Congressional constituency
A congressional electoral district (also congressional district ; English congressional district ) is a constituency for the election of the members of the House of Representatives of the United States . The electoral population of each constituency designates a person during the United States' congressional election to occupy a seat in the House of Representatives and represent their constituency there.
The boundaries of these congressional electoral districts are determined by the states themselves according to the seats allocated to them in the House of Representatives, usually every 10 years after the census, whereby the population in each constituency must be as large as possible. Most states are very careful about the same size population and draw constituencies whose population differs by no more than one person. In most countries, the state legislature is responsible for the design of the constituencies - which passes the constituency division as a simple law. That is why the parliamentary and gubernatorial elections (if the latter can exercise a veto) before the census are of particular importance. The distribution of the total of 435 seats among the states is based on their population size, which is determined by the United States Census Bureau using a census carried out every ten years , using the Hill-Huntington method , with at least one seat being allocated to each state. A congressional electoral district had about 710,000 inhabitants according to the last census in 2010.
Because of the large population differences between the states and the fixed number of seats to be distributed, the states have very different numbers of seats. So have Alaska , Delaware , Montana , North Dakota , South Dakota , Vermont and Wyoming each case only one congressional district (called 'At-large-District'), California , however, is represented by 53 members of Congress in the House.
statistics
- The largest congressional electoral district in terms of area is the Alaska At-Large electoral district, which is congruent with the US state of Alaska and covers 1,717,854 km².
- In fifth place is the largest congressional electoral district in the USA, which is part of a state, the 2nd congressional electoral district of New Mexico , which is 185,805 km² in size.
- 9 of the 10 smallest congressional constituencies in the USA are in New York , thus also the 13th constituency of New York, which is the smallest of all 435 congressional constituencies with an area of 26.5 km².
The 20 largest constituencies
| No. | District | Area in km² | Member of Parliament (from 2019) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Alaska At-large | 1,481,354 | Don Young (R) |
| 2 | Montana At-large | 376.981 | Greg Gianforte (R) |
| 3 | Wyoming At-large | 251.491 | Liz Cheney (R) |
| 4th | South Dakota At-large | 196,542 | Dusty Johnson (R) |
| 5 | New Mexico-2 | 185,806 | Xochitl Torres Small (D) |
| 6th | Oregon-2 | 179,857 | Greg Walden (R) |
| 7th | North Dakota At-large | 178,648 | Kelly Armstrong (R) |
| 8th | Nebraska-3 | 174,658 | Adrian M. Smith (R) |
| 9 | Texas-23 | 150.374 | Will Hurd (R) |
| 10 | Nevada-2 | 144,600 | Mark Amodei (R) |
| 11 | Arizona-1 | 142,553 | Tom O'Halleran (D) |
| 12 | Kansas-1 | 136.086 | Roger Marshall (R) |
| 13 | Nevada-4 | 132.085 | Steven Horsford (D) |
| 14th | Colorado-2 | 128,806 | Joe Neguse (D) |
| 15th | New Mexico-3 | 116,443 | Ben Ray Luján (D) |
| 16 | Idaho-2 | 111,954 | Mike Simpson (R) |
| 17th | Utah-2 | 103,569 | Chris Stewart (R) |
| 18th | Idaho-1 | 102.093 | Russ Fulcher (R) |
| 19th | Texas-13 | 99,325 | Mac Thornberry (R) |
| 20th | Colorado-4 | 98,687 | Ken Buck (R) |
The 20 smallest constituencies
| No. | District | Area in km² | Member of Parliament (from 2019) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | New York-13 | 27 | Adriano Espaillat (D) |
| 2 | New York-10 | 37 | Jerrold Nadler (D) |
| 3 | New York-15 | 38 | José Serrano (D) |
| 4th | New York-12 | 39 | Carolyn B. Maloney (D) |
| 5 | New York-9 | 41 | Yvette Clarke (D) |
| 6th | New York-7 | 42 | Nydia Velázquez (D) |
| 7th | New York-14 | 74 | Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D) |
| 8th | New York-8 | 77 | Hakeem Jeffries (D) |
| 9 | New York-6 | 78 | Grace Meng (D) |
| 10 | California-12 | 101 | Nancy Pelosi (D) |
| 11 | California-34 | 124 | Jimmy Gomez (D) |
| 12 | New York-5 | 135 | Gregory Meeks (D) |
| 13 | Illinois-4 | 136 | Jesús García (D) |
| 14th | New Jersey-8 | 142 | Albio Sires (D) |
| 15th | California-37 | 144 | Karen Bass (D) |
| 16 | California-40 | 150 | Lucille Roybal-Allard (D) |
| - | District of Columbia At-large | 160 | Eleanor Holmes Norton (D) |
| 17th | Illinois-7 | 162 | Danny K. Davis (D) |
| 18th | Massachusetts-7 | 163 | Ayanna Pressley (D) |
| 19th | New York-11 | 171 | Max Rose (D) |
| 20th | California-46 | 186 | Lou Correa (D) |
number
| State | 2000 census (until 112th Congress / 2012) | 2010 census (from 113th Congress / 2013) |
|---|---|---|
| Alabama | 7th | 7th |
| Alaska | 1 | 1 |
| Arizona | 8th | 9 |
| Arkansas | 4th | 4th |
| Colorado | 7th | 7th |
| Connecticut | 5 | 5 |
| Delaware | 1 | 1 |
| Florida | 25th | 27 |
| Georgia | 13 | 14th |
| Hawaii | 2 | 2 |
| Idaho | 2 | 2 |
| Illinois | 19th | 18th |
| Indiana | 9 | 9 |
| Iowa | 5 | 4th |
| California | 53 | 53 |
| Kansas | 4th | 4th |
| Kentucky | 6th | 6th |
| Louisiana | 7th | 6th |
| Maine | 2 | 2 |
| Maryland | 8th | 8th |
| Massachusetts | 10 | 9 |
| Michigan | 15th | 14th |
| Minnesota | 8th | 8th |
| Mississippi | 4th | 4th |
| Missouri | 9 | 8th |
| Montana | 1 | 1 |
| Nebraska | 3 | 3 |
| Nevada | 3 | 4th |
| New Hampshire | 2 | 2 |
| New Jersey | 13 | 12 |
| New Mexico | 3 | 3 |
| new York | 29 | 27 |
| North Carolina | 13 | 13 |
| North Dakota | 1 | 1 |
| Ohio | 18th | 16 |
| Oklahoma | 5 | 5 |
| Oregon | 5 | 5 |
| Pennsylvania | 19th | 18th |
| Rhode Island | 2 | 2 |
| South carolina | 6th | 7th |
| South Dakota | 1 | 1 |
| Tennessee | 9 | 9 |
| Texas | 32 | 36 |
| Utah | 3 | 4th |
| Vermont | 1 | 1 |
| Virginia | 11 | 11 |
| Washington | 9 | 10 |
| West Virginia | 3 | 3 |
| Wisconsin | 8th | 8th |
| Wyoming | 1 | 1 |
| total | 435 | 435 |