Granada is a province in the autonomous community of Andalusia, Spain. The province is divided into 174 municipalities. As of the2024 [update] Spanish census, Granada is the 17th most populous of Spain's 50 provinces, with 939,741 inhabitants, [1] and the 15th largest by land area, spanning 12,645.41 square kilometres (4,882.42 sq mi). [2] [3] Municipalities are the most basic local political division in Spain [4] and can only belong to one province. [5] They enjoy a large degree of autonomy in their local administration, being in charge of tasks such as urban planning, water supply, lighting, roads, local police, and firefighting. [6]
Contents
The organisation of municipalities in Spain is outlined by the local government law Ley 7/1985, de 2 de abril, Reguladora de las Bases del Régimen Local (transl. Law 7/1985, of 2 April, Regulating the Bases of the Local Administration), which was passed by the Cortes Generales—Spain’s national parliament—on 2 April 1985 [7] and finalised by royal decree on 18 April 1986. [8] Municipalities in Granada are also governed by the Statute of Autonomy of Andalusia, which includes provisions concerning their relations with Andalusia's autonomous government. [9] All citizens of Spain are required to register in the municipality in which they reside. [10] Each municipality is a corporation [a] with independent legal personhood: its governing body is called the ayuntamiento (municipal council or corporation), [12] a term often also used to refer to the municipal offices (city and town halls). The ayuntamiento is composed of the mayor (Spanish: alcalde), the deputy mayors (tenientes de alcalde) and the councillors (concejales), who form the plenary (pleno), the deliberative body. [13] Municipalities are categorised by population for determining the number of councillors: three when the population is up to 100 inhabitants, five for 101–250, seven for 251–1,000, nine for 1,001–2,000, eleven for 2,001–5,000, thirteen for 5,001–10,000, seventeen for 10,001–20,000, twenty-one for 20,001–50,000, and twenty-five for 50,001–100,000. One councillor is added for every additional 100,000 inhabitants, with a further one included if the total would otherwise be even, to avoid tied votes. [14]
The mayor and the deputy mayors are elected by the plenary assembly, which is itself elected by universal suffrage. [15] Elections in municipalities with more than 250 inhabitants are carried out following a proportional representation system with closed lists, [14] whilst those with a population lower than 250 use a block plurality voting system with open lists. [16] The plenary assembly must meet periodically, with meetings occurring more or less frequently depending on the population of the municipality: monthly for those whose population is larger than 20,000, once every two months if it ranges between 5,001 and 20,000, and once every three months if it does not exceed 5,000. [17] Many ayuntamientos also have a local governing board (Spanish: junta de gobierno local), which is appointed by the mayor from amongst the councillors and is required for municipalities of over 5,000 inhabitants. [13] The board, whose role is to assist the mayor between meetings of the plenary assembly, may not include more than one third of the councillors. [18]
The largest municipality by population in the province as of the 2024 Spanish census is Granada, its capital, with 233,532 residents, while the smallest is Lobras, with 136 residents. [19] The largest municipality by area is Baza, which spans 545.39 square kilometres (210.58 sq mi), while Cájar is the smallest at 1.65 square kilometres (0.64 sq mi). [2]
