The Three-Fifths Compromise is a compromise reached between delegates from southern states and those from northern states during the 1787 United States Constitutional Convention.

The debate is over whether, and if so, how, slaves will be counted when determining a state's total population for legislative representation and taxing purposes.

The issue is important, as this population number will then be used to determine the number of seats that the state will have in the United States House of Representatives for the next ten years.

The effect is to give the southern states a third more seats in Congress and a third more electoral votes than if slaves had been counted, but fewer electoral votes if slaves and free persons had been not been counted, allowing the slaveholder interests to largely dominate the government of the United States until 1861.

The compromise is proposed by delegates James Wilson and Roger Sherman.