How many members are there in the House of Representatives? Actually, the number of members of the House of Representatives varies depending on the country and their law.

In this post, you’ll get to know how many members are in the House of Representatives in different countries across the world.

How many members are there in the House of Representatives?

United States

The U.S. House of Representatives is one of the two houses of the bicameral United States Congress that was established in 1789 by the Constitution of the United States. The United States House of Representatives is the lower house and the U.S. Senate is the upper house.

Each U.S. state is guaranteed at least one member of the House. The allocation of seats is based on the state’s population and membership is reapportioned every decade following the decennial census.

The U.S. House members are elected for two-year terms from single-member districts of approximately equal population.   

To become a member of the U.S. House of Representatives you have to be at least 25 years of age, must have U.S. citizenship for at least 7 years, and residency of the state from which the member is elected.

The U.S. House of Representatives originally was comprised of 59 members and after the ratification of the Constitution by North Carolina and Rhode Island in 1790 the number rose to 65 and by the year 1912, the membership had reached 435.

After the admission of Alaska and Hawaii as the U.S. States in 1959, two additional representatives were added temporarily. However, membership returned to 435 (the number authorized by a law enacted in 1941) at the next legislative appointment.  

To date, the members of the U.S. House of Representatives remain 435 because that’s the number fixed by Law.

Australia

The Australian House of Representatives is the lower house of the bicameral Parliament of Australia, the upper house is the Senate.

A member of the House of Representatives in Australia is referred to as a Member of Parliament and the term of office is 3 years (maximum).

The current number of members of the House of Representatives in Australia is 151. The House of Representative members are elected by and also representing single-member districts called “Electoral Divisions” commonly known as “Electorates” or “Seats”.  

The number of the members of the Australian House of Representatives is not fixed but can vary with certain changes resulting from electoral redistributions which are needed on a regular basis.

There was an increase in the number of members at the 1984 election from 125 to 148. This number reduced to 147 at the 1993 election and returned to 148 at the 1996 election.

At the 2001 election, the number increased to 150 and as of the 2019 Australian federal election increased to 151 which still stands to date.

Nigeria

The House of Representatives in Nigeria is the lower chamber of the country’s bicameral National Assembly, with the Senate being the upper house.

The House of Representatives in Nigeria has 360 members who are elected in single-member constituencies using the plurality system.

The members of the House of Representatives in Nigeria serve four-year terms and the presiding officer of the house is the Speaker of the Nigerian House of Representatives.

The Netherlands?

The House of Representatives in the Netherlands commonly referred to as the Tweede Kamer der Staten General (Second Chamber of the States-General) is the lower house of the bicameral parliament of the Netherlands.

It is comprised of 150 members who are elected using a party-list proportional representation and sits in the Biennenhof in The Hague.

The House of Representatives in the Netherlands is the main legislative body of the States-General, where discussion of proposed legislation and review of the actions of the cabinet takes place. Both the House of Representatives and the Cabinet have the right to propose legislation.

The members of the House of Representatives in the Netherlands serves four-year term.

Belgium

The House of Representatives in Belgium is called the Chamber of Representatives and it is one of the two chambers in the bicameral Federal Parliament of Belgium, the other being the Senate. It is also considered the lower house of the Federal Parliament.

The number of seats in the Chamber of Representatives is 150 and the seats are divided into two “language groups” – 88 are part of the Dutch-language group consisting of representatives from the Dutch-language area, and 62 are part of the French-language group consisting of representatives from the French-language area and the German-language area.

The Philippines

The House of Representatives in the lower house of the bicameral legislature of the Philippines and the upper house is the Senate.

There are 304 members in the House of Representatives in the Philippines.

Germany

In Germany, the Bundestag is the German federal parliament and can be compared to a lower house similar to the U.S. House of Representatives.

It was established in 1949 by Title III of the Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany as one of the legislative bodies of Germany and thus it is the historical successor of the earlier Reichstag (the lower house of the legislature of the Weimar Republic).

The minimum number of members of the Bundestag is 598 but because of the system of overhang and equalisation seats the current 19^th Bundestag has a total number of 709 members which makes it the largest Bundestag to date.

Brazil

Brazil’s Chamber of Deputies is a federal legislative body and also the lower house of the National Congress of Brazil.

It is comprised of 513 deputies who are elected by proportional representation to serve four-year terms.

Spain

In Spain, it can be referred to as the Congress of Deputies (in Spanish: Congreso de los Diputados) which is the lower house of the Cortes Generales, Spain’s Legislative Branch.

The Congress of Deputies has 350 members and each member serves a four-year term. The members of the Congress of Deputies meets in the Palace of the Parliament in Madrid.

Afghanistan

In Afghanistan, the House of Representatives of the People also called Da Afghanistan Wolesi Jirga is the lower house of the bicameral National Assembly of Afghanistan, the upper house being the House of Elders.

The House of the Representatives of the People consists of 250 delegates who are elected by a single non-transferable vote.

The members of the House of Representatives of the People are elected by district and serve for five years.

The primary responsibility of the House of Representatives of the People is to make and ratify laws as well as approve the actions of the president.

Summary:  How many members are there in the House of Representatives

Here, we’ve put down the number of members the House of Representatives in countries like the United States, Australia, Nigeria, Brazil, the Netherlands, Belgium, the Philippines, Germany, and Spain.

We hope that this post was helpful.