How Many Congressional Districts Are There in the United States?

There are 435 congressional districts in the United States, each represented by one member of the U.S. House of Representatives. This number has remained fixed since 1913, when Congress passed legislation capping the House at 435 seats. The Permanent Apportionment Act of 1929 made this cap permanent.

Congressional districts by state

The 435 districts are divided among the 50 states by population. California has the most with 52, followed by Texas with 38 and Florida with 28. 6 states have a single at-large district: Alaska, Delaware, North Dakota, South Dakota, Vermont and Wyoming.

State	Congressional districts
Alabama	7
Alaska	1
Arizona	9
Arkansas	4
California	52
Colorado	8
Connecticut	5
Delaware	1
Florida	28
Georgia	14
Hawaii	2
Idaho	2
Illinois	17
Indiana	9
Iowa	4
Kansas	4
Kentucky	6
Louisiana	6
Maine	2
Maryland	8
Massachusetts	9
Michigan	13
Minnesota	8
Mississippi	4
Missouri	8
Montana	2
Nebraska	3
Nevada	4
New Hampshire	2
New Jersey	12
New Mexico	3
New York	26
North Carolina	14
North Dakota	1
Ohio	15
Oklahoma	5
Oregon	6
Pennsylvania	17
Rhode Island	2
South Carolina	7
South Dakota	1
Tennessee	9
Texas	38
Utah	4
Vermont	1
Virginia	11
Washington	10
West Virginia	2
Wisconsin	8
Wyoming	1
All 50 states	435

These counts come from the apportionment following the 2020 Census, which took effect with the 2022 elections and holds through the 2030 Census. The District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands, American Samoa and the Northern Mariana Islands each elect a delegate rather than a voting representative, and those seats are not counted in the 435. See how we source our data.

How Districts Are Divided Among States

Every state is guaranteed at least one congressional district, but beyond that, seats are allocated based on population. After each census, a mathematical process called apportionment determines how many of the 435 seats each state receives. Currently, the states with the most districts are California (52), Texas (38), Florida (28), and New York (26). Six states have just one at-large district: Alaska, Delaware, North Dakota, South Dakota, Vermont, and Wyoming.

How Big Is Each District?

Based on the 2020 Census total population of approximately 331 million people, each congressional district contains roughly 760,000 residents. However, this varies somewhat because districts must be drawn within state boundaries, Montana’s two districts each have about 542,000 people, while Delaware’s single district covers nearly 990,000.

Should There Be More Districts?

Some reformers argue that 435 seats are too few for a country of over 330 million people. When the cap was set in 1913, each district represented about 212,000 people, less than a third of today’s average. Proposals to expand the House range from modest increases to plans like the Wyoming Rule, which would set district size based on the smallest state’s population, potentially creating over 500 seats.

Want to explore every one of the 435 districts? Browse our complete directory or find your district by ZIP code.

From 65 Seats to 435

The House did not always have 435 members. The first Congress in 1789 had 65 representatives. As the country added states and people, the House grew after almost every census, reaching 435 by 1913. Congress then fixed the size with the Reapportionment Act of 1929, which set a permanent ceiling and a formula for dividing the seats. The number has stayed at 435 ever since, even as the U.S. population more than tripled, so each district now represents far more people than it did a century ago.

Districts, Seats, and the Six Delegates

The 435 districts are the voting seats in the House. Six other places each send a non-voting member: the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands, American Samoa, and the Northern Mariana Islands. These delegates, and the resident commissioner from Puerto Rico, can serve on committees and vote in committee, but they do not have a vote on the House floor, so they are not part of the 435.

States With a Single District

Six states are small enough in population to have just one at-large district that covers the entire state: Alaska, Delaware, North Dakota, South Dakota, Vermont, and Wyoming. Their lone representative serves the whole state rather than one slice of it. Every other state is divided into two or more districts, up to 52 in California, the most of any state.

When the Number Changes

The national total stays at 435, but the share each state receives can change every ten years. After each census, the seats are reapportioned among the states using a method called equal proportions. Faster-growing states gain seats and slower-growing states lose them. After the 2020 census, for example, Texas gained two seats and several states each lost one, while the total stayed exactly 435.

Why 435?

Nothing in the Constitution requires 435 seats. The Constitution says only that each state gets at least one representative and that seats are apportioned by population, with no district smaller than 30,000 people. Congress capped the number at 435 in the early twentieth century to keep the chamber from growing unwieldy, and changing it would take a new act of Congress. That is why the figure has held steady for more than a hundred years.

How district sizes compare

Each of the 435 districts is meant to hold about the same number of people. After the 2020 Census, that worked out to roughly 761,000 residents per district, though the figure varies because every state gets at least one seat regardless of population. Apportionment divides the 435 seats among the states first, and only then are districts drawn inside each state to come close to equal population.

The single-district states show the spread. Wyoming’s at-large seat covers about 577,000 people, the fewest of any district, while Delaware’s covers close to 990,000. Montana’s two districts each hold around 540,000 after it regained a second seat in 2020. Within a multi-district state, courts require districts to be nearly equal in population, sometimes within a few people, so the variation you notice is between states, not inside them. A House seat in one state can represent meaningfully more or fewer residents than a seat in another.

For more, see how congressional district maps are drawn and how to find your own representative.