Municipalities of Portugal - Geography

Geography

Portugal is divided into 18 districts (Portuguese: distritos) and 2 autonomous regions (Portuguese: regiões autónomas), Azores and Madeira. The districts and autonomous regions are further sub-divided into 308 municipalities (Portuguese: municípios or concelhos). The municipality is usually much larger than the city or town after which it is named.

District / Autonomous region Municipalities
1. Aveiro
19
2. Beja
14
3. Braga
14
4. Bragança
12
5. Castelo Branco
11
6. Coimbra
17
7. Évora
14
8. Faro
16
9. Guarda
14
10. Leiria
16
11. Lisbon
16
12. Portalegre
15
13. Porto
18
14. Santarém
21
15. Setúbal
13
16. Viana do Castelo
10
17. Vila Real
14
18. Viseu
24
19. Açores
19
20. Madeira
11

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

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

Read more about this topic:  Municipalities Of Portugal

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