113th US House of Representatives Breakdown

With mid-term elections looming in the next week I want to take a chance to look at the 113th House of Representatives of the United States of America. The 113th House convened for the first time on January, 3rd 2013 and will close on January 3rd 2015. Elections on November 4th will most likely change the shape of the congress. The House is comprised of 50 senators (2 from each state), they comprise the Senate, and 389 congressmen who complete Congress. These individuals check and balance the three powers as the legislative branch.

When elected, there was a national hype regarding a very diverse congress taking place of the 112th and I want to closely examine that. According to House Press Gallery whom released stats without much context, 81 members are women, 42 are African American, two are American Indian, 11 are Asian American and 35 are Hispanic. Those numbers mean that 68% or 300 members are not any of those minority groups or women.

The image below of the Northeast shows voting districts. The regions colored red indicate that that county is held by an African-American. As you can see in the bustling and very diverse north-east there is not much variation of individuals who hold congress.

A closer look at the metro areas of New York City (on the left) and Los Angeles (right) show that in the cities there tends to be representation by minorities. This can be attributed to the diverse racial make up of these cities. Red once again indicates African American, yellow indicates Hispanic American and purple indicates Asian American. The gray regions indicate an individual who does not identify as one of the aforementioned groups. Take a look at the interactive map here: http://www.citylab.com/politics/2013/01/diversity-113th-congress-looks-pathetic-when-you-plot-it-map/4348/

Now, if we think about the breakdown of the US it is known that there is a large population of African-Americans in the Southeast. That is complemented with a large Hispanic population residing in the the southwest and Asian population living interspersed on the west coast. The map below contains a breakdown of the US corresponding to the 2010 census information. A dot indicates one individual and blue corresponds to white, green yields black, red yields Asian and orange indicates orange. 

Take a look at this interactive map here: http://demographics.coopercenter.org/DotMap/index.html .

The US is a large and diverse country. With the right to vote comes the responsibility to push the country in a direction we want to. It is the writers opinion that congress can and should be more diverse as more diversity will yield more knowledge. Getting to hear from the perspectives of other races may help congress get their act together and perhaps garner a better approval rating from the American public!