Congressional Apportionment

"Apportionment" is the process of dividing the 435 memberships, or seats, in the House of Representatives among the 50 states—the Census Bureau conducts the census at 10-year intervals. At the conclusion of each census, the results are used to calculate the number of House memberships to which each state is entitled. Apportionment is the initial use of the results of each census. While there are numerous other uses for census data, a second major use is for geographically defining state legislative districts (see Census 2010 Redistricting).