Provinces of Spain

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources:  –  ·  ·  · scholar · JSTOR (May 2012) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

Provinces of Spain
Category	Province
Location	Spain
Found in	Autonomous community
Created by	Royal Decree (30/11/1833)
Created	1833
Number	50
Populations	95,258–6,458,684
Areas	1,980–21,766 km²
Government	Provincial council
Subdivisions	Municipality

Spain and its 17 autonomous communities are subdivided into 50 provinces (Spanish: provincias, IPA: [pɾoˈβinθjas]; sing. provincia).^{[note 1]} Spain's provincial system was recognized in its 1978 Constitution but its origin dates back to 1833 with a similar predecessor from 1822 (during the Trienio Liberal). Ceuta, Melilla, and the plazas de soberanía are not part of any provinces.

Provincial organization[]

This section does not cite any sources. Please help by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (January 2016) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

The layout of Spain's provinces closely follows the pattern of the territorial division of the country carried out in 1833. The only major change of provincial borders since that time has been the subdivision of the Canary Islands into two provinces rather than one.

Historically, the provinces served mainly as transmission belts for policies enacted in Madrid, as Spain was a highly centralised state for most of its modern history. The importance of the provinces has declined since the adoption of the system of autonomous communities in the period of the Spanish transition to democracy. They nevertheless remain electoral districts for national elections and as geographical references: for instance in postal addresses and telephone codes. National media will also frequently use the province to disambiguate small towns or communities whose names occur frequently throughout Spain.

A small town would normally be identified as being in, say, Valladolid province rather than the autonomous community of Castile and León. The provinces were the "building-blocks" from which the autonomous communities were created. Consequently, no province is divided between more than one of these communities.

Most of the provinces—with the exceptions of Álava, Asturias, Biscay, Cantabria, Gipuzkoa, the Balearic Islands, La Rioja, and Navarre—are named after their principal town. Only two capitals of autonomous communities—Mérida in Extremadura and Santiago de Compostela in Galicia—are not also the capitals of provinces.

Seven of the autonomous communities comprise no more than one province each: Asturias, the Balearic Islands, Cantabria, La Rioja, Madrid, Murcia, and Navarre. These are sometimes referred to as "uniprovincial" communities.

A map of Spain's provinces. Names are shown in Spanish.

The table below lists the provinces of Spain. For each, the capital city is given, together with an indication of the autonomous community to which it belongs and a link to a list of municipalities in the province. The names of the provinces and their capitals are ordered alphabetically according to the form in which they appear in the main Wikipedia articles describing them. Unless otherwise indicated, their Spanish-language names are the same; locally valid names in Spain's other co-official languages (Basque, Catalan, which is officially called Valencian in the Valencian Community, Galician) are also indicated where they differ.

Provinces[]

Province name	Capital	Autonomous community	Lists of municipalities
La Coruña (Spanish); A Coruña (Galician)	La Coruña (Spanish); A Coruña (Galician)	Galicia	Municipalities
Álava (Spanish); Araba (Basque)	Vitoria (Spanish); Gasteiz (Basque)	Basque Country	Municipalities
Albacete	Albacete	Castilla-La Mancha	Municipalities
Alicante (Spanish); Alacant (Valencian)	Alicante; Alacant (Valencian)	Valencian Community	Municipalities
Almería	Almería	Andalusia	Municipalities
Asturias	Oviedo	Asturias	Municipalities
Ávila	Ávila	Castile and León	Municipalities
Badajoz	Badajoz	Extremadura	Municipalities
Balearic Islands (English); Illes Balears (Catalan); Islas Baleares (Spanish)	Palma	Balearic Islands	Municipalities
Barcelona	Barcelona	Catalonia	Municipalities
Biscay (English); Vizcaya (Spanish); Bizkaia (Basque)	Bilbao	Basque Country	Municipalities
Burgos	Burgos	Castile and León	Municipalities
Cáceres	Cáceres	Extremadura	Municipalities
Cádiz	Cádiz	Andalusia	Municipalities
Cantabria	Santander	Cantabria	Municipalities
Castellón (Spanish); Castelló (Valencian)	Castellón de la Plana; Castelló de la Plana (Valencian)	Valencian Community	Municipalities
Ciudad Real	Ciudad Real	Castilla-La Mancha	Municipalities
Córdoba	Córdoba	Andalusia	Municipalities
Cuenca	Cuenca	Castilla-La Mancha	Municipalities
Guipúzcoa (Spanish); Gipuzkoa (Basque)	San Sebastián (Spanish); Donostia (Basque)	Basque Country	Municipalities
Girona (Catalan); Gerona (Spanish)	Girona (Catalan); Gerona (Spanish)	Catalonia	Municipalities
Granada	Granada	Andalusia	Municipalities
Guadalajara	Guadalajara	Castilla-La Mancha	Municipalities
Huelva	Huelva	Andalusia	Municipalities
Huesca	Huesca (Spanish language)	Aragon	Municipalities
Jaén	Jaén	Andalusia	Municipalities
La Rioja	Logroño	La Rioja	Municipalities
Las Palmas	Las Palmas	Canary Islands	Municipalities
León	León	Castile and León	Municipalities
Lleida (Catalan); Lérida (Spanish)	Lleida (Catalan); Lérida (Spanish)	Catalonia	Municipalities
Lugo	Lugo	Galicia	Municipalities
Madrid	Madrid	Community of Madrid	Municipalities
Málaga	Málaga	Andalusia	Municipalities
Murcia	Murcia	Region of Murcia	Municipalities
Navarre;	Pamplona; Iruña (Basque)	Navarre	Municipalities
Ourense (Galician); Orense (Spanish)	Ourense (Galician); Orense (Spanish)	Galicia	Municipalities
Palencia	Palencia	Castile and León	Municipalities
Pontevedra	Pontevedra	Galicia	Municipalities
Salamanca	Salamanca	Castile and León	Municipalities
Santa Cruz de Tenerife	Santa Cruz de Tenerife	Canary Islands	Municipalities
Segovia	Segovia	Castile and León	Municipalities
Seville; Sevilla (Spanish)	Seville; Sevilla (Spanish)	Andalusia	Municipalities
Soria	Soria	Castile and León	Municipalities
Tarragona	Tarragona	Catalonia	Municipalities
Teruel	Teruel	Aragon	Municipalities
Toledo	Toledo	Castilla-La Mancha	Municipalities
Valencia; València (Valencian)	Valencia; València (Valencian)	Valencian Community	Municipalities
Valladolid	Valladolid	Castile and León	Municipalities
Zamora	Zamora	Castile and León	Municipalities
Zaragoza	Zaragoza	Aragon	Municipalities

Notes[]

See also[]

• Autonomous communities of Spain
• Comarcas of Spain
• ISO 3166-2:ES
• List of provincial flags of Spain
• List of Spanish provinces by area
• List of Spanish provinces by population
• Spanish Federation of Municipalities and Provinces

General[]

• Political divisions of Spain

External links[]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Provinces of Spain.

• Maps of the provinces of Spain
• List of municipalities of Spain listed by province from the Spanish INE (National Statistics Institute) (in Spanish)