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 Business firm Nancy Pelosi swears in new members of Congress during the first session of the 117th Congress on Jan. three, 2021. (Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images)

About a quarter of voting members (23%) of the U.Due south. House of Representatives and Senate are racial or indigenous 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 6th Congress to suspension the record set by the i earlier it.

Growing racial and ethnic diversity in Congress

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

Amidst today'south senators and representatives, the overwhelming majority of racial and indigenous minority members are Democrats (83%), while 17% are Republicans. This represents a shift from the last Congress, when just 10% of non-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 Heart piece of work to analyze the racial and ethnic makeup of the U.Due south. Congress. To make up one's mind the number of racial and ethnic minority lawmakers in the 117th Congress, nosotros used data from the Congressional Inquiry Service. U.South. population data comes from the U.S. Demography Agency. Historical data was pulled from CQ Roll Call, CRS and the Brookings Institution. All racial groups refer to single-race non-Hispanics. Hispanics are of whatever race. Native Hawaiian Rep. Kai Kahele (D-Hawaii) is counted with the Native American lawmakers.

Our assay reflects the 532 voting members of Congress seated equally of Jan. 26, 2021. In the House, i New York race has not been called however, and one Louisiana seat is empty because the congressman-elect died before he could be sworn in. Nosotros did non include former Louisiana Rep. Cedric Richmond, who resigned in Jan to bring together the Biden administration. The electric current number of voting House members is 432. Biden administration nominees who were not yet confirmed at the fourth dimension 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 diversity, they have nonetheless been disproportionately White when compared with the overall U.South. population. Not-Hispanic White Americans account for 77% of voting members in the new Congress, considerably larger than their 60% share of the U.South. 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.Due south. population.

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

In the Firm of Representatives, however, representation of some racial and ethnic groups is at present on par with their share of the total population. For example, xiii% of Business firm members are Black, about equal to the share of Black Americans. And Native Americans now brand upwards about 1% of both the House and the U.Southward. 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.Due south. population (xix%) is about twice equally loftier every bit it is in the House (9%). Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders together account for 6% of the national population and 3% of House members.

This assay includes 4 representatives who are counted nether more 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 commencement Blackness lawmaker to stand for 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 non 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, 9 are Republicans, compared with just one of the 22 new representatives in the 116th Congress. This freshman cohort includes the only two Blackness Republicans in the chamber: Burgess Owens of Utah and Byron Donalds of Florida.

11 senators are a racial or ethnic minority, up from nine in the 116th Congress. Six senators are Hispanic, 2 are Asian and three are Black. Freshman Raphael Warnock is the first Black senator to represent Georgia, and another freshman, Alex Padilla, is the get-go Hispanic senator to represent California. Padilla replaced Vice President and former Sen. Kamala Harris, who was ane of four women of color (and the simply Black adult female) serving in the Senate.

Just iii 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.