The largest cities of Spain: urban units, municipalities and metro areas
Spain counted three ways: by continuous built-up area, by municipality and by metro area. 56 urban units pass 100,000 people; the largest is Madrid, with 5,130,136. The city of Madrid has 3,255,944 people within its limits; its urban unit, 5,130,136; its metro area, 7,213,327.
How Spain counts its cities
Spain publishes no urban units. SlightlyMap computes them from the Global Human Settlement Layer with the same 200 m rule as INSEE. Madrid and Barcelona are far ahead; the third, Valencia, has less than a third of Madrid.
The 25 largest urban units
Source: SlightlyMap, from GHSL, 200 m rule on the built-up surface at 100 m, 2025 population.
| # | Urban unit | People | Area (km²) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Madrid | 5,130,136 | 516 |
| 2 | Barcelona | 4,086,338 | 395 |
| 3 | Valencia | 1,551,365 | 274 |
| 4 | Sevilla | 909,554 | 136 |
| 5 | Bilbao | 781,997 | 113 |
| 6 | Zaragoza | 726,460 | 118 |
| 7 | Murcia | 640,770 | 262 |
| 8 | Málaga | 554,343 | 76 |
| 9 | Palma | 546,031 | 129 |
| 10 | Alicante | 488,696 | 132 |
| 11 | Móstoles | 431,000 | 44 |
| 12 | Granada | 427,804 | 111 |
| 13 | Fuenlabrada | 400,786 | 46 |
| 14 | Las Palmas de Gran Canaria | 394,556 | 42 |
| 15 | Vigo | 386,356 | 188 |
| 16 | Santa Cruz de Tenerife | 383,820 | 58 |
| 17 | Sant Boi de Llobregat | 365,800 | 63 |
| 18 | A Coruña | 343,257 | 121 |
| 19 | Tarragona | 337,569 | 106 |
| 20 | Valladolid | 335,341 | 68 |
| 21 | Pamplona | 320,418 | 56 |
| 22 | Donostia / San Sebastián | 313,550 | 69 |
| 23 | Castelló de la Plana | 312,153 | 104 |
| 24 | Terrassa | 289,425 | 43 |
| 25 | Córdoba | 283,951 | 58 |
The 10 largest municipalities and metro areas
| # | Municipality | People | Metro area | People |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Madrid | 3,255,944 | Madrid | 7,213,327 |
| 2 | Barcelona | 1,686,208 | Barcelona | 5,495,486 |
| 3 | Valencia | 824,340 | Valencia | 1,914,726 |
| 4 | Zaragoza | 686,986 | Sevilla | 1,283,060 |
| 5 | Sevilla | 686,741 | Málaga | 1,050,727 |
| 6 | Málaga | 592,346 | Bilbao | 946,975 |
| 7 | Murcia | 471,982 | Zaragoza | 808,351 |
| 8 | Palma | 438,234 | Murcia | 771,826 |
| 9 | Las Palmas de Gran Canaria | 383,516 | Palma | 654,001 |
| 10 | Alicante | 348,901 | Las Palmas de Gran Canaria | 584,272 |
Municipalities: GeoNames, latest census or estimate. Metro areas: GHSL functional urban areas. Metro areas are named after their main municipality, which is not always the best-known name of the area.
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