Portugal is a unitary state with delegated authority to three levels of local government that cover the entire country:
2 autonomous regions (Azores and Madeira), and in Continental Portugal: 2 metropolitan areas, and 21 intermunicipal communities 308 municipalities 3259 civil parishes () (except Corvo Island which only has a single municipality)
The Judiciary of Portugal has a separate geographic system. Portugal has a long history of complex, inconsistent and layered administrative geography. As a result, there is no single, unified layer of administrative units that spans the entire Portugal.
The government structure is based on the 1976 Constitution, adopted after the 1974 Carnation Revolution. - Articles 225-262
The powers of the 18 Districts were removed when the government decided not to reappoint their Civil Governors in 2011.
The legal status of a city or town is granted only for ceremonial purposes, typically with smaller boundaries than municipalities. Some municipalities have several cities.
Starting in 2003, Eurostat has defined regions and subregions in the Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics (NUTS) standard. These are coincide with some local government borders, but are otherwise only used for statistical purposes.
Districts
There are 18 districts in continental Portugal:
Lisbon Leiria Santarém Setúbal Beja Faro Évora Portalegre Castelo Branco Guarda Coimbra Aveiro Viseu Bragança Vila Real Porto Braga Viana do Castelo
The distribution of Portuguese districts is nominally homogeneous, although there are outliers (Beja for example is 4.6 times larger than the smallest district, Viana do Castelo). But these divisions bely the inadequacies and disparities that exist within the country: the distribution of population and gross domestic product between territorial units is markedly different. The district of Beja, for example, represents approximately 11.5% of the area of Portugal, while Viana do Castelo is less than 2.5%. But, in comparison, Beja represents only 1.6% of the population of Portugal.
Portugal was primarily a seafaring nation, and traditionally human settlement has congregated along the coastline, so much so that the coastal districts, while being relatively small, were disproportionately larger by population. The six largest districts (with the exception of Santarém) are the six districts with the smallest populations and common character: a border with Spain. Of these interior districts, which represent 63.8% of the nation and have a population that is less than two million residents, is only marginally less than the population of the district of Lisbon.
The district system dates back to 25 April 1835, a creation of the Liberal government, and inspired by the French départements, with the objective to facilitate the action of government and permit access to the authorities.
The district is the most relevant and historically significant subdivision of the nation's territory; it serves as the basis for a series of administrative divisions, such as electoral constituencies or district football associations, as well as being a socially recognizable territorial division of the country. In 1976, Portugal was divided into 18 districts and two autonomous regions (the Azores and Madeira), consisting of 308 municipalities (), which in turn were divided into 4257 local government authorities ().
Article 291 of the 1976 Constitution defined the districts as a transitional level of administration, awaiting the formation of the administrative regions. In the period between 2003 and 2013 the whole continental territory of Portugal was subdivided into metropolitan areas and intermunicipal communities, which now form the top-level administrative divisions of the continental territory. The powers of the 18 Districts were removed when the government decided not to reappoint their Civil Governors in 2011. List DistrictMunicipalitiesParishesPop.(2021)Pop.(2025)Area(km2)Density(/km2)Azores (autonomous region)19156236,413245,3282,322106Aveiro19174700,787748,7162,798268Beja1484144,401169,81010,22917Braga14371846,293901,2822,706333Bragança12226122,804123,6426,60819Castelo Branco11128177,962189,0906,67528Coimbra17161408,551438,2423,947111Évora1475152,444161,6427,39322Faro1676467,343578,0324,960117Guarda14245142,974138,8235,51825Leiria16116458,605514,5033,505147Lisbon161412,275,3852,655,8322,761962Madeira (autonomous region)1154250,744266,130801332Portalegre1572104,923108,4856,06518Porto182751,785,4051,906,6262,408792Santarém21150424,973469,3616,74770Setúbal1360874,8061,012,1275,064200Viana do Castelo10213231,266244,3432,255108Vila Real14200185,695187,1974,32843Viseu24282351,292364,8205,00773 Total Portugal 308 3,259 10,343,066 11,424,031 92,097 124
Autonomous regions
Since 1976, Portugal conceded political autonomy to its North Atlantic archipelagos (Madeira and Azores) due to their distance, isolation, geographical context and socio-economic circumstances. The regional autonomies have their own organic laws, regional governments and administration, overseen by a Regional Government (), that constitutes a Regional Cabinet, comprising a President () and several Regional Secretaries ().
The Azores () is an archipelago of nine islands and several islets that were discovered and settled by the Portuguese in the late 15th century. The Azores lies a third of the distance between Europe and North America, along the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. The government and administration of the archipelago is distributed between the three capitals of the former districts of the Azores: the regional parliament is located in the city of Horta (on Faial Island); Ponta Delgada (on São Miguel Island) is the most populous city and home to the Regional Presidency and administration; while Angra do Heroísmo (on Terceira Island), the historical and cultural capital, is the home of the Azorean judiciary and seat of the Diocese of the Azores.
Madeira is an archipelago that includes two principal islands, Madeira and Porto Santo, plus two uninhabited natural group of islands, the Desertas and Savage Islands (). The archipelago is located closer to Africa than Europe, is highly commercial and urbanized; its regional capital (Funchal) is developmentally comparable to urban centers in the Canary or Balearic Islands.
Subdivisions
The division of the Portuguese territory is established in title eight (Título VIII) of the Portuguese constitution: granting local authority to territorial collectivities with representative organs to affect the interests of the local populations. These collectivities are defined as autonomous regions, administrative regions, municipalities and civil parishes, but reserves the right of urban areas and islands to establish other forms of local authority. In defining the rights and privileges of these entities, the constitution also defines sources of income, that includes local heritage, budgets and equalization transfers from the State, in addition to defining the basic role of local government at each level.
SubdivisionNo.Description Regiões Autónomas 2 Autonomous Regions Áreas Metropolitanas 2 Metropolitan Areas Comunidades intermunicipais 21 Intermunicipal Communities Concelhos 308 Municipalities Freguesias 3259 Civil Parishes Cidades 151 Cities Vilas 533 Towns
Autonomous regions
Since 1976, Portugal conceded political autonomy to its North Atlantic archipelagos (the Azores and Madeira) due to their distance, isolation, geographical context and socio-economic circumstances. The regional autonomies have their own organic laws, regional governments and administration, overseen by a Regional Government (), that constitutes a Regional Cabinet, comprising a President () and several Regional Secretaries (). Their legislatures are designated Legislative Assembly.
Administrative regions
A plan to divide mainland Portugal in eight regions was defeated in a referendum in 1998. The metropolitan areas of Lisbon and Porto were created in 1991.Fernanda Paula Oliveira (2009), A law passed in 2003 supported the creation of more metropolitan areas, urban communities and other associations of municipalities, but a law passed in 2008 abolished these, converting them into intermunicipal communities. Finally in law 75/2013 September 2013 the current two types of administrative regions were defined: metropolitan areas (áreas metropolitanas) and intermunicipal communities (comunidades intermunicipais).
Metropolitan areas
The Metropolitan Areas are territorial units formed by grouping municipalities, in order to economize on municipal investments and services. As of 2014, there are two metropolitan areas that correspond to Level III NUTS regions: The Lisbon metropolitan area (Área Metropolitana de Lisboa), consisting of 18 municipalities with a total population (2011 census) of 2,821,876 The Porto metropolitan area (Área Metropolitana do Porto), consisting of 17 municipalities with a total population (2011 census) of 1,759,524
(Other cities have metropolitan areas as defined by commuting patterns, but do not have the same legal status and are all under 1 million inhabitants.)
Intermunicipal communities
The intermunicipal communities replaced the urban communities, the intermunicipal communities for general purposes and some metropolitan areas that were created in 2003, and abolished in 2008. The territories of the intermunicipal communities are (roughly) based on the NUTS III statistical regions. As of 2014, there are 21 intermunicipal communities:
Alentejo Central Alentejo Litoral Algarve Alto Alentejo Alto Minho Alto Tâmega Ave Baixo Alentejo Beira Baixa Beiras e Serra da Estrela Cávado Douro Lezíria do Tejo Médio Tejo Oeste Região de Aveiro Região de Coimbra Região de Leiria Tâmega e Sousa Terras de Trás-os-Montes Viseu Dão Lafões
Municipalities
Apart from the national territory, that includes mainland Portugal and the two archipelagos, the municipalities (municípios, colloquially known as concelhos) have been the most constant territorial subdivision in the past 900 years. While a term for municipality () appeared in the 13th century, to "express a community constituted in a territory of varying extensions, whose residents – the neighbours of the municipality – are granted major or minor administrative autonomy", the territorial division predates its use. Preceding the nation's independence, the oldest of the larger municipalities still in existence Coimbra and Santarém were founded in 1085 and 1095, respectively. São João da Pesqueira (in the district of Viseu) is the oldest Portuguese municipality, founded in 1055.
Since the creation of a democratic local administration, in 1976, the Portuguese municipalities have been ruled by a system composed by an executive body (the municipal chamber) and a deliberative body (the municipal assembly). The municipal chamber () is the executive body, and is composed of a president of the municipality and a number of councillors whose number depends on the municipality's population. The municipal assembly () is composed of the presidents of all the civil parishes plus a number of directly elected representatives that has to be at least equal to the number of civil parish presidents plus one, and which otherwise depends on the municipal population.
There are 308 municipalities in Portugal. They are usually named for their biggest city, or at least, their historically most important city or town. However, the municipality is usually much larger than the city or town after which it is named. The largest in area is Odemira with 1720.60 km2, the smallest is São João da Madeira with an area of 7.94 km2.