The municipality (Portuguese: município or concelho) is the second-level administrative subdivision of Portugal, as defined by the 1976 Constitution.

[2][3] They have their origin in the foral, a legal document, issued by the King of Portugal, which assigned privileges to a town or a region.

The concelhos probably formed after the expulsion of the Visigothic rulers by the Moors during the Umayyad conquest of Hispania.

The Liberal revolution of 1836, resulted in the suppression/annexation of many of these smaller municipalities, which allowed the infusion of new revenues and facilitated growth in population and size.

In Portugal, cities/towns are a social distinction based on population size and associated services and have no legal representation in law or constitution.

The table below is the distribution of the municipalities within these districts and the autonomous regions: The biggest municipalities are those located in rural and inland areas where the dominating property type is the latifundia, such as Beja, Évora, or Portalegre in the south, and also in other less populated areas, such as Bragança or Castelo Branco.