Congress did not age this year.
But don’t call him young.
The 118th Congress enters the Capitol as one of the oldest in the last century, according to an NBC News analysis of data from the @unitedstates project, a group of journalists and researchers who track historical and current information related to Congress. In fact, of all the Congresses since 1789, this is the second-oldest Senate and the third-oldest House.
As of Tuesday, the median age in the Senate is 63.9. In the House, it is 57.5 years.
The average age of the 118th Congress is half a year younger than that of the 117th. But historical data shows this to be an anomaly, as both the Senate and the House have aged significantly over the past four decades: the Senate by about 12 years and the House by 9 years. By comparison, the median age in the US has risen nearly 9 years since 1980.