American politicians are the oldest in the rich world
J.D. VANCE, the winner of Donald Trump’s Apprentice-style competition for a running-mate, is an outlier in many ways. He is one of the least experienced vice-presidential picks in American history. Recent surveys have found that roughly half of all respondents did not know him. And, aged 39, he is younger than roughly 90% of America’s lawmakers in Congress.
His nomination injects some youth into a presidential cycle that had, at least until an assassination attempt on July 13th, been dominated by questions of age. Both critics and allies of Joe Biden, the 81-year-old president, have raised serious doubts about his aptitude for office. On July 17th he tested positive for covid-19, raising further concerns about his health. Mr Trump, meanwhile, is just four years his junior. But age-related concerns in American politics run deeper than Messrs Biden and Trump. Data compiled by the Inter-Parliamentary Union, a Swiss-based organisation, show that America has the oldest legislators in the rich world. The average age of those who sit in the House of Representatives and the Senate is 59, two decades older than Mr Vance and almost a decade older than the OECD average for elected lawmakers. Mr Biden is 22 years older than the average head of government in the same group.
Around 45% of America’s representatives are over the age of 60. That is a higher proportion than any other country in the OECD, where the average is 19%. Denmark, Belgium and Colombia have the youngest legislators: only around 10% of the people in elected positions are boomers or older, and many representatives are in their 30s. South Korea and Japan, where seniority is revered, rank closer to America, with average ages of 55 and 56 respectively.
The same data show that America has the least age-representative government of the OECD. In most countries lawmakers are roughly ten years older than the average for the population, and in Denmark, Germany, Finland and Belgium less than five years older. In America, however, the gulf is more than 20 years. The world was just getting to grips with push-button telephones when the average American lawmaker was born.
Since the 1940s political leaders across the OECD have become younger, even as life expectancy has risen. But in America the same generation has dominated politics for more than 30 years. The method by which candidates are recruited and the fact that incumbents tend to have an advantage are often put forward as reasons why older politicians tend to be over-represented. The context in which they grew up has also shaped their politics and staying power. J.D. Vance bucks a deep-seated trend.■