A new study by a Brigham Young University professor highlights something that might seem intuitive but is still valuable to see in statistical form: state legislators in America are a highly-educated group of people.

The National Conference of State Legislatures has an overview of the data:

It turns out that 71 percent of state legislators nationwide have at least a bachelor's degree and 40 percent have an advanced degree on top of that. Given that 12 percent of the education data among state legislators is “unknown” it is impossible to know which state has the most educated legislature in the country.

However, it appears Virginia and California have the highest percentage of legislators with at least a bachelor's degree at 89 percent and 87 percent respectively.

This compares very favorably to the 95% of members of Congress with bachelor’s degrees and is nearly three times higher than the 27% of the entire adult population with such degrees.

Much more interesting, however, is the advanced degree variation between legislatures. For instance, Nebraska and Ohio have the highest percentage of state legislators with doctorates and law degrees, respectively.

NCSL has added all this data to their interactive map of legislator demographics. The tool includes a host of other data including legislator occupations, religions, ages, etc.

What do our legislators do for a living? How old are they? How many of them are women? How many are racial or religious minorities? Clearly, the number of Democrats and Republicans in elected office is not the only thing that matters, which is why we’re so excited that the National Conference of State Legislatures has created a new tool to help answer those questions and more.

The graphic allows individuals to compare the demographics of their state legislature against any other state, as well as national averages. I was surprised to learn, for instance, that my home state of Louisiana has fewer clergy members serving in its state legislature than New York does, but more than three times as many doctors (by proportion).

Morgan Cullen over at The Thicket took a look at broader trends and sought to explain why such a high percentage of legislators are from the “baby-boomer” generation:

Our analysis of state legislator ages in 2008 shows that 47.9% of legislators presently serve between the ages of 50-64 years of age. This age range accounts for nearly half of all legislators presently serving and is almost two times larger than any other age group.

There are many contributing factors to why a majority of legislators decide to run for elected office during this period of their lives. Candidates running for office from this age group have a broad range of professional experience making them more electable. Family responsibilities have often been significantly reduced since children are often fully grown. And the 50-64 age group is also the most financially stable, a benefit of many productive years in the workforce.

There is a wealth of other data available in the NCSL tool, and we’d encourage anyone to take a minute and check it out.

There are 7,382 legislators in the country, and there are 12 of us working at the DLCC to make sure that most of these public servants are Democrats.

Right now, our party controls 3,983 of the nation’s legislative seats and 57 of the 98 partisan legislative chambers. We’ve made net gains in every election since 2003, so yes -- we’re good at what we do.

And what is that exactly? How do we spend our time?

We build relationships with legislative leaders, professional staff, and activists in every part of the country. Through those connections, we organize and maintain winning, state-of-the-art campaign committees; develop state-specific electoral strategies; and offer access to tools like polling, communications, research, and fundraising capabilities.

Why does this all matter?

I don’t think it is a secret for anyone reading this blog that most of the public policy in this country that has a direct impact on our everyday lives gets decided in our nation’s statehouses. When we talk about funding for education, or roads, or jobs, for the most part, we’re talking about the work of state representatives and senators.

But let’s put that fact aside for a second; say you’re just interested in the federal government. Then let me ask you this: who draws the boundaries for the U.S. congressional districts?

That’s right, our local legislators.

There are 36 state legislatures that control Congressional redistricting, and 27 chambers in 21 of these states are within 5 seats of tying or changing hands.

Those 21 states will decide the fate of 260 Congressional districts.

And by the way, quite a few of those seats in Congress will be held by former state legislators. That’s where many of the country’s elected officials get their start.

Need proof? Well, just four years ago, Barack Obama was serving the people of Illinois in the state senate.

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If you’re invested in seeing this country change, then you have to pay attention to our nation’s statehouses, and this website is about to become your new favorite spot on the partisan web. Every day, we will be writing about the latest redistricting news and policy updates; we’ll give you election analysis and profile Democratic leaders across the country; and of course, we’ll point out the worst Republican misdeeds and respond to GOP attacks.

To make this a success, we’re going to depend on feedback from our readers. There are 12 of us and 50 states, and we can’t be on the ground everywhere, all the time. So drop us a line -- we’ll read every comment that you post and every email that you send.