The National Council (German: Nationalrat; French: Conseil national; Italian: Consiglio nazionale; Romansh: Cussegl naziunal) is the lower house of the Federal Assembly of Switzerland, with the upper house being the Council of States.

[1] Adult citizens elect the council's members, who are called National Councillors, for four year terms.

[3] When the Swiss federation was founded in 1848, the number of seats was not yet fixed, and was thus determined by the population of the individual cantons.

According to the provisions of the federal constitution at that time, a canton was to receive one National Council member for every 20,000 citizens.

Since a popular initiative in 1918, elections have been by proportional representation, in which each canton forms an electoral district (Wahlkreis).

Since the reform of the census system and the adoption of the use of government administrative data for determining the population in 2007, the distribution of the seats in the National Council between the cantons has been based on the permanent resident population (including residents who are not entitled to vote) in the year following the most recent federal election.

Cantons which are only entitled to send one councillor to the National Council elect the candidate who wins a majority of votes.

Each list contains at most the number of candidates which the canton is entitled to send to the National Council.

Voters may choose a pre-prepared party list without making changes or they can alter it by cumulative voting or panachage.

The role and powers of the National Council are regulated by the Parliament Act (ParlA) and the Title 5[9] of the Swiss Federal Constitution.

[13] To date, there have been eight extraordinary sessions, most of them called by the social democratic parliamentary group.

After a bill has been sent back three successive times, the two councils must meet together to discuss the matter.