Elected officials in the US are, on average, considerably older than the people they represent — and compared to the rest of the world, America's lawmakers and politicians are especially old. While the average American is just under 40 years old, the average senator is around 63, the average Congressman is 57 and the average governor is over 60. The country's president, Joe Biden, is aged 80.

Recent events, like Republican senator Mitch McConnell twice freezing up while speaking to the press, have renewed debate about the age of elected officials in the US.

To find out which US states have the biggest age gaps between elected officials and residents, the Cultural Currents Institute compared the average age of each state's senators, congressmen and governor against the median age of their populations.

Key Findings:

• The biggest age gap in the country is in Idaho, where politicians average over 70 years old and the state's median resident is aged around 37 — that's a whopping 33-year difference.

• The next largest gaps were found in Maryland (27.3 years), Wyoming (27.3), Utah (27.2) and Vermont (25.8).

• Florida, whose population has the fifth-oldest median age in the country, has the smallest age gap between its officials and its people. On average, there's a difference of just 11.5 years.

• While Washington, DC, has no governor or senators, Representative Eleanor Holmes Norton, a non-voting delegate to the US House of Representatives, is 85 years old — making the age gap between her and the median Washingtonian a considerable 50.6 years.

Via The Cultural Currents Institute.

[Image credit: YouTube]