round; simple majority or absolute majority for 2nd round victory; year of presidential election (before or after this legislative election); process if indirect election of head of state; head of government (president or prime minister); selection of prime minister; number of elected legislative chambers; for lower and upper houses was coded: number of electoral segments; number of primary districts; number of seats; district magnitude (number of members elected from each district); number of secondary and tertiary electoral districts; compulsory voting; votes cast; voting procedure; electoral formula; party threshold; parties can run joint lists; requirements for joint party lists; possibility of apparentement; types of apparentement agreements; multi-party endorsements; multi-party endorsements on ballot; ally party support; constitu...

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.

There are 435 members of the House of Representatives in any congressional sitting. In the 118th Congress which began in January 2023, there were 58 Black members, 16 Asian American members, 54 Hispanic members.

In the 119th Congress which began in January 2025, almost 27 percent of members of the House of Representatives were between the ages of 50 and 59 in 2025- more than any other age group.

The statistic presents the results of a survey conducted in January and February 2018 to find out about the situation of women and gender (in)equality across 27 countries. In Chile, male respondents guessed that approximately 20 percent of members of Congress were women. According to the source, around 16 percent of representatives in the Chilean legislature were, in fact, women.

The statistic presents the results of a survey conducted in January and February 2018 to find out about the situation of women and gender (in)equality across 27 countries. In Peru, female respondents guessed that approximately 24 percent of members of Congress were women. According to the source, around 28 percent of representatives in the Peruvian legislature were, in fact, women.

The annual salary received by members of the United States Congress in 2025 is 174,000 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