Those first graphs are seriously fucking confusing.
Edit: a good graph should be instantly understandable. It’s taken me a good couple of minutes to figure out what’s what. It may be that it’s clearer to Americans who instinctively know which chamber has 100 members and which has 400 whatever, but it shouldn’t be this hard.
8trackthrowback on
What in tarnation is this color scheme dark to light to dark again
tribriguy on
It’s an ok visualization, but the data is rather obvious on its face. It would be more interesting to do a study that shows the trends over time, to include controlling for things like life expectancy, etc.
RHX_Thain on
If our representatives can’t retire at 65 — *what hope is there for the rest of us?*
super_sayanything on
Thomas Jefferson was 33 years old when he signed the Declaration of Independence. What a shame this country is.
mebjammin on
This just in, people age and die, eventually vacating a seat they have held on to since before black people were allowed to vote.
ojknows94 on
Holy shit 67% of the senate is above retirement age
YOUNGEST: [Maxwell Frost](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maxwell_Frost) has been the Representative for FL-10 (the Orlando area) since 2023. He was born in 1997, so he’s the twentysomething Gen Z-er.
Please ask for help if you can’t guess the party affiliation of both.
13 Comments
Those first graphs are seriously fucking confusing.
Edit: a good graph should be instantly understandable. It’s taken me a good couple of minutes to figure out what’s what. It may be that it’s clearer to Americans who instinctively know which chamber has 100 members and which has 400 whatever, but it shouldn’t be this hard.
What in tarnation is this color scheme dark to light to dark again
It’s an ok visualization, but the data is rather obvious on its face. It would be more interesting to do a study that shows the trends over time, to include controlling for things like life expectancy, etc.
If our representatives can’t retire at 65 — *what hope is there for the rest of us?*
Thomas Jefferson was 33 years old when he signed the Declaration of Independence. What a shame this country is.
This just in, people age and die, eventually vacating a seat they have held on to since before black people were allowed to vote.
Holy shit 67% of the senate is above retirement age
There’s a Gen Z congressman.
OLDEST: [Chuck Grassley](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chuck_Grassley) has been a Senator for Iowa since 1981. Before that, [he won his first federal election for a seat in the House of Representatives in 1974](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1974_United_States_House_of_Representatives_elections#Iowa). He was born in 1933, and so he’s the 91-year old.
YOUNGEST: [Maxwell Frost](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maxwell_Frost) has been the Representative for FL-10 (the Orlando area) since 2023. He was born in 1997, so he’s the twentysomething Gen Z-er.
Please ask for help if you can’t guess the party affiliation of both.
[Rule 2](https://www.reddit.com/r/dataisbeautiful/wiki/rules/rule2/) and [rule 8](https://www.reddit.com/r/dataisbeautiful/wiki/rules/rule8/).
Here’s the original source: [https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2025/01/16/age-and-generation-in-the-119th-congress-somewhat-younger-with-fewer-boomers-and-more-gen-xers/](https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2025/01/16/age-and-generation-in-the-119th-congress-somewhat-younger-with-fewer-boomers-and-more-gen-xers/)
So young people complain but don’t vote. Unless they’re voting for people that remind them of their grandparents.
I’d love to see the 2nd chart for age bracket instead of generation. Are they getting older or younger over time?
People are stupid. The reason there were no millennials in. The 115th is because most of those people wouldn’t meet the age limit to run