In Spain, a comarca is either a traditional territorial division without any formal basis, or a group of municipalities, legally defined by an autonomous community for the purpose of providing common local government services. In English, a comarca is equivalent to a district, county, area or zone.

Legally defined comarcas

The large majority of legally defined comarcas are in Catalonia (42) and Aragon (33), and are regulated by law and are governed by a comarcal council with specified powers. There are seven comarcas formally registered in Basque Country and one, El Bierzo, in Castile and León. In Andalusia, Galicia, Valencia and Asturias, comarcas are defined by regional law but lack any defined function.

Informal comarcas

In other regions, comarcas are traditional or historical or in some cases, contemporary creations designed for tourism promotions. In some other cases (e.g. La Carballeda) a comarca may correspond to a natural area, like a valley, river basin and mountainous area, or even to historical regions overlapping different provinces and ancient kingdoms (e.g. Ilercavonia). In such comarcas or natural regions municipalities have resorted to organizing themselves in mancomunidad (commonwealth), like the Taula del Sénia, the only legal formula that has allowed those comarcas to manage their public municipal resources meaningfully. There is also a comarca, the Cerdanya that is divided between two states, the southwestern half being counted as a comarca of Spain, while the northeastern half is part of France.

Relationship to other groups of municipalities

There are also other groupings of municipalities in Spain including provinces, mancomunidades, metropolitan areas and the major islands of the Canary Islands and the Balearic Islands. Legally defined comarcas have their boundaries and functions defined by the relevant regional government (autonomous community) and so do not necessarily have boundaries consistent with provinces which are defined by the State. The remit of comarcas is very similar to that of the provinces and has been criticised for duplication. However in Catalonia, the comarca (and not the province) has been the traditional territorial organisation.

List of comarcas of Spain by autonomous communities

Comarcas of Andalusia

Comarcas of the province of Almería

Comarcas of the province of Cádiz

Comarcas of the province of Córdoba

Comarcas of the province of Granada

Comarcas of the province of Huelva

Comarcas of the province of Jaén

Comarcas of the province of Málaga

Comarcas of the province of Sevilla

Comarcas of Aragon

Comarcas of the province of Huesca/Uesca

Comarcas of the province of Teruel

Comarcas of the province of Zaragoza

Comarcas of Asturias

Comarques of the Balearic Islands

Mallorca

Menorca

Pitiüses

Eskualdeak / Comarcas of the Basque Country

Eskualdeak / Cuadrillas of the province of Álava-Araba

Eskualdeak / Comarcas of the province of Biscay

Eskualdeak / Comarcas of the province of Gipuzkoa

Comarcas of the Canary Islands

Comarcas of the province of Las Palmas

Comarcas of the province of Tenerife

Comarcas of Cantabria

Comarques of Catalonia

Reference:

Comarques of the province of Barcelona

Comarques of the province of Girona

Comarques of the province of Lleida

Comarques of the province of Tarragona

Comarcas of Castile–La Mancha

Comarcas of the province of Albacete

Comarcas of the province of Ciudad Real

Comarcas of the province of Cuenca

Comarcas of the province of Guadalajara

Comarcas of the province of Toledo

Comarcas of Castile and León

Comarcas of the province of Ávila

Comarcas of the province of Burgos

Comarcas of the province of León

Comarcas of the province of Palencia

Comarcas of the province of Salamanca

Comarcas of the province of Segovia

An official classification establishes three comarcas: or sometimes four: However, historic approaches (before the national classification into provinces) establish six comarcas:

Comarcas of the province of Soria

Comarcas of the province of Valladolid

Comarcas of the province of Zamora

Comarcas of Extremadura

Comarcas of the province of Badajoz

Comarcas of the province of Cáceres

Comarcas of Galicia

Comarcas of the province of A Coruña

Comarcas of the province of Lugo

Comarcas of the province of Ourense

Comarcas of the province of Pontevedra

Comarcas of La Rioja

Comarcas of Madrid

Comarcas of Region of Murcia

Eskualdeak / Comarcas of Navarre

Comarques of the Valencian Community

Comarques of the province of Alicante

Comarques of the province of Castellón

Comarques of the province of Valencia