The Founding-era had the highest share of immigrants in Congress

Foreign-born share of Congress and US total population

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Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census, A Century of Population Growth: From the First Census of the United States to the Twelfth, 1790–1900 (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1909), Part 2; Murray Lawson, "The Foreign-Born in Congress, 1789-1949: A Statistical Summary," American Political Science Review, 1957; Janakee Chavda, "Immigrants and children of immigrants make up at least 15% of 119th Congress," Pew Research Center, February 27, 2025; James G. Basker and Sofia Melnychuck, "A Nation of Immigrants from the Outset: The Signers Born Abroad," Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, Fall 2022; and author's calculations.