Autonomous communities and cities of Spain, matched to countries
Natural Earth’s file draws Spain as 52 provinces, the tier below the autonomous communities and cities. Size Versus joins them along their shared borders into the 19 autonomous communities and cities below, each drawn at true scale and matched to the country closest to it in area and in population.
Ceuta and Melilla are autonomous cities and are counted with the 17 autonomous communities among the 19. Natural Earth draws them as outlines of a handful of points, so the area shown for each is the official figure from Wikidata.
The boundary or political status of Ceuta and Melilla is contested. Size Versus draws Natural Earth’s de facto outline, the boundary as it is held on the ground, and takes no position on it.
Population: the 2024 figures Wikidata holds, for 18 of the 19 autonomous communities and cities. The only figure it has for Balearic Islands (2022) is a different year, and it is shown with that year. Every population on these pages carries its year; they are not one count taken on one day.
At a glance
- Castile and León, the largest, is 7,706× the size of Melilla, the smallest.
- The five largest, Castile and León, Andalusia, Castilla–La Mancha, Aragon, Extremadura, cover 69% of Spain.
- None of the 19 is larger than the United Kingdom (244,000 km²).
- None of the 19 is larger than France (548,000 km²).
- Melilla, the most crowded, has 6,977 people per km²: 279× Extremadura, the least crowded (25).
- Half of the people counted live in the 4 most populous (Andalusia, Catalonia, Community of Madrid and Valencian Community), which cover 30% of the area; the years of the figures differ.
- 3 of the 19 have more people than the median of the 38 European countries listed here (6.6 million).
- 8 of the 19 are within 10% in area of a European country, among them Castilla–La Mancha and Czechia (1.01×), Extremadura and Denmark (1.01×), Castile and León and Hungary (1.02×).
Every autonomous community or city matched to a country
Largest first. The matches are the countries closest in area and in population from Natural Earth’s country list; contested places and dependencies are never used as matches. Population is the newest figure Wikidata holds, with its year.
- Castile and León94,800 km² · 2.4 million (2024)Size ofLiberia0.99× · 95,300 km²People ofMoldova0.99× · 2.4 million
- Andalusia87,700 km² · 8.6 million (2024)Size ofJordan0.99× · 88,900 km²People ofPapua New Guinea0.96× · 8.9 million
- Castilla–La Mancha79,400 km² · 2.1 million (2024)Size ofCzechia1.01× · 78,800 km²People ofSlovenia1.02× · 2.1 million
- Aragon47,600 km² · 1.3 million (2024)Size ofDominican Republic0.98× · 48,400 km²People ofCyprus1.00× · 1.3 million
- Extremadura42,100 km² · 1.1 million (2024)Size ofDenmark0.99× · 42,700 km²People ofDjibouti0.91× · 1.2 million
- Catalonia32,000 km² · 8.0 million (2024)Size ofGuinea-Bissau0.97× · 32,800 km²People ofTogo1.03× · 7.8 million
- Galicia29,600 km² · 2.7 million (2024)Size ofArmenia1.00× · 29,600 km²People ofJamaica1.00× · 2.7 million
- Valencian Community23,300 km² · 5.3 million (2024)Size ofBelize1.04× · 22,300 km²People ofNew Zealand1.00× · 5.3 million
- Murcia11,300 km² · 1.6 million (2024)Size ofQatar1.01× · 11,200 km²People ofEast Timor1.12× · 1.4 million
- Asturias10,700 km² · 1.0 million (2024)Size ofGambia1.02× · 10,500 km²People ofFiji1.09× · 926,000
- Navarre10,100 km² · 678,000 (2024)Size ofLebanon1.01× · 10,000 km²People ofLuxembourg0.98× · 691,000
- Community of Madrid8,000 km² · 7.0 million (2024)Size ofLebanon80% · 10,000 km²People ofLaos1.02× · 6.9 million
- Canary Islands7,440 km² · 2.2 million (2024)Size ofBrunei1.30× · 5,720 km²People ofSlovenia1.08× · 2.1 million
- Basque Country7,060 km² · 2.2 million (2024)Size ofBrunei1.24× · 5,720 km²People ofSlovenia1.08× · 2.1 million
- Cantabria5,350 km² · 592,000 (2024)Size ofCyprus0.99× · 5,400 km²People ofSolomon Islands0.97× · 611,000
- La Rioja5,330 km² · 324,000 (2024)Size ofCyprus0.99× · 5,400 km²People ofVanuatu1.08× · 300,000
- Balearic Islands5,120 km² · 1.2 million (2022)Size ofTrinidad and Tobago1.00× · 5,120 km²People ofDjibouti1.02× · 1.2 million
- Ceuta18.5 km² · 83,000 (2024)Size ofNauru87% · 21.2 km²People ofGreenland1.47× · 57,000
- Melilla12.3 km² · 86,000 (2024)Size ofNauru58% · 21.2 km²People ofGreenland1.52× · 57,000
Too small to see on the map
At the scale of the map these units are a few pixels wide or less, so they are ringed on the map and drawn here as discs of true relative area. Each is matched to the small countries and island nations, not to the countries of 1,000 km² and more.
- Ceuta18.5 km² · official 18.587% Nauru21.2 km²
- Melilla12.3 km² · official 12.358% Nauru21.2 km²
The closest matches in size
How crowded they are
Beside the regions of other countries
Every autonomous community or city also has a closest match, by area and by people, among the 376 regions of the other 12 countries. All the matches, in both directions, are on one page.
Sources and method
- Outlines
- Natural Earth, 1:10m Admin 1 - States, Provinces, public domain. The file draws Spain as 52 provinces; the 19 autonomous communities and cities listed are those pieces joined along their shared borders, and each joined outline is measured whole. Nothing is redrawn.
- Boundary
- De facto, as drawn by Natural Earth.
- Area
- Measured on the WGS84 ellipsoid from the full-detail outlines, shown rounded. The 19 areas add up to 507,000 km², within 0.1% of the country’s measured area.
- Official figures
- Area, population and capital from Wikidata (CC0), fetched 2026-11-12. Population is the 2024 figure where Wikidata has it, otherwise its newest; the year is shown.
- Data built
- 2026-11-12