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1 1 (January 8, 2025)

handle is hein.crs/goveryw0001 and id is 1 raw text is: Size of the U.S. House of Representatives Updated January 8, 2025 The size of the U.S. House of Representatives is set by federal statute at 435 Representatives (excluding nonvoting seats held by Delegates and the Resident Commissioner). This number has been constant since the start of the 63rd Congress in 1913, aside from a temporary increase to 437 seats to accommodate the additions of Alaska and Hawaii as states in 1959 (see P.L. 85-508, July 7, 1958; PL. 86-3, March 18, 1959) until the apportionment that followed the 1960 census. Requirements Affecting House Size Article I, Section 2 of the U.S. Constitution, as amended by Section 2 of the 14tAmendment, provides that representation in the House is based on state population size. To determine the population of each state, Article I, Section 2 requires that the national population be counted at least once every 10 years through what is known as the decennial census. Article I, Section 2 also contains broad parameters for House size, stating that there can be no more than one Representative for every 30,000 persons, provided that each state receives at least one Representative. Within these constitutional parameters, the House could in theory be as small as 50 Representatives or as large as about 11,000 Representatives, based on the 2020 census apportionment population. The number of House seats to be apportioned across states is set by 2 U.S.C. §2a. Historical House Size Figure 1 displays the number of House seats and the U.S. population overtime, along with the average district population size nationwide (or representation ratio). In the 18th and 19th centuries, Congress generally increased the size of the House with each apportionment so no state would lose seats. The only exception followed the 1840 census, when Congress decreased the number of seats from 242 to 232. The 1911 apportionment act set the House size at 433 and allowed for the addition of one seat each to accommodate the anticipated statehoods of Arizona and New Mexico. The Permanent Apportionment Act of 1929 established that seats would be apportioned based on the then existing number of Representatives, which was 435, beginning with the 1930 census. This language from the 1929 act remains at 2 U.S.C. §2a. Congressional Research Service https://crsreports.congress.gov IN11547 CRS INSIGHT Prepared for Members and Committees of Congress

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