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Number of municipalities and population. Counties and Aran

Number of municipalities and population. Counties and Aran 2024
County County capital Provinces the municipalities belong to Number of municipalities Population
Alt Camp Valls Tarragona 23 46,388
Alt Empordà Figueres Girona 68 148,732
Alt Penedès Vilafranca del Penedès Barcelona 27 114,189
Alt Urgell Seu d'Urgell, la Lleida 19 21,128
Alta Ribagorça Pont de Suert, el Lleida 3 4,040
Anoia Igualada Barcelona 33 128,432
Aran Vielha e Mijaran Lleida 9 10,545
Bages Manresa Barcelona 29 185,352
Baix Camp Reus Tarragona 28 204,458
Baix Ebre Tortosa Tarragona 14 82,399
Baix Empordà Bisbal d'Empordà, la Girona 36 143,443
Baix Llobregat St. Feliu de Llobregat Barcelona 30 848,827
Baix Penedès Vendrell, el Tarragona 14 118,350
Barcelonès Barcelona Barcelona 5 2,354,301
Berguedà Berga Barcelona/Lleida (1) 30 41,058
Cerdanya Puigcerdà Girona/Lleida (2) 17 20,115
Conca de Barberà Montblanc Tarragona 22 20,569
Garraf Vilanova i la Geltrú Barcelona 6 161,907
Garrigues Borges Blanques, les Lleida 24 19,075
Garrotxa Olot Girona 21 62,449
Gironès Girona Girona 27 205,573
Lluçanès Prats de Lluçanès Barcelona 13 5,718
Maresme Mataró Barcelona 30 472,572
Moianès Moià Barcelona 10 14,758
Montsià Amposta Tarragona 12 71,460
Noguera Balaguer Lleida 30 39,727
Osona Vic Barcelona/Girona (3) 39 164,006
Pallars Jussà Tremp Lleida 14 13,383
Pallars Sobirà Sort Lleida 15 7,332
Pla d'Urgell Mollerussa Lleida 16 38,111
Pla de l'Estany Banyoles Girona 11 33,564
Priorat Falset Tarragona 23 9,420
Ribera d'Ebre Móra d'Ebre Tarragona 14 22,132
Ripollès Ripoll Girona 19 25,826
Segarra Cervera Lleida 21 22,667
Segrià Lleida Lleida 38 217,853
Selva Sta. Coloma de Farners Girona/Barcelona (4) 26 185,264
Solsonès Solsona Lleida 15 15,323
Tarragonès Tarragona Tarragona 22 275,122
Terra Alta Gandesa Tarragona 12 11,446
Urgell Tàrrega Lleida 20 38,531
Vallès Occidental Sabadell i Terrassa Barcelona 23 960,033
Vallès Oriental Granollers Barcelona 39 426,653
Catalonia 947 8,012,231
Source: Idescat, based on the INE Annual Population Census.
Notes:
(1) Includes municipality of Gósol.
As of May 2023, the data are presented according to the current territorial distribution (in accordance with Law 7/2023, on the creation of El Lluçanès county, which also territorially modifies El Bages and Osona).
(2) Includes municipalities of Bellver de Cerdanya, Lles de Cerdanya, Montellà i Martinet, Prats i Sansor, Prullans and Riu de Cerdanya.
(3) Includes municipalities of Viladrau, Espinelves and Vidrà.
(4) Includes municipality of Fogars de la Selva.

Last update: December 19, 2024.

Methodological note

Definition of concepts

Territorial area
Group of simple counties established by law, the aim of which is the development of sectorial territorial plans and the possible decentralisation of the Generalitat's services derived from the development of these plans. Law 23/2010, of July 22, on the creation of the area of Penedès, modifies the previous laws (Law 1/19965, of March 16; Law 24/2001, of December 31) and divides Catalonia into eight territorial planning regions.
County
Local territorial entity, institutionalised by Law 6/1987, of April 4, in the county organisation of Catalonia. It is made up of a group of contiguous municipalities that have their own autonomy and legal personality. The Statute attributes them the character of being necessary parts of the territorial organisation of Catalonia, along with municipalities. The county organisation applies throughout the territory of Catalonia, and no municipality can be excluded nor may form part of more than one county. The territory of the county is the area over which the county council exercises its responsibilities and is defined by the boundaries of the group of municipal regions of the municipalities that it consists of.
Municipality
Administrative constituency of a territorial nature, governed by a council, considered the basic unit of territorial organisation and primary element of citizen participation in public affairs, as established by Law 8/1987, of April 15 on municipalities and the local regime for Catalonia. A municipality enjoys its own autonomy, is of a legal character and has full capacity to exercise the public functions bestowed upon it, in order to represent the interests of its respective collective and to manage the public services that it assumed ownership of. The government and administration of the municipality correspond to the municipal council.
Population
All inhabitants of a given place. Since 1996, when the continuous management system was established for the Municipal Population Register, in accordance with Royal Decree 2612/1996, of December 20, official population figures for municipalities have been obtained annually using data referred to January 1 of each year.
Province
Local territorial entity formed by a contiguous group of municipalities, of a legal nature and with full capacity to accomplish its aims, in accordance with Law 7/1985, which regulates the standards for the local regime. These aims are: to coordinate municipal services is order to guarantee the integral and adequate provision of these services throughout the territory of the province; to facilitate legal, judicial, economic and specialist assistance and cooperation with the municipalities; to provide supra-county level public services and to foster and administrate the particular interests of the province. Government and administration of Catalan provinces corresponds to the respective provincial councils, or deputations.

Methodological aspects

The new county of El Moianès was created on 1 May 2015 (Law 4/2015, of 23 April, on the creation of the county of El Moianès) from the aggregation of five municipalities of the county of El Bages, one from the county of Osona and four from the county of El Vallès Oriental.

You can get more information about these statistics in the methodology.