Category:Subdivisions of Portugal

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The Subdivisions of Portugal are more complex than those of many other countries, partly because they went through major revisions in the 1970s and again in the 2000s. See the main article for full details, but as briefly as possible the subdivisions are:

Main local government system

• In the 1970s Mainland Portugal was organised into 18 Districts, but these are being phased out.
• The districts are being replaced with four different types of subdivision. Between them they cover the whole country, but each place in Portugal is only in one of them. The degree of automony these have from the central government varies, and they are listed below starting with the most autonomous:
  • 2 Autonomous Regions: the Azores and Madeira
  • 7 Metropolitan areas
  • 12 Urban communities
  • 2 Intermunicipal communities
• There are over 300 municipalities (Concelhos), which are grouped to form the various entities mentioned above.
• Below the municipalities there are over 4,000 civil parishes (Freguesias).

Regions

• Mainland Portugal is divided into 5 Regions, which are subdivided into 28 subregions. These co-exist with the system outlined above.

Cities and towns

• Cities (cidade) and towns (vila) both have official status, but the boundaries do not coincide with those of the municipalities. There are over over 140 cities and 530 towns; in total around twice the number of municipalities.