United States House of Representatives: History, Art, & Archives
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Congressional Apportionment

Congressional Apportionment

Fast Facts

The Constitution provides for proportional representation in the U.S. House of Representatives and the seats in the House are apportioned based on state population.

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Historical Highlight

August 08, 1911

The 1911 House reapportionment

Historical Highlight

June 11, 1929

The Permanent Apportionment Act of 1929

Introduced in 1873, these small desks allowed even more Members to be crammed into the House Chamber./tiles/non-collection/i/im_inst_apport_2005_122_000.xml Collection of the U.S. House of Representatives
About this object Introduced in 1873, these small desks allowed even more Members to be crammed into the House Chamber.
The founders designed the House of Representatives to represent the people rather than the states, which each send two Members to the U.S. Senate. Article I, Section II of the Constitution provides each state at least one U.S. Representative, while the size of a state’s delegation to the House depends on its total population. Based on the 1787 national population, each House Member in the First Federal Congress (1789–1791) represented 30,000 citizens. As U.S. territory expanded and the population grew, the membership of the House of Representatives increased and individual Members’ constituencies were enlarged.

Apportionment by State (PDF)

Office of the Historian: history@mail.house.gov
Office of Art & Archives, Office of the Clerk: art@mail.house.gov, archives@mail.house.gov