diff --git a/NumLib/DOF/MeshComponentMap.cpp b/NumLib/DOF/MeshComponentMap.cpp
index dade1658678896658fd4a6af98f1ec530e46257a..0859266c0c61a4974d1adbb16de53e0d90bc1ca9 100644
--- a/NumLib/DOF/MeshComponentMap.cpp
+++ b/NumLib/DOF/MeshComponentMap.cpp
@@ -30,8 +30,6 @@ GlobalIndexType const MeshComponentMap::nop =
 MeshComponentMap::MeshComponentMap(
     const std::vector<std::unique_ptr<MeshLib::MeshSubsets>>& components,
     ComponentOrder order)
-    : _num_components(components.size())
-
 {
     // get number of unknows
     GlobalIndexType num_unknowns = 0;
@@ -121,7 +119,6 @@ MeshComponentMap::MeshComponentMap(
 MeshComponentMap::MeshComponentMap(
     const std::vector<std::unique_ptr<MeshLib::MeshSubsets>>& components,
     ComponentOrder order)
-    : _num_components(components.size())
 {
     // construct dict (and here we number global_index by component type)
     GlobalIndexType global_index = 0;
@@ -152,7 +149,6 @@ MeshComponentMap MeshComponentMap::getSubset(
     std::vector<std::size_t> const& component_ids,
     MeshLib::MeshSubsets const& mesh_subsets) const
 {
-    assert(component_ids.size() <= _num_components);
     // New dictionary for the subset.
     ComponentGlobalIndexDict subset_dict;
 
@@ -175,7 +171,7 @@ MeshComponentMap MeshComponentMap::getSubset(
                             component_id));
     }
 
-    return MeshComponentMap(subset_dict, 1);
+    return MeshComponentMap(subset_dict);
 }
 
 void MeshComponentMap::renumberByLocation(GlobalIndexType offset)
diff --git a/NumLib/DOF/MeshComponentMap.h b/NumLib/DOF/MeshComponentMap.h
index f063feb595ca94d4fc5713c1507f6b6da4c89390..730510d19d03c2673406c12285a291a2f1f1a691 100644
--- a/NumLib/DOF/MeshComponentMap.h
+++ b/NumLib/DOF/MeshComponentMap.h
@@ -160,9 +160,8 @@ public:
 
 private:
     /// Private constructor used by internally created mesh component maps.
-    MeshComponentMap(detail::ComponentGlobalIndexDict& dict,
-                     unsigned const num_components)
-        : _dict(dict), _num_components(num_components)
+    explicit MeshComponentMap(detail::ComponentGlobalIndexDict& dict)
+        : _dict(dict)
     { }
 
     /// Looks up if a line is already stored in the dictionary.
@@ -184,10 +183,6 @@ private:
     std::size_t _num_global_dof = 0;
 #endif
 
-    /// Number of components
-    /// introduced mainly for error checking
-    unsigned const _num_components;
-
     /// Global ID for ghost entries
     std::vector<GlobalIndexType> _ghosts_indices;
 };