A province in Spain
[
* es, provincias, ; sing. ''provincia'')
* ]Basque
Basque may refer to:
* Basques, an ethnic group of Spain and France
* Basque language, their language
Places
* Basque Country (greater region), the homeland of the Basque people with parts in both Spain and France
* Basque Country (autonomous co ...
(, sing. ''probintzia''.
* Catalan
Catalan may refer to:
Catalonia
From, or related to Catalonia:
* Catalan language, a Romance language
* Catalans, an ethnic group formed by the people from, or with origins in, Northern or southern Catalonia
Places
* 13178 Catalan, asteroid #1 ...
(), sing. ''província''.
* Galician (), sing. ''provincia''. is a territorial division defined as a collection of
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 go ...
, although their origin dates back to
1833 with a similar predecessor from
1822 (during the
Trienio Liberal) and with roots in the Napoleonic division of Spain into 84 prefectures in 1810. In addition to their political function, provinces are commonly used today as geographical references for example to disambiguate small towns whose names occur frequently throughout Spain. There are many other groupings of municipalities that comprise the
local government of Spain.
The boundaries of provinces can only be altered by the Spanish Parliament, giving rise to the common view that the
17 autonomous communities are ''subdivided'' into
50 provinces. In reality the system is not hierarchical but defined according to jurisdiction ( es, competences).
The body charged with government and administration of a province is the
Provincial council, but their existence is controversial (see
Provincial council for a discussion). As the province is defined as a "local entity" in the Constitution, the Provincial council belongs to the sphere of
local government
Local government is a generic term for the lowest tiers of public administration within a particular sovereign state. This particular usage of the word government refers specifically to a level of administration that is both geographically-l ...
.
Provincial organization
The layout of Spain's provinces closely follows the pattern of the
territorial division of the country carried out in 1833. The only major change of provincial borders since that time has been the subdivision of the
Canary Islands into two provinces rather than one.
Historically, the provinces served mainly as transmission belts for policies enacted in Madrid, as Spain was a highly centralised state for most of its modern history. The importance of the provinces has declined since the adoption of the system of autonomous communities in the period of the
Spanish transition to democracy. They nevertheless remain
electoral
An election is a formal group decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold public office.
Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy has operat ...
districts for national elections and as geographical references: for instance in
postal addresses and telephone codes. National media will also frequently use the province to disambiguate small towns or communities whose names occur frequently throughout Spain.
A small town would normally be identified as being in, say,
Valladolid province
Valladolid () is a province of northwest Spain, in the central part of the autonomous community of Castile and León. It has a population of 520,716 people in a total of 225 municipalities, an area of and a population density of 64.19 people per ...
rather than the
autonomous community
eu, autonomia erkidegoa
ca, comunitat autònoma
gl, comunidade autónoma
oc, comunautat autonòma
an, comunidat autonoma
ast, comunidá autónoma
, alt_name =
, map =
, category = Autonomous administra ...
of
Castile and León. The provinces were the "building-blocks" from which the autonomous communities were created. Consequently, no province is divided between more than one of these communities.
Most of the provinces—with the exceptions of
Álava
Álava ( in Spanish) or Araba (), officially Araba/Álava, is a province of Spain and a historical territory of the Basque Country, heir of the ancient Lordship of Álava, former medieval Catholic bishopric and now Latin titular see.
Its c ...
,
Asturias
Asturias (, ; ast, Asturies ), officially the Principality of Asturias ( es, Principado de Asturias; ast, Principáu d'Asturies; Galician-Asturian: ''Principao d'Asturias''), is an autonomous community in northwest Spain.
It is coextensiv ...
,
Biscay
Biscay (; eu, Bizkaia ; es, Vizcaya ) is a province of Spain and a historical territory of the Basque Country, heir of the ancient Lordship of Biscay, lying on the south shore of the eponymous bay. The capital and largest city is Bilbao.
B ...
,
Cantabria
Cantabria (, also , , Cantabrian: ) is an autonomous community in northern Spain with Santander as its capital city. It is called a ''comunidad histórica'', a historic community, in its current Statute of Autonomy. It is bordered on the east ...
,
Gipuzkoa
Gipuzkoa (, , ; es, Guipúzcoa ; french: Guipuscoa) is a province of Spain and a historical territory of the autonomous community of the Basque Country. Its capital city is Donostia-San Sebastián. Gipuzkoa shares borders with the French depa ...
, the
Balearic Islands,
La Rioja
La Rioja () is an autonomous community and province in Spain, in the north of the Iberian Peninsula. Its capital is Logroño. Other cities and towns in the province include Calahorra, Arnedo, Alfaro, Haro, Santo Domingo de la Calzada, an ...
, and
Navarre—are named after their principal town. Only two capitals of autonomous communities—
Mérida in
Extremadura
Extremadura (; ext, Estremaúra; pt, Estremadura; Fala: ''Extremaúra'') is an autonomous community of Spain. Its capital city is Mérida, and its largest city is Badajoz. Located in the central-western part of the Iberian Peninsula, it ...
and
Santiago de Compostela
Santiago de Compostela is the capital of the autonomous community of Galicia, in northwestern Spain. The city has its origin in the shrine of Saint James the Great, now the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, as the destination of the Way of S ...
in
Galicia—are not also the capitals of provinces.
Seven of the autonomous communities comprise no more than one province each: Asturias, the Balearic Islands, Cantabria, La Rioja,
Madrid
Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...
,
Murcia
Murcia (, , ) is a city in south-eastern Spain, the capital and most populous city of the autonomous community of the Region of Murcia, and the seventh largest city in the country. It has a population of 460,349 inhabitants in 2021 (about one ...
, and Navarre. These are sometimes referred to as "uniprovincial" communities.
Ceuta
Ceuta (, , ; ar, سَبْتَة, Sabtah) is a Spanish autonomous city on the north coast of Africa.
Bordered by Morocco, it lies along the boundary between the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. It is one of several Spanish territorie ...
,
Melilla, and the
plazas de soberanía are not part of any provinces.
![Provinces of Spain](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5a/Provinces_of_Spain.svg)
The table below lists the provinces of Spain. For each, the capital city is given, together with an indication of the autonomous community to which it belongs and a link to a list of municipalities in the province. The names of the provinces and their capitals are ordered alphabetically according to the form in which they appear in the main Wikipedia articles describing them. Unless otherwise indicated, their
Spanish-language names are the same; locally valid names in Spain's other co-official languages (
Basque
Basque may refer to:
* Basques, an ethnic group of Spain and France
* Basque language, their language
Places
* Basque Country (greater region), the homeland of the Basque people with parts in both Spain and France
* Basque Country (autonomous co ...
,
Catalan
Catalan may refer to:
Catalonia
From, or related to Catalonia:
* Catalan language, a Romance language
* Catalans, an ethnic group formed by the people from, or with origins in, Northern or southern Catalonia
Places
* 13178 Catalan, asteroid #1 ...
, which is officially called
Valencian
Valencian () or Valencian language () is the official, historical and traditional name used in the Valencian Community (Spain), and unofficially in the El Carche comarca in Murcia (Spain), to refer to the Romance language also known as Catal ...
in 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 ...
,
Galician) are also indicated where they differ.
Provinces
Notes
References
Bibliography
*
*
*
*
See also
*
Political divisions of Spain
The political division of the Kingdom of Spain is defined in Part VIII of the Spanish constitution of 1978, which establishes three levels of territorial organization: municipalities, provinces and autonomous communities, the first group constituti ...
*
Local government in Spain
Local government in Spain refers to the government and administration of what the Constitution calls "local entities", which are primarily municipalities, but also groups of municipalities including provinces, metropolitan areas, comarcas and manco ...
*
Autonomous communities of Spain
eu, autonomia erkidegoa
ca, comunitat autònoma
gl, comunidade autónoma
oc, comunautat autonòma
an, comunidat autonoma
ast, comunidá autónoma
, alt_name =
, map =
, category = Autonomous administra ...
*
Comarcas of Spain
In Spain, a ''comarca'' (, sing. ''comarca'')
is either a traditional territorial division without any formal basis, or a group of municipalities, legally defined by an autonomous community for the purpose of providing common local government ...
*
ISO 3166-2:ES
*
List of provincial flags of Spain
This is a list of flags of provinces of Spain. The flags are listed per autonomous community. The list also discusses coat of arms as most flags feature them.
Andalusia
Flag Almería Province.svg,
Flag Cádiz Province.svg,
Provincia de Córdob ...
*
List of Spanish provinces by area
*
List of Spanish provinces by population
Autonomous communities
Provinces
This is a list of the provinces of Spain in order of population.
Note: Ceuta and Melilla are autonomous cities ("''ciudades autonómas''") as both are located in North Africa and do not belong to an autonomo ...
*
Spanish Federation of Municipalities and Provinces
The Spanish Federation of Municipalities and Provinces (FEMP) is a Spanish association of local entities that groups town councils, provincial councils, insular councils and insular cabildos. Approximately 7,331 entities are represented.
The fo ...
External links
Maps of the provinces of Spainfrom the Spanis
INE(
National Statistics Institute National Institute of Statistics may refer to:
*National Institute of Statistics of Bolivia
*National Institute of Statistics of Cambodia
*National Institute of Statistics and Census of Costa Rica
*National Institute of Statistics and Census of Nica ...
)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Provinces of Spain
Spain 2
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 ...
Spain
, image_flag = Bandera de España.svg
, image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg
, national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond")
, national_anthem = (English: "Royal March")
, i ...
Spain geography-related lists
Subdivisions of Spain