Altitude, surface area and population. Municipalities

Altitude

Distance in height from one point, measured in metres, with respect to sea level, taking Alicante as the reference.

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.

Surface area

Extension of the territory, measured in square kilometres, which lies within the administrative boundaries of a certain municipality. Also includes enclaves that some municipalities have that are located within other counties.

A partir de 2021 la font d’informació és el cens de població.

El Cens de població té periodicitat anual a partir de l’any 2021 i s'elabora mitjançant la combinació de registres administratius, on el Padró d'habitants n'és l'element bàsic. En l’elaboració del Cens de població s'apliquen tractaments i procediments estadístics que inclouen contrastos amb altres fonts i permeten oferir un recompte estadístic més acurat de la població i de les seves característiques que el Padró d'habitants.