Least representative years

Every year since 2005, for each chamber: how much of the country the winning side represented on an average bill vote, and how often the winning side represented less than half of it. Select any year to see the votes it is built from.

Each figure is the average share of U.S. adults represented by the winning side, across votes on bills only, so the same kind of vote is measured every year. Nominations and free-standing procedural motions are excluded. Selecting a year opens that chamber’s bill votes in the browser; it groups votes by measure, so a bill voted on twice in one year shows once there while counting twice here.
Year	House	Senate
2026Partial
2025
2024
2023
2022
2021
2020
2019
2018
2017
2016
2015
2014
2013
2012
2011
2010
2009
2008
2007
2006
2005

Average share represented, against a dashed line at half the countryA year where most of that chamber’s bill votes were won by a side representing under half the country

Why the two columns disagree

The same year can show a comfortable average and still have most of its votes fall under half. Both figures are correct, and they are measuring different things.

An average is pulled upward by the lopsided votes. Renamings, near unanimous resolutions and bills nobody opposes pass with almost the whole country behind them, and a handful of those lifts the year’s average well above where its typical vote sits. The close, party-line votes that make up the bulk of a year land far lower and are far more numerous, but each one moves the average only as much as a lopsided vote does.

It works like a class where a few students score 100 and most score just under 50. The class average looks like a pass, and most of the class still failed. The second column counts the students, not the average.