From the dawn of the republic, Congress was the body meant to reflect the desires and hopes of the American voter. Thousands of people have served in Congress – some of them were quite young, and some of them were rather old.
When we track Congress over time, we see the median age ebb and flow, with retirements, new blood, deaths, secession, victories and defeats making the body younger or older cycle to cycle.
Overall, you can see the age of Congress creep upwards, as medical advances and quality of life adjustments make it possible for members to serve longer. But lately, things have bucked that slow trend. Congress got much older, much faster than ever before.
The age of the federal judiciary also fluctuates based on which party is in power, as generations of judges retire during the terms of their preferred party.
In 1919, the status of "senior judges" was created and older active judges can enter into semi-retirement. They may remain on the bench with a full caseload, but their seat can be filled. The actual age of the federal judiciary is older than just "active" judges.
Gradual age increases of Congress can be tied to periods of political stability. This happened during the New Deal era in the 1930s and the massive 1932 wave election that saw 97 House seats and 13 Senate seats flip.
We also saw this in the 1980s Reagan era, when the composition of Congress was relatively stable between the 1974 and 1994 midterm elections.
What isn’t expected is the sharp increase in the age of Congress since the early 1990s, a rate that doesn’t match the growth in the median American age.
In the 1960s, the median age of Congress was 53.7, and it stayed flat for three decades. However, from 1990 to 2020, had jumped seven years from 53.4 to 60.7 years.
Donald Trump single handedly lowered the age of the federal judiciary by two years during his administration. For the first time ever in 2020 the Congress was older than the federal judiciary, based on median age.
That sharp increase means that today, Congress is uniquely unrepresentative of the country.