List of municipalities of Portugal

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This is a list of the municipalities of Portugal. Portugal is divided into 18 districts (Portuguese: distritos) and 2 autonomous regions (Portuguese: regiões autónomas), Azores and Madeira. The districts and autonomous regions are further sub-divided into 308 municipalities (Portuguese: municípios or concelhos). Usually, a municipality has the name of its biggest city, or at least, of its historically most important city or town, however, the municipality is, usually, much larger than the city or town after which it is named.

History and division of the municipalities

The municipality has been the most stable subdivision of Portugal since the foundation of the country in the 12th century. They have their origin in the foral, a legal document, issued by the king, which assigned privileges to a town or a region. The present subdivisions have their origins in the 19th century.

Each municipality is further subdivided into parishes (Portuguese: freguesias); the municipalities in the north of the country usually have a higher number of parishes. Six municipalities are composed of only one parish, and Barcelos is the municipality with most parishes: 89.

Since the creation of a democratic local administration in 1976, after the Carnation Revolution of April 25, 1974, the Portuguese municipalities have been ruled by a bicameral system. The municipal chamber is the executive body, and is composed of the president of the municipality and a number of councillors proportional to the municipality's population. The municipal assembly is composed of the presidents of all the parishes that compose the municipality, and by a number of directly elected deputies which is at least equal to the number of parish presidents plus one. The parishes are administrated by a parish assembly. Traditionally, the north and the autonomous regions are politically more conservative, while the south and the region of Lisbon are dominated by the Left.

The biggest municipalities are those located in rural and inland areas where the dominating property type is the latifundia, such as Beja, Évora or Portalegre in the south, and also in other less populated areas, such as Bragança or Castelo Branco.

The most populated municipalities are those located near the sea, and especially around the metropolitan areas of Lisbon, Porto and Braga, while the less populated municipalities are located in the inland regions of Alentejo and Trás-os-Montes. The municipalities with the lowest population densities are also found in these inland regions, with smaller populations distributed over a greater area.

Overview

District	Municipalities	District	Municipalities
Aveiro	19	Leiria	16
Beja	14	Lisbon	16
Braga	14	Portalegre	15
Bragança	12	Oporto	18
Castelo Branco	11	Santarém	21
Coimbra	17	Setúbal	13
Évora	14	Viana do Castelo	10
Faro	16	Vila Real	14
Guarda	14	Viseu	24
Autonomous region	Municipalities	Autonomous region	Municipalities
Azores	19	Madeira	11

List

Aveiro

Crest	Municipality	Area		Population		Density		No. of Parishes	Ruling Party[1]
		Km²	Rank	Total	Rank	Pop/km²	Rank
	Águeda	335.3	89	49,691	58	148	91	20
	Albergaria-a-Velha	155.4	196	25,497	99	164	83	8
	Anadia	216.6	150	31,671	86	146	93	15
	Arouca	329.1	92	24,019	108	73	159	20
	Aveiro	199.9	161	73,626	32	368	43	14
	Castelo de Paiva	115.0	240	17,089	142	149	90	9
	Espinho	21.1	305	31,703	85	1,503	14	5
	Estarreja	108.4	245	28,279	91	261	56	7
	Ílhavo	73.5	276	39,247	72	534	33	4
	Mealhada	110.7	242	21,500	121	194	70	8
	Murtosa	73.3	277	9,657	202	132	102	4
	Oliveira de Azeméis	163.5	190	71,243	35	436	40	19
	Oliveira do Bairro	87.3	260	22,365	115	256	59	6
	Ovar	147.4	201	56,715	48	385	42	8
	Santa Maria da Feira	215.1	151	142,295	17	662	29	31
	São João da Madeira	7.9	308	21,538	119	2,726	6	1
	Sever do Vouga	129.6	224	12,940	175	100	127	9
	Vagos	169.9	185	23,205	111	137	99	11
	Vale de Cambra	146.5	204	24,761	103	169	80	9

Beja

Crest	Municipality	Area		Population		Density		No. of Parishes	Ruling Party[1]
		Km²	Rank	Total	Rank	Pop/km²	Rank
	Aljustrel	458.3	59	9,940	199	22	246	5
	Almodôvar	777.9	18	7,650	232	10	301	8
	Alvito	264.8	121	2,708	304	10	298	2
	Barrancos	168.3	188	1,825	306	11	294	1
	Beja	1,147.1	9	34,970	80	30	227	18
	Castro Verde	569.4	40	7,702	230	14	284	5
	Cuba	172.1	183	4,775	277	28	236	4
	Ferreira do Alentejo	648.4	31	8,505	211	13	286	6
	Mértola	1,292.8	6	7,996	223	6	307	9
	Moura	958.4	13	16,411	147	17	265	8
	Odemira	1,720.6	1	25,738	98	15	275	17
	Ourique	663.4	29	5,842	261	9	303	6
	Serpa	1,104.0	11	16,178	149	15	276	7
	Vidigueira	316.0	101	6,019	259	19	256	4

Braga

Crest	Municipality	Area		Population		Density		No. of Parishes	Ruling Party[1]
		Km²	Rank	Total	Rank	Pop/km²	Rank
	Amares	82.0	267	19,290	132	235	62	24
	Barcelos	378.9	80	123,831	22	327	47	89
	Braga	183.2	170	170,858	8	933	23	62
	Cabeceiras de Basto	241.8	132	17,775	138	74	156	17
	Celorico de Basto	181.1	173	20,128	129	111	119	22
	Esposende	95.4	255	34,625	83	363	44	15
	Fafe	219.1	146	53,528	54	244	61	36
	Guimarães	241.3	133	161,876	14	671	27	69
	Póvoa de Lanhoso	132.5	220	23,657	109	179	77	29
	Terras de Bouro	277.5	114	7,955	224	29	234	17
	Vieira do Minho	218.5	147	14,474	160	66	165	21
	Vila Nova de Famalicão	201.7	159	131,690	19	653	30	49
	Vila Verde	228.7	140	48,122	60	210	66	58
	Vizela	24.7	303	23,528	110	953	22	7

Bragança

Crest	Municipality	Area		Population		Density		No. of Parishes	Ruling Party[1]
		Km²	Rank	Total	Rank	Pop/km²	Rank
	Alfândega da Fé	322.0	95	5,688	262	18	261	20
	Bragança	1,173.6	8	34,774	82	30	230	49
	Carrazeda de Ansiães	279.3	112	7,220	238	26	240	19
	Freixo de Espada à Cinta	244.0	130	4,014	284	16	267	6
	Macedo de Cavaleiros	699.2	25	17,210	141	25	243	38
	Miranda do Douro	487.2	53	7,707	229	16	269	17
	Mirandela	659.0	30	25,780	97	39	209	37
	Mogadouro	760.4	20	10,792	192	14	280	28
	Torre de Moncorvo	531.6	47	9,408	205	18	260	17
	Vila Flor	265.8	118	7,737	228	29	233	19
	Vimioso	481.6	55	5,105	273	11	296	14
	Vinhais	694.9	26	10,051	198	14	277	35

Castelo Branco

Crest	Municipality	Area		Population		Density		No. of Parishes	Ruling Party[1]
		Km²	Rank	Total	Rank	Pop/km²	Rank
	Belmonte	118.8	234	7,662	231	64	167	5
	Castelo Branco	1,438.2	3	55,034	51	38	210	25
	Covilhã	555.6	44	53,501	55	96	131	31
	Fundão	700.1	24	31,297	87	45	197	31
	Idanha-a-Nova	1,416.4	4	10,929	191	8	305	17
	Oleiros	471.1	56	6,212	253	13	285	12
	Penamacor	563.9	42	6,160	255	11	293	12
	Proença-a-Nova	395.3	75	9,610	203	24	244	6
	Sertã	446.7	62	16,208	148	36	211	14
	Vila de Rei	191.3	166	3,354	299	18	263	3
	Vila Velha de Ródão	329.9	91	3,802	289	12	292	4

Coimbra

Crest	Municipality	Area		Population		Density		No. of Parishes	Ruling Party[1]
		Km²	Rank	Total	Rank	Pop/km²	Rank
	Arganil	332.8	90	13,187	172	40	208	18
	Cantanhede	390.9	77	38,590	74	99	128	19
	Coimbra	319.4	97	142,408	16	446	39	31
	Condeixa-a-Nova	138.7	210	16,459	146	119	112	10
	Figueira da Foz	379.1	79	63,144	40	167	82	18
	Góis	262.3	123	4,606	280	18	262	5
	Lousã	138.4	211	17,252	140	125	106	6
	Mira	124.0	231	13,146	173	106	123	4
	Miranda do Corvo	126.4	228	13,400	171	106	124	5
	Montemor-o-Velho	229	139	25,084	101	110	121	14
	Oliveira do Hospital	234.5	137	21,901	116	93	135	21
	Pampilhosa da Serra	396.5	73	4,756	278	12	289	10
	Penacova	216.7	149	16,850	144	78	152	11
	Penela	134.8	216	6,421	249	48	192	6
	Soure	265.1	119	20,695	126	78	151	12
	Tábua	199.8	162	12,452	177	62	170	15
	Vila Nova de Poiares	84.5	262	7,291	236	86	140	4

Évora

Crest	Municipality	Area		Population		Density		No. of Parishes	Ruling Party[1]
		Km²	Rank	Total	Rank	Pop/km²	Rank
	Alandroal	542.7	46	6,293	251	12	291	6
	Arraiolos	683.8	27	7,382	234	11	295	11
	Borba	145.2	206	7,545	233	52	183	4
	Estremoz	513.8	50	15,064	154	29	232	13
	Évora	1,307.0	5	55,619	49	43	201	19
	Montemor-o-Novo	1,232.9	7	18,540	135	15	273	10
	Mora	444.0	63	5,470	268	12	287	4
	Mourão	278.6	113	3,348	300	12	288	3
	Portel	601.2	36	7,078	240	12	290	8
	Redondo	365.5	83	6,990	241	19	255	2
	Reguengos de Monsaraz	463.8	57	11,460	184	25	242	5
	Vendas Novas	222.4	142	11,957	181	54	180	2
	Viana do Alentejo	393.6	76	5,639	263	14	278	3
	Vila Viçosa	194.9	164	8,745	210	45	196	5

Faro

Crest	Municipality	Area		Population		Density		No. of Parishes	Ruling Party[1]
		Km²	Rank	Total	Rank	Pop/km²	Rank
	Albufeira	140.6	209	35,281	77	251	60	5
	Alcoutim	575.3	39	3,411	297	6	308	5
	Aljezur	323.5	93	5,322	271	16	266	4
	Castro Marim	300.9	105	6,495	246	22	247	4
	Faro	201.6	160	58,305	46	289	52	6
	Lagoa	88.3	259	22,658	113	257	58	6
	Lagos	212.8	152	27,041	95	127	103	6
	Loulé	764.2	19	62,295	41	82	146	11
	Monchique	395.3	74	6,441	248	16	268	3
	Olhão	130.9	223	42,272	69	323	48	5
	Portimão	182.1	172	47,189	61	259	57	3
	São Brás de Alportel	153.4	199	11,205	187	73	158	1
	Silves	680.0	28	34,909	81	51	185	8
	Tavira	607.0	34	25,105	100	41	203	9
	Vila do Bispo	179.0	175	5,381	270	30	229	5
	Vila Real de Santo António	60.9	289	18,158	136	298	51	3

Guarda

Crest	Municipality	Area		Population		Density		No. of Parishes	Ruling Party[1]
		Km²	Rank	Total	Rank	Pop/km²	Rank
	Aguiar da Beira	206.9	155	6,270	252	30	228	13
	Almeida	518.0	49	7,784	226	15	274	29
	Celorico da Beira	247.2	128	8,752	209	35	214	22
	Figueira de Castelo Rodrigo	508.6	51	6,884	242	14	283	17
	Fornos de Algodres	131.5	222	5,435	269	41	204	16
	Gouveia	300.6	106	15,792	150	53	182	22
	Guarda	712.1	23	44,149	65	62	173	55
	Manteigas	122.0	233	3,900	288	32	223	4
	Mêda	286.1	110	6,000	260	21	250	16
	Pinhel	484.5	54	10,436	196	22	248	27
	Sabugal	822.7	15	14,222	164	17	264	40
	Seia	435.7	65	27,574	93	63	168	29
	Trancoso	361.5	85	10,639	193	29	231	29
	Vila Nova de Foz Côa	398.2	71	8,249	218	21	252	17

Leiria

Lisbon

Portalegre

Porto

Santarém

Setúbal

Viana do Castelo

Vila Real

Viseu

Azores

Madeira

Notes

1. The colors in the "ruling party" field indicate the following parties or coalitions (in brackets, the number of presidencies):

2. All mayors were elected in the Portuguese local election of 2005, held on October 9.

3. A cell with a green background denotes a municipality placed within the first twenty positions of the corresponding ranking. A red background denotes a municipality placed within the last twenty positions of the corresponding ranking.

4. All population, and therefore, all population density data is as of 2004.

5. A municipality with a bolded name indicates the district capital. In the autonomous regions of Azores and Madeira, it indicates a municipality where offices of the regional government are located.

6. In the maps, the archipelagos of Azores and Madeira are not to scale and there are more than 308 different areas because some municipalities are not contiguous, forming enclaves.

Maps

Image:Portuguese municipalities parties.PNG|Ruling parties per municipality Image:Portuguese municipalities districts.PNG|Municipalities within each district or region Image:Portuguese municipalities area.PNG|The 20 biggest and the 20 smallest municipalities Image:Portuguese municipalities population1.PNG|The 20 most and the 20 least populated municipalities Image:Portuguese municipalities density1.PNG|The 20 most and the 20 least densely populated municipalities

References

See also

• Subdivisions of Portugal
• List of cities in Portugal
• List of towns in Portugal
• List of parishes of Portugal
• Portuguese local election, 2005

External links

• [National Association of Portuguese Municipalities]

 

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