Municipalities of Portugal

Municipality
Also known as: Concelho
Category	2nd-level administrative division
Location	Portugal
Found in	Administrative region Autonomous region
Created	Middle Ages
Number	308
Populations	451–529,485
Areas	7.9–1,720.6 km2
Government	Municipal Chamber Municipal Assembly
Subdivisions	Freguesia (civil parish)

Politics of Portugal
Constitution
Executive President (list) Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa Prime Minister (list) Luís Montenegro Cabinet
Legislature Assembly of the Republic President: Augusto Santos Silva
Judiciary Constitutional Court Supreme Court of Justice Court of Auditors Supreme Administrative Court
Elections Recent elections Presidential: 2016 2021 2026 Legislative: 2019 2022 2024 Local: 2013 2017 2021 European: 2014 2019 2024 Political parties Politicians
Administrative divisions Districts Autonomous regions Municipalities (list) Freguesias (list)
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The municipality (Portuguese: município or concelho) is the second-level administrative subdivision of Portugal, as defined by the 1976 Constitution.^[1]

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.^[1]

Portugal has an entirely separate system of ceremonial cities and towns. Cities and towns are located in municipalities but often do not have the same boundaries, even they are continuously built up. There are around twice as many cities and towns as there are municipalities.