Congress, once again, is getting older

Only the sessions beginning in 2017 and 2021 were older.

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Jan. 3, 2025, 5:00 AM EST

By Joe Murphy

Congress isn’t getting any younger.

In fact, compared with the previous session, it’s 79 days older, and the third oldest in U.S. history.

With an average member age of 58.9 years old, the 119th Congress is the third oldest since 1789, according to an NBC News analysis of congressional membership and birth-date data. It shows that while the Senate got a little younger, the House aged, and that baby boomers are losing seats to Generation X and millennials.

The analysis of data from Legistorm, the Almanac of American Politics and the @unitedstates project, a group that tracks congressional information, calculates the age of each session of Congress as of the first day of the session, with the members who were sworn in that day. For instance 73-year-old Sen.-elect Jim Justice, R-W.Va., who will take Joe Manchin’s Senate seat on Jan. 13, was not included because Justice will not be a member of the body on Jan. 3.

The average age of the Senate, 63.8 years, is still years older than that of the House, at 57.7 years.

Many people look forward to retirement at 65. But in the Senate, the median age is nearly 65, with 49 members at least that old.

While a majority of the Senate is still from the baby boom generation, Gen X membership in the House now exceeds that of boomers for the first time: More than 180 representatives are from Gen X, and 170 are boomers.

To serve in the House, a member must be at least 25 years old; a senator must be at least 30. So those in Gen Z, the oldest of whom turn 28 this year, won’t be eligible for the Senate for another two years, at least.

Five millennials — including Vice President-elect JD Vance, R-Ohio, who has yet to resign from his seat — sit in the Senate, the youngest of whom is still Jon Ossoff, D-Ga., who turns 38 in February.

Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa — who has been a senator since 1981, and who would have been in elementary school when Jimmy Carter was in high school — is the oldest in the Senate, at 91 years old.

In the House, Maxwell Frost, D-Fla., is beginning his second term as still the only Gen Z member of Congress, at age 27. At 87 1/2 years old, Eleanor Norton, D.C.’s Democratic delegate, is the oldest member.

Between both chambers, 20 members are 80 years or older.

The median age in the U.S. is 39.1 years old, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Joe Murphy

Joe Murphy is a data editor at NBC News.