House of Assembly explained

House of Assembly is a name given to the legislature or lower house of a bicameral parliament. In some countries this may be at a subnational level.

Historically, in British Crown colonies as the colony gained more internal responsible government, the House of Assembly superseded the (usually unelected) Legislative Council as the colonial legislature, often becoming the lower house.

List of Houses of Assembly

Extant

National

CountryBodyTypeEstablishedNotes
AnguillaHouse of AssemblyUnicameral
BahamasHouse of AssemblyLower House1729
BarbadosHouse of AssemblyLower House1639
BermudaHouse of AssemblyLower House1620Bicameral since 1968
House of AssemblyUnicameral1773
DominicaHouse of AssemblyUnicameral
KiribatiHouse of AssemblyUnicameral1979
Saint LuciaHouse of AssemblyLower House
Saint Vincent and the GrenadinesHouse of AssemblyUnicameral
House of AssemblyLower House
House of AssemblyUnicameral2006

Sub-national

CountryRegionBodyTypeEstablishedNotes
AustraliaSouth AustraliaHouse of AssemblyLower House1857
AustraliaTasmaniaHouse of AssemblyLower House1857
CanadaNova ScotiaHouse of AssemblyUnicameral1758Lower House until 1928
CanadaNewfoundland and LabradorHouse of AssemblyUnicameral1832Lower House until 1934
NigeriaKano StateHouse of AssemblyUnicameral1979
NigeriaLagos StateHouse of AssemblyUnicameral1979
NigeriaOyo StateHouse of AssemblyUnicameral1976
NigeriaOndo StateHouse of AssemblyUnicameral1976
NigeriaRivers StateHouse of AssemblyUnicameral1979
Trinidad and TobagoTobagoHouse of AssemblyUnicameral1980

Defunct

National

CountryBodyTypeEstablishedDisestablishedNotes
Cape ColonyHouse of AssemblyLower House18531910
GibraltarHouse of AssemblyUnicameral19692006
JamaicaHouse of AssemblyUnicameral16641865
Papua New GuineaHouse of AssemblyUnicameral19641975
South AfricaHouse of AssemblyLower House19101994Lower House until 1981, unicameral 1981–84, White house in the Tricameral Parliament 1984–94
ZimbabweHouse of AssemblyLower House19802013Succeeded the House of Assembly, the lower house of the Rhodesian Parliament, which existed between 1970 and 1979

Sub-national

See also