The '' comarques'' of the

Valencian Community The Valencian Community ( ca-valencia, Comunitat Valenciana, es, Comunidad Valenciana) is an autonomous community of Spain. It is the fourth most populous Spanish autonomous community after Andalusia, Catalonia and the Community of Madrid wi ...

, form an intermediate level of administrative subdivision between

municipalities A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the ...

and

provinces A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman '' provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions ou ...

. They are used as a basis for the provision of local services by the

Generalitat Valenciana The Generalitat Valenciana is the generic name covering the different self-government institutions under which the Spanish autonomous community of Valencia is politically organized. It consists of seven institutions including the ''Corts Val ...

, but do not have any representative or executive bodies of their own. In 1987, the Generalitat Valenciana published an official proposal for Homologated Territorial Demarcations, ''Demarcacions Territorials Homologades'' (DTH), of three degrees, where the first degree largely coincides with the territorial concept of ''comarca''. Until now, the practice of these demarcations has been limited as a reference to the administrative decentralisation of the different services offered by the Generalitat, such as education, health, or agriculture. In fact, there is no legal provision for these DTHs to ultimately have the intended “territorial impact”, that is, comarca-level political or administrative bodies. Instead, the powers shared between several municipalities are being articulated through ''mancomunitats'', or commonwealths. Article 65 of the 2006

Statute of Autonomy Nominally, a Statute of Autonomy ( es, Estatuto de Autonomía, ca, Estatut d'Autonomia, gl, Estatuto de Autonomía, ast, Estatutu d'Autonomía, eu, Autonomia Estatutua) is a law hierarchically located under the constitution of a country and, ...

provides the first legislative foundation for the ''comarques''. As of 2019, there are thirty-four ''comarques'' (including the city of Valencia), with a

median In statistics and probability theory, the median is the value separating the higher half from the lower half of a data sample, a population, or a probability distribution. For a data set, it may be thought of as "the middle" value. The basic f ...

population of 147,227.55 and a median area of 685.43 km².

List of ''comarques''

''Subcomarques''

Some ''comarques'' are made up of two or more ''subcomarques''. Most of them correspond with local geographical features. For instance, Alcoià is made up of two subcomarques: Foia de Castalla and Valls d'Alcoi.

Historical ''comarques''

Historical ''comarques'' refer to former ''comarques'' that are no longer extant. Some historical ''comarques'' of the Valencian Community are now part of other comarques in the new territorial demarcation, such as

Tinença de Benifassà Tinença de Benifassà () is a historical ''comarca'' of the Valencian Community, Spain. It is nowadays part of the Baix Maestrat, one of the present-day Comarques of the Valencian Community, even though commercial and human relationships have ...

and Ports de Morella.

References

Bibliography

* ''Proposta de demarcacions territorials homologades'', Direcció General d'Administració Local, València, D.L. 1988. Conselleria d'Administració Pública. ISBN 84-7579-587-0 {{Navboxes , title = Articles related to the ''Comarques'' of the Valencian Community , list = {{Comarques of the Valencian Community {{Comarcas of Spain