Metropolitan areas in Portugal

The metropolitan area (Portuguese: área metropolitana) is a type of administrative division in Portugal. Since the 2013 local government reform, there are two metropolitan areas: Lisbon and Porto.[1] The metropolitan areas of Lisbon and Porto were created in 1991.[2] A law passed in 2003 supported the creation of more metropolitan areas, under the conditions that they consisted of at least nine municipalities (concelhos) and had at least 350,000 inhabitants.[3] Several metropolitan areas were created under this law (Algarve, Aveiro, Coimbra, Minho and Viseu),[2] but a law passed in 2008 abolished these, converting them into intermunicipal communities, whose territories are (roughly) based on the NUTS III statistical regions.[4][2]

The branches of administration of the metropolitan area are the metropolitan council, the metropolitan executive committee and the strategic board for metropolitan development. The metropolitan council is composed of the presidents of the municipal chambers of the municipalities.[1]

List

The current metropolitan areas are:[1]

Details

A map of Portugal showing the population density (number of inhabitants / km2) by municipality

The following is a list of those with mainland Functional Urban Areas (FUA).

 
Rank City name Population[5]
1Lisbon2,818,000
2Porto1,758,531
3Coimbra270,000
4Braga 250,000
5Funchal 210,000
6Guimarães180,000
7Aveiro140,000
8Ponta Delgada120,000
9Vila Franca de Xira120,000
10Faro118,000
11Viseu110,000

References

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