Autonomous Communities of Spain - Constitutional and Statutory Framework - Subdivisions

Subdivisions

See also: provinces of Spain, municipalities of Spain, comarques of Catalonia, and vegueries

The Spanish constitution recognizes the municipalities and guarantees their autonomy. Town halls (in Spanish: ayuntamientos) are in charge of the municipalities' government and administration, and they are integrated by a major (in Spanish alcalde) and councilors (in Spanish: concejales), the latter elected by universal suffrage, and the former elected either by the councilor or by suffrage.

Provinces are groups of municipalities and recognized by the constitution. Their competences and institutions of government vary greatly among communities. In all communities integrated by more than province, provinces are governed by "Provincial Deputations" (in Spanish: Diputaciones Provinciales), with a limited scope administrative competences. In the Basque Country, the provinces, renamed as "historical territories" (in Spanish: territorios históricos, in Basque: lurralde historiko), are governed by "Chartered Deputations" (in Spanish: Diputaciones Forales, in Basque: Foru Aldundi)—with assume the competences of a provincial deputation as well as the fiscal powers of their "chartered regime—and by "General Juntas" (in Spanish: Juntas Generales, in Basque: Biltzar Nagusiak)—parliaments with legislative powers. In the Canary Islands and the Balearic Islands, each major island is governed by an "Insular Council" (in Spanish: Consejo Insular or Cabildo Insular, in Catalan: Consell Insular). In Catalonia, the "Provincial Deputations" have very little power, as other territorial subdivisions have been created. Finally, in those seven autonomous communities formed by a single province, the Provincial Deputations have been replaced by the communities' institutions of government; in fact, the provinces themselves are not only coterminous with the communities, but correspond in essence to the communities themselves. The two-tier territorial organization common to most communities—first province, then municipalities—is therefore non-existent in these "uniprovincial" communities.

Capitals and provinces that integrate the autonomous communities

Autonomous community	Capital	Provinces
Andalusia	Seville	Almería, Cádiz, Cordova, Granada, Huelva, Jaén, Málaga and Seville
Aragon	Zaragoza	Huesca, Teruel and Zaragoza
Asturias	Oviedo	(Asturias)
Balearic Islands	Palma	(Balearic Islands)
Basque Country	Vitoria-Gasteiz	Álava, Gipuzkoa and Biscay
Canary Islands	Las Palmas and Santa Cruz de Tenerife	Santa Cruz de Tenerife and Las Palmas
Cantabria	Santander	(Cantabria)
Castile-La Mancha	Toledo	Albacete, Ciudad Real, Cuenca, Guadalajara and Toledo
Castile and León	Valladolid and Burgos	Ávila, Burgos, León, Palencia, Salamanca, Segovia, Soria, Valladolid and Zamora
Catalonia	Barcelona	Barcelona, Girona, Lleida and Tarragona
Community of Madrid	Madrid	(Madrid)
Extremadura	Mérida	Badajoz and Cáceres
Galicia	Santiago de Compostela	A Coruña, Lugo, Ourense and Pontevedra
La Rioja	Logroño	(La Rioja)
Murcia	Murcia	(Murcia)
Navarre	Pamplona	(Navarre)
Valencian Community	Valencia	Alicante, Castellón and Valencia

The constitution also allows the creation of other territorial entities formed by groups of municipalities. One of such territorial subdivision is the comarca (equivalent of a "shire" or "county"). While all communities have unofficial historical, cultural or "natural" comarcas, only in Aragon and Catalonia they have been legally recognized as territorial entities with administrative powers.