Comarques of Catalonia



Comarques of Catalonia


The comarques of Catalonia, often referred to in English as counties, are an administrative division of Catalonia. Each comarca comprises a number of municipalities, roughly equivalent to a county in the United States. Currently, Catalonia is divided into 42 comarques and Aran, considered a "unique territorial entity" and not a comarca.
Each comarca has a representative county council, except for Barcelonès, which abolished it in 2019, and Aran, which instead has the Conselh Generau d'Aran.
Comarques form the second-level administrative division within Catalonia, being a subdivision of vegueries.

Overview

Although today the comarques are officially defined under a Catalan parliamentary act, for centuries they had existed unofficially, with citizens identifying with a particular comarca in the same way that people in other parts of the world might identify with a particular region.
In some cases, comarques consist of rural areas and many small villages centring on an important town, where the people of the region traditionally go to shop or to sell their goods. This is the case of comarques such as the Pla de l'Estany, centred on the town of Banyoles, or the Ripollès, centred on the town of Ripoll. In other cases, comarques are larger areas with many important population centres that have traditionally been considered part of the same region, as in the case of the Empordà or Vallès.
The current official division of Catalonia into comarques originates in an order of the autonomous Catalan government under the Spanish Republic in 1936. It was superseded after the 1939 victory of Francisco Franco's forces in the Spanish Civil War, but restored in 1987 by the re-established Generalitat of Catalonia. Since the definition of comarques is sometimes ambiguous, many new proposals have been made since the comarques were first officially designated as attempts to modify the official distribution with what some regions consider to be a traditional comarca. As a result, some revisions to the official division have been made, such as the additions of Moianès and Lluçanès to the map, in 2015 and 2023 respectively.
Comarques exist as a local government area, and have a representative county council. They are often known as counties in the English language, but this can be confused with the counties that were ruled by counts.
Borders of comarques generally do not cross those of the four state-level provinces. However, since the provinces are defined by the Spanish government, while comarques are defined by the Catalan government, exceptions do existmost notably in the case of Cerdanya, which is roughly evenly split between the provinces of Lleida and Girona.
Aran, which is included here, is officially not a comarca but a "unique territorial entity" with additional powers. Its current status was formalised in February 2015.

List of comarques

ComarcaDatecreatedCapitalNumber ofmunicipalitiesPopulationAreaDensityRegion Province
Alt Camp1987Valls2344,578538.282.8Camp de TarragonaTarragona
Alt Empordà1987Figueres68140,2141,357.4103.3Comarques GironinesGirona
Alt Penedès1987Vilafranca del Penedès27106,262592.7179.3PenedèsBarcelona
Alt Urgell1987La Seu d'Urgell1920,8781,447.514.4Alt PirineuLleida
Alta Ribagorça1988El Pont de Suert33,873426.89.1Alt PirineuLleida
Anoia1987Igualada33117,842866.3136.0Penedès, Central CataloniaBarcelona
Aran1987Vielha e Mijaran99,993633.515.8AranLleida
Bages1987Manresa30175,5271,092.2160.7Central CataloniaBarcelona
Baix Camp1987Reus28190,249697.3272.8Camp de TarragonaTarragona
Baix Ebre1987Tortosa1480,6371002.680.4Terres de l'EbreTarragona
Baix Empordà1987La Bisbal d'Empordà36132,886701.8189.4Comarques GironinesGirona
Baix Llobregat1987Sant Feliu de Llobregat30806,249486.21,658.3BarcelonaBarcelona
Baix Penedès1987El Vendrell14100,262296.4338.3PenedèsTarragona
Barcelonès1987Barcelona52,227,238145.815,276.0BarcelonaBarcelona
Berguedà1987Berga3140,0391,185.333.8Central CataloniaBarcelona, Lleida
Cerdanya1987Puigcerdà1718,063546.633.0Alt PirineuGirona, Lleida
Conca de Barberà1987Montblanc2220,723650.231.9Camp de TarragonaTarragona
Garraf1987Vilanova i la Geltrú6145,886185.1788.1PenedèsBarcelona
Garrigues1987Les Borges Blanques2419,762797.724.8PonentLleida
Garrotxa1987Olot2156,036734.576.3Comarques GironinesGirona
Gironès1987Girona28185,085575.6321.6Comarques GironinesGirona
Lluçanès2023Prats de Lluçanèsn/an/an/an/aCentral CataloniaBarcelona
Maresme1987Mataró30437,919398.61,098.6BarcelonaBarcelona
Moianès2015Moià1013,056337.938.6Central CataloniaBarcelona
Montsià1987Amposta1269,613735.594.6Terres de l'EbreTarragona
Noguera1987Balaguer3039,3761,784.122.1PonentLleida
Osona1987Vic50154,5591,245.1124.1Central CataloniaBarcelona, Girona
Pallars Jussà1987Tremp1413,5301,343.210.1Alt PirineuLleida
Pallars Sobirà1987Sort157,2201,378.05.2Alt PirineuLleida
Pla de l'Estany1988Banyoles1131,554262.8120.1Comarques GironinesGirona
Pla d'Urgell1988Mollerussa1637,128305.2121.7PonentLleida
Priorat1987Falset239,550498.719.1Camp de TarragonaTarragona
Ribera d'Ebre1987Móra d'Ebre1422,925827.127.7Terres de l'EbreTarragona
Ripollès1987Ripoll1925,700956.626.9Comarques GironinesGirona
Segarra1987Cervera2122,713722.831.4PonentLleida
Segrià1987Lleida38209,7681,396.4150.2PonentLleida
Selva1987Santa Coloma de Farners26170,249994.9171.1Comarques GironinesGirona, Barcelona
Solsonès1987Solsona1513,4971001.113.5Central CataloniaLleida
Tarragonès1987Tarragona22250,306319.2784.2Camp de TarragonaTarragona
Terra Alta1987Gandesa1212,119743.016.3Terres de l'EbreTarragona
Urgell1987Tàrrega2036,526579.663.0PonentLleida
Vallès Occidental1987Sabadell, Terrassa23899,532583.11,542.7BarcelonaBarcelona
Vallès Oriental1987Granollers39399,781734.5544.3BarcelonaBarcelona
Total comarques–43Barcelona9487,518,90332,108.0234.2