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House of Lords: Statistics on Size and Composition, November 2019

Key findings include:

• The ‘absolute’ membership was 812.
• The ‘actual’ membership (excluding those Members ineligible to take their seat) was 793.
• The Conservatives were the largest political party, with 241 Members (30%).
• Crossbenchers were the second largest grouping (24%).
• The average age was 70.
• There were 221 female Members (27%).

Since August 2014, Members have been able to retire from the House under provisions of the House of Lords Act 2014. Since then:

• 179 Members have left the House, either through retirement, death or for non-attendance in the previous session.
• Two-thirds of retirements have been from crossbench or Conservative Members.
• 162 new Members have joined the House.
• The majority of new Members have been Conservatives.
• The average age of the 162 new Members was 58 years.

As at 29 November 2019, the composition of the actual membership, in terms of party and group affiliation, is shown in the chart below:

This briefing also includes the following information: the age of the membership by year bands; duration of membership by year bands; and a breakdown of the party/group affiliation and gender of Members who have left and joined the House since August 2014.