#generational gaps

Millennials and Gen Z kids:

Dad and I got into a discussion the other night. It started off with just commenting on differences between generations in how they think and what their priorities are (and the fact that those differences are less because of age alone, and more because of the fact that the different generations grew up in different sociopolitical circumstances from each other).

Then I made an offhand comment wondering whether the generational representation in the government was accurate to the actual count of people in each generation. Eg, do we have a vast majority Baby Boomer government ruling over a vast majority Millenial population? Because if so, the government is bound to have different priorities from the general population, which would go against everything the Founding Fathers intended. “Of the people, for the people,” and all that.

Well, this discussion was taking place in the WiFi/phone service void that is Walmart. So we didn’t have access to the internet to do any research at the time.

BUT I just ran the numbers, and... it’s not great. While I was wrong in my theory that the general population is majority Millenial, it is still a higher ratio than is represented in Congress.

Now, note that my math is based on numbers that are a few years old, but I worked with what I could find.

So, the 115th Congress, which ran from 2017 to 2019, had 42 members from the Silent Generation, 270 Baby Boomers, 117 from Gen X, and 5 Millenials.

To find the approximate total population count of each generation, I used the graphic below, combined with the age ranges listed in the graphic above (for consistency).

Obviously not a super exact graphic, which is why I specify that the total population count in my math is APPROXIMATE, and therefore, the percentage counts are, too. So, without further, ado: a screenshot of the spreadsheet containing my math.

What you really want to pay attention to here is the Millenials: despite being about 20% of the population, they’re only about 1% of Congress.

Mathematically, there should be more of both Millenials and the Silent Generation in Congress, and fewer Baby Boomers, although Gen X is actually just about perfect. However, the Silent Generation is 71+, which you do need to take into account. So all things considered, they’re probably pretty much perfect here, too.

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