This paper draws on a complete dataset of nearly 20,0000 national legislators from approximately 100 democracies to investigate descriptive similarities and differences across countries. Are legislators from countries with more educated populations themselves more highly educated? Where are legislators older or younger? What are the characteristics of countries with more female representatives? The overall story that emerges is that legislators are typically well-educated, relatively high socio-economic status middle aged men, and that they resemble one another more than they resemble the populations that elect them.