Municipalities of Portugal

The municipality ( or ) is the second-level administrative subdivision of Portugal, as defined by the 1976 Constitution.

As a general rule, each municipality is further subdivided into parishes (freguesias); the municipalities in the north of the country usually have a higher number of parishes. Six municipalities are composed of only one parish, and Barcelos, with 61 parishes, has the most. Corvo is, by law, the only municipality with no parishes.

Since the creation of a democratic local administration, in 1976, the Portuguese municipalities have been ruled by a system composed of an executive body (the municipal chamber) and a deliberative body (the municipal assembly). The municipal chamber is the executive body and is composed of the president of the municipality and a number of councillors proportional to the municipality's population. The municipal assembly is composed of the presidents of all the parishes that compose the municipality, as well as by a number of directly elected deputies, at least equal to the number of parish presidents plus one. Both bodies are elected for four years. They have their origin in the foral, a legal document, issued by the King of Portugal, which assigned privileges to a town or a region. The present subdivisions have their origins in the 19th century after the administrative reforms conducted by the middle of the 19th century by the governments of the constitutional monarchy.

The concelhos probably formed after the expulsion of the Visigothic rulers by the Moors during the Umayyad conquest of Hispania. Towns were thus left free to govern themselves, and the population started to organize in councils (concelhos in Portuguese) in order to govern the town and surrounding lands. These were also a reminder of Roman municipalities.

The existence since the Middle Ages of a large number of small municipalities with no financial resources and without people qualified to take part in municipal councils caused the stagnation of their growth. The Liberal revolution of 1836, resulted in the suppression/annexation of many of these smaller municipalities, which allowed the infusion of new revenues and facilitated growth in population and size. Around 190 municipalities have less than 20,000 inhabitants each.

{| class="wikitable sortable"

!align=right| Rank

!align=left| Municipality

!align=right| Population

!align=right| Land area (km<sup>2</sup>)

!align=right| Density (people/km<sup>2</sup>)

!align=left| Metropolitan area

|-align=right

|1 ||align=left| Lisbon || 575,739 || 100.1 || 5,755 || align=left rowspan=2| Lisbon

|-align=right

|2 ||align=left| Sintra || 400,947 || 319.2 || 1,256

|-align=right

|3 ||align=left| Vila Nova de Gaia || 312,984 || 168.5 || 1,858 || align=left rowspan=2| Porto

|-align=right

|4 ||align=left| Porto || 252,687 || 41.4 || 6,101

|-align=right

|5 ||align=left| Cascais || 222,339 || 97.4 || 2,283 || align=left rowspan=2| Lisbon

|-align=right

|6 ||align=left| Loures || 209,877 || 167.2 || 1,255

|-align=right

|7 ||align=left| Braga || 203,519 || 183.4 || 1,110

|-align=right

|8 ||align=left| Almada || 183,643 || 70.2 || 2,616 || align=left rowspan=2| Lisbon

|-align=right

|9 ||align=left| Amadora || 181,607 || 23.8 || 7,637

|-align=right

|10 ||align=left| Matosinhos || 181,046 || 62.4 || 2,900 || align=left| Porto

|-align=right

|11 ||align=left| Oeiras || 177,866 || 45.9 || 3,877 || align=left rowspan=2| Lisbon

|-align=right

|12 ||align=left| Seixal || 176,883 || 95.5 || 1,852

|-align=right

|13 ||align=left| Gondomar || 169,388 || 133.9 || 1,285 || align=left| Porto

|-align=right

|14 ||align=left| Guimarães || 156,513 || 241.0 || 650

|-align=right

|15 ||align=left| Odivelas || 156,278 || 26.5 || 5,888 || align=left| Lisbon

|-align=right

|16 ||align=left| Coimbra || 146,899 || 319.4 || 460

|-align=right

|17 ||align=left| Maia || 144,664 || 83.0 || 1,743 || align=left | Porto

|-align=right

|18 ||align=left| Vila Franca de Xira || 140,711 || 318.2 || 442 || align=left| Lisbon

|-align=right

|19 ||align=left| Santa Maria da Feira || 140,568 || 215.9 || 651 || align=left | Porto

|-align=right

|20 ||align=left| Vila Nova de Famalicão || 136,704 || 201.6 || 678

|-align=right

|21 ||align=left| Leiria || 136,006 || 565.1 || 241

|-align=right

|22 ||align=left| Setúbal || 124,339 || 230.3 || 540 || align=left| Lisbon

|-align=right

|23 ||align=left| Barcelos || 116,959 || 378.9 || 309

|-align=right

|24 ||align=left| Funchal || 108,129 || 76.1 || 1,420

|-align=right

|25 ||align=left| Viseu || 103,502 || 507.1 || 204

|-align=right

|26 ||align=left| Valongo || 101,464 || 75.1 || 1,351 || align=left| Porto

Municipalities of Portugal

See also

References