Subdivisions of Portugal. For an overview of the administrative subdivisions see: administrative divisions of Portugal

Administrative divisions of Portugal

Administratively, Portugal is a unitary and decentralized State. Nonetheless, operationally, it is highly centralized system with administrative divisions organized into three tiers. The State is organized under the principles of subsidiarity, local government autonomy, and democratic...

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Subdivision type	#Total	#Continent	Subdivisions
NUTS 1 NUTS of Portugal In the NUTS codes of Portugal , the three levels are:-NUTS codes:In the NUTS codes of Portugal , the three levels are:...	3	1	Continent Continental Portugal Continental Portugal or Mainland Portugal is the designation of the mainland Portuguese territory, located on Europe's Iberian Peninsula....  (Continente), Azores Azores The Archipelago of the Azores is composed of nine volcanic islands situated in the middle of the North Atlantic Ocean, and is located about west from Lisbon and about east from the east coast of North America. The islands, and their economic exclusion zone, form the Autonomous Region of the...  and Madeira Madeira Madeira is a Portuguese archipelago that lies between and , just under 400 km north of Tenerife, Canary Islands, in the north Atlantic Ocean and an outermost region of the European Union...
NUTS 2 (Regions)	7	5	Regional Coordination Commissions + Autonomous regions (Comissões de Coordenação Regional + Regiões Autónomas)
NUTS 3 (Subregions)	30	28	Groups of Municipalities Municipalities of Portugal In Portugal, municipality or concelho is the most stable subdivision of Portugal since the foundation of the country.Portugal has an entirely separate system of cities and towns. Cities and towns are located in municipalities, but often do not have the same boundaries, even if built-up is continuous...  (Grupos de Concelhos)
Districts Districts of Portugal Portugal is divided into 18 districts in mainland Portugal, plus two autonomous regions .The Portuguese Constitution of 1976 specifies that Portugal have only, as first level divisions, the autonomous regions and the administrative regions...	18	18	(continent only)
Autonomous regions Autonomous regions of Portugal The two Autonomous Regions of Portugal are the Azores and Madeira...	2	0	Azores, Madeira
ISO 3166-2:PT ISO 3166-2:PT ISO 3166-2:PT is the entry for Portugal in ISO 3166-2, part of the ISO 3166 standard published by the International Organization for Standardization , which defines codes for the names of the principal subdivisions of all countries coded in ISO 3166-1.Currently for Portugal, ISO 3166-2 codes are...	20	18	18 districts + 2 autonomous regions of Portugal Autonomous regions of Portugal The two Autonomous Regions of Portugal are the Azores and Madeira...
Constituencies	20	18	Assembly of the Republic Assembly of the Republic The Assembly of the Republic is the Portuguese parliament. It is located in a historical building in Lisbon, referred to as Palácio de São Bento, the site of an old Benedictine monastery...  18 districts + 2 A.R.
Medieval provinces	6	6	continent only
Provinces Provinces of Portugal The Provinces of Portugal, although today not recognized in law and disused, continue to exist as socio-cultural divisions within the territory...  (1832)	11	8	2, later 3 on the Atlantic islands
Provinces Provinces of Portugal The Provinces of Portugal, although today not recognized in law and disused, continue to exist as socio-cultural divisions within the territory...  (1936–1976)	11	11
CCDR	5	5	Alentejo Alentejo Region Alentejo Region is one of the NUTS 2 regions of Portugal. It covers all of the historical Alentejo Province, but the Lezíria do Tejo Subregion also covers areas of the Estremadura Province.-Subregions:* Alto Alentejo Subregion... , Algarve, Centro, Lisboa e Vale do Tejo Lisboa e Vale do Tejo Lisboa e Vale do Tejo was one of the five Regions of Portugal . Today two of the subregions are in the new Lisboa Region, two in the Centro Region and one in the Alentejo Region.... , Norte
Municipalities Municipalities of Portugal In Portugal, municipality or concelho is the most stable subdivision of Portugal since the foundation of the country.Portugal has an entirely separate system of cities and towns. Cities and towns are located in municipalities, but often do not have the same boundaries, even if built-up is continuous...	308	278
Parishes	4.260	4.050
Cities	151	141
Towns	533	?
Postal code zones (first digit) Postal codes in Portugal The Portuguese postal code is formed by four digits, a hyphen, then three digits, followed by a postal location of up to 25 characters in capitals. This location is the name of the town, sometimes followed by a three-letter abbreviation of the municipality The Portuguese postal code (código...	9	8	1 for the Atlantic islands
Telephone area codes Telephone numbers in Portugal Country Code: +351International Call Prefix: 00Trunk Prefix: nonePortugal changed to a closed telephone numbering plan in 1999. Previously, the trunk prefix was '0', but this was dropped...	51	48
Grande Área Metropolitana Grande Área Metropolitana A Greater Metropolitan Area is a type of administrative division in Portugal. Each one consists of at least nine municipalities and has at least 350,000 inhabitants...	7	0	Not covering the whole country: Each consists of at least nine municipalities and has at least 350,000 inhabitants.

List of ambiguous subdivision names

• Minho
  Minho
  -People:* Lee Min Ho, a South Korean actor* Choi Minho , a member of the Korean boy-band Shinee-Portugal:* Entre-Douro-e-Minho, a historical province of Portugal * Minho Province, a historical province of Portugal...
  
  : Province / Subregion
• Alto Alentejo: Province / Subregion
• Baixo Alentejo: Province / Subregion
• Douro Litoral: Province / Subregion
• Trás-os-Montes: region / Province
• Estremadura Province: two different ones
• Beira Litoral: postal region, 1936 province

Correspondence between cities, towns and municipalities

In Portugal, a city generally does not necessarily correspond to a municipality

Municipalities of Portugal

In Portugal, municipality or concelho is the most stable subdivision of Portugal since the foundation of the country.Portugal has an entirely separate system of cities and towns. Cities and towns are located in municipalities, but often do not have the same boundaries, even if built-up is continuous...

, with the exception of the entirely urban municipalities, such as Lisbon

Lisbon

Lisbon is the capital city and largest city of Portugal with a population of 545,245 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Lisbon extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of 3 million on an area of , making it the 9th most populous urban...

, Porto

Porto

Porto , also known as Oporto in English, is the second largest city in Portugal and one of the major urban areas in the Iberian Peninsula. Its administrative limits include a population of 237,559 inhabitants distributed within 15 civil parishes...

, Funchal

Funchal

Funchal is the largest city, the municipal seat and the capital of Portugal's Autonomous Region of Madeira. The city has a population of 112,015 and has been the capital of Madeira for more than five centuries.-Etymology:...

, Amadora

Amadora

Amadora is a city and a municipality in Portugal, in the northwest of the Lisbon Metropolitan Area. The city and municipality population is 175,872 in eleven freguesias . With an area of 23.77 km², it is the most densely populated municipality of Portugal...

, Entroncamento e São João da Madeira

São João da Madeira

São João da Madeira , in English St. John's Wood, is a municipality in northwestern Portugal. Its part of Porto Metropolitan Area, the second largest of Portugal. It has a land area of 8.11 km² and a total population of 21 685 inhabitants...

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The municipality with the most cities is Paredes Municipality which contains four cities.