Data on the U.S. Congress – A Joint Effort from Brookings and the American Enterprise Institute
Vital Statistics’ purpose has always been to collect useful data on our first branch of government – in the election and composition of its membership as well as its formal procedure, such as the use of the filibuster, informal norms, party structure and staff. This dataset also documents the increasing polarization of Congress and the demographics of those who serve in the U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives.
Over the years, we’ve received innumerable requests for updated versions of the chapters in between printings of the published book. We heard you and have now changed the way we present Vital Statistics’ data: We’ve put the book online, making each chapter available online as a collection of spreadsheets for download at no cost. This new interactive format allows us to update and correct the data more frequently and make it accessible to anyone interested in learning about Congress. We’ve formatted the tables so that each is both printer-friendly and read-writable.
We encourage you to share your feedback and how you’ve used this dataset; and we plan on posting your most interesting findings. Find out how you can submit your own Vital Stats analyses »
Feel free to email us at vitalstatistics@brookings.edu if you have any questions, commentary or feedback.