Changing Legislatures

NCSL’s latest survey found some significant changes in occupation, gender and racial demographic makeup of state legislators. Full-time legislators, for example, now have overtaken attorneys as the largest occupational category in legislatures today. Attorneys decreased from nearly 25 percent of our nation’s legislative bodies in 1976 to 15 percent today. There also are more women, African Americans and Hispanics in legislatures than at any time in our history.

This interactive map allows you to examine the makeup of each state’s legislature by ethnicity, gender, age, religion and occupation and compare those figures to national averages.