Trends: U.S. Politicians Are the Oldest in the World

In most countries, the gap between the average age of the population and the average age of its lawmakers is about 10 years. In the U.S., the gap is more than 20 years.

Senator Chuck Grassley from Iowa is 90 years old and still serving in the United State Senate today.

The age of the U.S. presidential candidates has been a major theme of the current election cycle (even with President Biden dropping out, VP Kamala Harris will be 60-years-old by the time of the November election). It turns out that U.S. politicians in general are old compared to the rest of the world. The average age of U.S. Congress members is 59-years-old, almost a decade older than the average of the 38 OECD countries.

Further, as shown in the chart below, 45% of U.S. Congress members are over 60-years-old, compared to 19% for the OECD average. In countries such as Denmark, Belgium, Austria, and Columbia, only ~10% of lawmakers are over the age of 60.