Greater Bilbao is a comarca, an administrative division of the province of Biscay and smaller than the wider metropolitan area.

These 10 municipalities are located outside the comarca of Greater Bilbao but inside the wider metropolitan area.

These municipalities are located both outside Greater Bilbao and outside the metropolitan area itself, but they are considered "satellite towns".

The corporation's aim was to regenerate the city-planning of Bilbao and its surroundings, which were heavily punished by intense industrial contamination and decay.

Among the projects this institution implemented was the recovery of Abandoibarra, once an industrial ground and now the site of the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao and the Euskalduna Palace.