Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi swears in new members of Congress during the first session of the 117th Congress on Jan. 3, 2021. (Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images)
Speaker of the Firm Nancy Pelosi swears in new members of Congress during the starting time session of the 117th Congress on January. 3, 2021. (Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images)

About a quarter of voting members (23%) of the U.South. House of Representatives and Senate are racial or ethnic minorities, making the 117th Congress the most racially and ethnically diverse in history. There has been a long-running trend toward higher numbers of non-White lawmakers on Capitol Colina: This is the sixth Congress to pause the record set by the one before it.

Growing racial and ethnic diversity in Congress

Overall, 124 lawmakers today identify as Blackness, Hispanic, Asian/Pacific Islander or Native American, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of information from the Congressional Research Service. This represents a 97% increase over the 107th Congress of 2001-03, which had 63 minority members.

Amid today's senators and representatives, the overwhelming majority of racial and ethnic minority members are Democrats (83%), while 17% are Republicans. This represents a shift from the last Congress, when merely 10% of not-White lawmakers were Republicans. Our analysis reflects the 532 voting members of Congress seated as of January. 26, 2021.

This analysis builds on earlier Pew Research Center piece of work to analyze the racial and ethnic makeup of the U.S. Congress. To decide the number of racial and ethnic minority lawmakers in the 117th Congress, we used data from the Congressional Research Service. U.S. population data comes from the U.S. Demography Bureau. Historical data was pulled from CQ Curl Call, CRS and the Brookings Establishment. All racial groups refer to single-race non-Hispanics. Hispanics are of whatsoever race. Native Hawaiian Rep. Kai Kahele (D-Hawaii) is counted with the Native American lawmakers.

Our analysis reflects the 532 voting members of Congress seated every bit of Jan. 26, 2021. In the House, i New York race has not been called nevertheless, and one Louisiana seat is empty considering the congressman-elect died earlier he could be sworn in. We did not include erstwhile Louisiana Rep. Cedric Richmond, who resigned in January to join the Biden assistants. The current number of voting House members is 432. Biden administration nominees who were not yet confirmed at the time of writing are included in our count. Independent members of Congress are counted with the party they conclave with.

Although recent Congresses have continued to set new highs for racial and indigenous variety, they have nevertheless been disproportionately White when compared with the overall U.South. population. Non-Hispanic White Americans business relationship for 77% of voting members in the new Congress, considerably larger than their 60% share of the U.S. population overall. This gap hasn't narrowed with fourth dimension: In 1981, 94% of members of Congress were White, compared with eighty% of the U.Southward. population.

White Americans make up larger share of Congress than of U.S. population

In the House of Representatives, however, representation of some racial and ethnic groups is at present on par with their share of the total population. For example, 13% of Business firm members are Black, about equal to the share of Black Americans. And Native Americans now make up about 1% of both the House and the U.S. population.

Other racial and ethnic groups in the House are somewhat less represented relative to their share of the population. The share of Hispanics in the U.South. population (19%) is about twice equally high equally it is in the House (9%). Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders together account for vi% of the national population and 3% of Business firm members.

This analysis includes iv representatives who are counted under more than one racial or ethnic identity: Rep. Robert Scott, D-Va., is counted as Black and Asian. Reps. Antonio Delgado and Ritchie Torres, both New York Democrats, are listed as Black and Hispanic. Rep. Marilyn Strickland, D-Wash., is both the first Blackness lawmaker to represent the state and one of the first Korean American women to be elected to Congress. Native Hawaiian Rep. Kai Kahele (D-Hawaii) is counted with the Native American lawmakers. Portuguese American members are not included in the Hispanic count.

In the House, Republicans account for a larger share of newly elected minority representatives than in the past. Of the 16 freshmen representatives who are non-White, nine are Republicans, compared with but one of the 22 new representatives in the 116th Congress. This freshman accomplice includes the only two Blackness Republicans in the chamber: Burgess Owens of Utah and Byron Donalds of Florida.

Eleven senators are a racial or indigenous minority, upwards from nine in the 116th Congress. Six senators are Hispanic, 2 are Asian and three are Blackness. Freshman Raphael Warnock is the first Black senator to represent Georgia, and another freshman, Alex Padilla, is the first Hispanic senator to correspond California. Padilla replaced Vice President and former Sen. Kamala Harris, who was one of four women of color (and the only Black woman) serving in the Senate.

Only three of the 11 non-White senators are Republicans: Tim Scott of South Carolina is Black, and Marco Rubio of Florida and Ted Cruz of Texas are both Hispanic.