Following the release of apportionment population data in April 2021, each state was allocated a particular number of Congressional representatives. Apportionment populations are slightly different from the standard census population counts, as they consist of “the resident population of the 50 states including overseas federal employees (military and civilian) and their dependents living with them.”
Interestingly enough, there are multiple different ways that seats could be apportioned based on population data, each with various tradeoffs in terms of privileging larger or smaller states. Since 1941, apportionment values have been calculated using the Huntington-Hill method. Generally speaking, the Huntington-Hill method calculates a priority number for each state and a particular seat number (for example Delaware having a 2nd Congressional District and Texas having an 88th Congressional district). These priority numbers are then ranked, and with slight modifications in order depending on the minimum seats required for each state, the remaining number of seats are selected in order.
Because the Huntington-Hill method is somewhat tricky to implement, and calculators employing it appear hard to find, I created a Congressional Apportionment Calculator in Google Sheets that allows you to enter population values for every state, and then to calculate how many Congressional seats would be allocated to every state based off of those figures.
The notebook has been written where cells in blue are editable by any viewer of the document.

The calculator also includes fields to include DC as a state, and to change the minimum and maximum of seats per state, as well as the total number of states. The second tab in the spreadsheet includes two maps, which plot the total number of seats for each state under the modified populations, as well as the difference in seats per state compared with the seats that were actually allocated.
Using the calculator, you can see things like:
– How apportionment would have changed if New York’s apportionment population was just 89 people larger
– How apportionment would change if DC were counted as a state
– How apportionment, and a state’s percentage of all seats would change if Congress was expanded.
Please note:
– Unfortunately, Google Sheets does not support including Washington, DC among its state maps.
– Changing the minimum seats per state to 0 may result in whacky outputs, particularly because the definition of the method begins with each state being allocated one seat.
Technically speaking, the spreadsheet utilizes a function I wrote in Google Apps script, and was a good chance to practice some Javascript. With some additional time, I could try to add an option for Puerto Rico, and link the results of this analysis with those discussed in an earlier post Counties and Cities with the Most Influence on US Federal Elections.














































































































