View source for Municipalities of Portugal

{{Short description|none}} <!-- "none" is preferred when the title is sufficiently descriptive; see [[WP:SDNONE]] -->
{{Infobox subdivision type
| name              = Municipality    
| alt_name          = [[Concelho]]
| map               = [[File:Portugal municipalities districts.png|200px]]              
| category          = 2nd-level [[administrative division]]        
| territory         = [[Portugal]]  
| upper_unit        = [[Administrative divisions of Portugal#Administrative regions|Administrative region]] <br> [[Autonomous Regions of Portugal|Autonomous region]]
| start_date        = [[Middle Ages]]  
| legislation_begin = 
| legislation_end   = 
| end_date          = 
| current_number    = 308  
| number_date       = 
| type              = 
| status            = 
| exofficio         = 
| population_range  = 437–575,739
| area_range        = 7.9–1,720.6 km<sup>2</sup>    
| government        = [[Municipal Chamber]] <br /> [[Assembleia Municipal|Municipal Assembly]]
| subdivision       = {{Lang|pt|[[Freguesia]]}} (civil parish)
}}

{{Politics of Portugal}}

The '''municipality''' ({{langx|pt|[[município]]}} or {{lang|pt|[[concelho]]}}) is the second-level [[Administrative divisions of Portugal|administrative subdivision]] of [[Portugal]], as defined by the [[Constitution of Portugal|1976 Constitution]].<ref name="Cons05">{{cite web|title=7th Constitutional Revision|url=http://app.parlamento.pt/site_antigo/ingles/cons_leg/Constitution_VII_revisao_definitive.pdf|access-date=13 August 2014|publisher=[[Assembly of the Republic (Portugal)]]|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141022091934/http://app.parlamento.pt/site_antigo/ingles/cons_leg/Constitution_VII_revisao_definitive.pdf|archive-date=22 October 2014}}</ref>

As a general rule, each municipality is further subdivided into [[freguesia|parishes]] (''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 Municipality, Portugal|Barcelos]], with 61 parishes, has the most. [[Corvo (Azores)|Corvo]] is, by law, the only municipality with no parishes.

Since the creation of a democratic local administration, in 1976, the Portuguese municipalities have been ruled by a system composed of an executive body (the [[Câmara Municipal|municipal chamber]]) and a deliberative body (the [[Assembleia Municipal|municipal assembly]]). 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 [[Assembleia Municipal|municipal assembly]] is composed of the presidents of all the parishes that compose the municipality, as well as by a number of directly elected deputies, at least equal to the number of parish presidents plus one. Both bodies are elected for four years.<ref name="Cons05"/>

[[Portugal]] has an entirely separate system of ceremonial [[list of cities in Portugal|cities]] and [[list of towns in Portugal|towns]]. Cities and towns are located in municipalities but often do not have the same boundaries, even they are continuously built up. There are around twice as many cities and towns as there are municipalities.

==History==
The municipality has been the most stable subdivision of [[Portugal]] since the foundation of the country in the 12th century.<ref name="Silveira">{{cite web|first=Luís|last=Silveira|title=Origins and Evolution of the Portuguese Administrative System in Comparative Perspective|url=http://www.geog.port.ac.uk/hist-bound/papers/portugese_admin_system.htm|publisher=Universidade Nova de Lisboa|date=May 2000|location=Lisbon, Portugal}} {{free access}}</ref><ref name="SOP">Manuel Lima (2005), {{cite web |url=http://www.shapesofportugal.com/sop/divisoes/ |title=Divisões Administrativas de Portugal: Um olhar pela diversidade da divisão territorial portuguesa |access-date=2011-03-20 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110305072934/http://www.shapesofportugal.com/sop/divisoes/ |archive-date=5 March 2011 |language=pt}}</ref> They have their origin in the ''[[foral]]'', a legal document, issued by the [[King of Portugal]], which assigned privileges to a town or a region. The present subdivisions have their origins in the 19th century after the administrative reforms conducted by the middle of the 19th century by the governments of the [[History of Portugal (1834-1910)|constitutional monarchy]].

The ''concelhos'' probably formed after the expulsion of the [[Visigoths|Visigothic]] rulers by the Moors during the [[Umayyad conquest of Hispania]]. Towns were thus left free to govern themselves, and the population started to organize in councils (''concelhos'' in Portuguese) in order to govern the town and surrounding lands. These were also a reminder of Roman municipalities.

The existence since the Middle Ages of a large number of small municipalities with no financial resources and without people qualified to take part in municipal councils caused the stagnation of their growth. The Liberal revolution of 1836, resulted in the suppression/annexation of many of these smaller municipalities, which allowed the infusion of new revenues and facilitated growth in population and size.<ref name=Silveira/>

==Geography==
{{See also|List of municipalities of Portugal}}

There are 308 municipalities in Portugal: 278 in [[continental Portugal|mainland Portugal]], 19 in the [[Autonomous Regions of Portugal|autonomous region]] of the [[Azores]], and 11 in [[Madeira]]. They are usually named for their biggest city, or at least, their historically most important city or town. However, the municipality is not synonymous with the city (or urban centre) and can include various towns or cities. In Portugal, cities/towns are a social distinction based on population size and associated services and have no legal representation in law or constitution. 

Portugal has no [[unincorporated area]]s; all the national territory belongs to a municipality, including uninhabited islands: [[Berlengas]] to [[Peniche, Portugal|Peniche]], [[Desertas Islands]] to [[Santa Cruz (Madeira)|Santa Cruz]], [[Selvagens Islands]] to [[Funchal]], and [[Formigas Islets]] to [[Vila do Porto]].

Portugal is divided into 18 continental districts ({{Langx|pt|distritos}}) and two [[Autonomous Regions of Portugal|autonomous regions]] ({{langx|pt|regiões autónomas}}), [[Azores]] and [[Madeira]]. The table below is the distribution of the municipalities within these districts and the autonomous regions:

[[File:Portugal municipalities districts2.png|left|thumb|300px|The 18 districts and 2 autonomous regions of [[Portugal]], subdivided into their municipalities.]]

{| class="wikitable sortable"
|-
! Order
! District/Autonomous Region
! Municipalities
|-
|-
|01. 
| [[Aveiro District|Aveiro]] ||{{center|'''19'''}}
|-
|02. 
| [[Beja District|Beja]] ||{{center|'''14'''}}
|-
|03. 
| [[Braga District|Braga]] ||{{center|'''14'''}}
|-
|04. 
| [[Bragança District|Bragança]] ||{{center|'''12'''}}
|-
|05. 
|[[Castelo Branco District|Castelo Branco]] ||{{center|'''11'''}}
|-
|06. 
| [[Coimbra District|Coimbra]] ||{{center|'''17'''}}
|-
|07. 
| [[Évora District|Évora]] ||{{center|'''14'''}}
|-
|08. 
| [[Faro (Portuguese district)|Faro]] ||{{center|'''16'''}}
|-
|09. 
| [[Guarda District|Guarda]] ||{{center|'''14'''}}
|-
||10. 
| [[Leiria District|Leiria]] ||{{center|'''16'''}}
|-
||11. 
| [[Lisbon District|Lisbon]] ||{{center|'''16'''}}
|-
||12. 
| [[Portalegre District|Portalegre]] ||{{center|'''15'''}}
|-
||13. 
| [[Porto District|Porto]] ||{{center|'''18'''}}
|-
||14. 
| [[Santarém District|Santarém]] ||{{center|'''21'''}}
|-
||15. 
| [[Setúbal District|Setúbal]] ||{{center|'''13'''}}
|-
||16. 
| [[Viana do Castelo District|Viana do Castelo]] ||{{center|'''10'''}}
|-
||17. 
| [[Vila Real District|Vila Real]] ||{{center|'''14'''}}
|-
||18. 
| [[Viseu District|Viseu]] ||{{center|'''24'''}}
|-
|19. 
| [[Azores]] ||{{center|'''19'''}}
|-
||20. 
| [[Madeira]] ||{{center|'''11'''}}
|}

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

The most populous municipalities are those located near the sea, and especially around the [[metropolitan area]]s of [[Lisbon]], [[Porto]], and [[Braga]], while the less populous municipalities are located in the inland regions of [[Alentejo]] and [[Trás-os-Montes (region)|Trás-os-Montes]]. The municipalities with the lowest [[population density|population densities]] are also found in these inland regions, with smaller populations distributed over a greater area.

===Demographics===
The following chart show municipalities (as of 2024) with populations over 100,000.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.ine.pt/xportal/xmain?xpid=INE&xpgid=ine_indicadores&indOcorrCod=0012918&contexto=bd&selTab=tab2|title=População residente (N.º) por Local de residência (NUTS - 2024), Sexo e Grupo etário; Anual|publisher=[[Instituto Nacional de Estatística (Portugal)|INE]]|access-date=18 June 2024|date=18 June 2025}}</ref> Around 190 municipalities have less than 20,000 inhabitants each.

{| class="wikitable sortable" | border="1" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" style="border: 1px solid #afafaf; border-collapse: collapse;" 
|-style="background: #efefef;"
!align=right| Rank
!align=left| Municipality
!align=right| Population
!align=right| Land area (km<sup>2</sup>)
!align=right| Density (people/km<sup>2</sup>)
!align=left| Metropolitan area
|-align=right
|1 ||align=left| [[Lisbon]] || '''575,739''' || 100.1 || 5,755 || align=left rowspan=2| [[Lisbon metropolitan area|Lisbon]]
|-align=right
|2 ||align=left| [[Sintra]] || '''400,947''' || 319.2 || 1,256
|-align=right
|3 ||align=left| [[Vila Nova de Gaia]] || '''312,984''' || 168.5 || 1,858 || align=left rowspan=2| [[Porto metropolitan area|Porto]]
|-align=right
|4 ||align=left| [[Porto]] || '''252,687''' || 41.4 || 6,101
|-align=right
|5 ||align=left| [[Cascais]] || '''222,339''' || 97.4 || 2,283 || align=left rowspan=2| [[Lisbon metropolitan area|Lisbon]]
|-align=right
|6 ||align=left| [[Loures]] || '''209,877''' || 167.2 || 1,255
|-align=right
|7 ||align=left| [[Braga]] || '''203,519''' || 183.4 || 1,110
|-align=right
|8 ||align=left| [[Almada]] || '''183,643''' || 70.2 || 2,616 || align=left rowspan=2| [[Lisbon metropolitan area|Lisbon]]
|-align=right
|9 ||align=left| [[Amadora]] || '''181,607''' || 23.8 || 7,637 
|-align=right
|10 ||align=left| [[Matosinhos]] || '''181,046''' || 62.4 || 2,900 || align=left| [[Porto metropolitan area|Porto]]
|-align=right
|11 ||align=left| [[Oeiras, Portugal|Oeiras]] || '''177,866''' || 45.9 || 3,877 || align=left rowspan=2| [[Lisbon metropolitan area|Lisbon]]
|-align=right
|12 ||align=left| [[Seixal]] || '''176,883''' || 95.5 || 1,852
|-align=right
|13 ||align=left| [[Gondomar, Portugal|Gondomar]] || '''169,388''' || 133.9 || 1,285 || align=left| [[Porto metropolitan area|Porto]]
|-align=right
|14 ||align=left| [[Guimarães]] || '''156,513''' || 241.0 || 650
|-align=right
|15 ||align=left| [[Odivelas]] || '''156,278''' || 26.5 || 5,888 || align=left| [[Lisbon metropolitan area|Lisbon]]
|-align=right
|16 ||align=left| [[Coimbra]] || '''146,899''' || 319.4 || 460
|-align=right
|17 ||align=left| [[Maia Municipality|Maia]] || '''144,664''' || 83.0 || 1,743 || align=left | [[Porto metropolitan area|Porto]]
|-align=right
|18 ||align=left| [[Vila Franca de Xira]] || '''140,711''' || 318.2 || 442 || align=left| [[Lisbon metropolitan area|Lisbon]]
|-align=right
|19 ||align=left| [[Santa Maria da Feira]] || '''140,568''' || 215.9 || 651 || align=left | [[Porto metropolitan area|Porto]]
|-align=right
|20 ||align=left| [[Vila Nova de Famalicão]] || '''136,704''' || 201.6 || 678
|-align=right
|21 ||align=left| [[Leiria]] || '''136,006''' || 565.1 || 241
|-align=right
|22 ||align=left| [[Setúbal]] || '''124,339''' || 230.3 || 540 || align=left| [[Lisbon metropolitan area|Lisbon]]
|-align=right
|23 ||align=left| [[Barcelos, Portugal|Barcelos]] || '''116,959''' || 378.9 || 309
|-align=right
|24 ||align=left| [[Funchal]] || '''108,129''' || 76.1 || 1,420
|-align=right
|25 ||align=left| [[Viseu]] || '''103,502''' || 507.1 || 204
|-align=right
|26 ||align=left| [[Valongo]] || '''101,464''' || 75.1 || 1,351 || align=left| [[Porto metropolitan area|Porto]]
|}

==See also==
{{portal|Portugal}}
* [[List of municipalities of Portugal]]
* [[Municipality]]
* [[Subdivisions of Portugal]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

{{Articles on second-level administrative divisions of European countries}}
{{Portugal topics}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Municipalities Of Portugal}}

[[Category:Municipalities of Portugal| ]]
[[Category:Administrative divisions of Portugal]]
[[Category:Administrative divisions in Europe|Portugal 2]]
[[Category:Second-level administrative divisions by country|Municipalities, Portugal]]