Portugal has an administrative structure based on 308 municipalities (concelho - singular, concelhos - plural), which are subdivided into more than 4,000 parishes (freguesias, singular - freguesia). Municipalities are grouped for administrative purposes into superior units, the most significant being the classification since 1976, into either mainland (Portugal continental) or insular (Portugal insular) territory. The later enjoy a specific administrative and fiscal framework as Autonomous Regions (regiões autónomas, singular - região autónoma), the Azores and Madeira Islands.

There are five regions (regiões, singular - região) in mainland Portugal, and 28 sub regions (subregiões, singular - subregião). These are the modern official territorial units in accordance with the Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics (NUTS), in use today by the Instituto Nacional de Estatística and Eurostat, and officially recognized by the European Union. The regions are:

Alentejo
Algarve
Centro
Lisboa, Region
Norte

The districts (distritos, singular - distrito), are obsolescent administrative subdivisions that however remain in use for very many purposes, from electoral circles to public education and health care, welfare and even league sports.

A referendum held in 1997 to institute higher-level regional administrative units failed to achieve the needed majority. Notwithstanding, larger territorial units have been created by the initiative of groups of municipalities to answer the need for supra-municipal coordination especially in heavily urbanized areas.

There are three types of Urban areas:

Grandes Áreas Metropolitanas - Greater Metropolitan Areas (more than 350,000 inhabitants)
o Lisbon - 2,547,665
o Porto - 1,509,958
o Braga, Minho - 754,830
o Aveiro - 460,157
o Coimbra - 430,845
o Faro, Algarve - 391,819
o Viseu - 354,162

Comunidades Urbana's- Urban Communities (more than 150,000 inhabitants)
o Oeste, Vale do Sousa, Leiria, Lezíria do Tejo, Baixo Alentejo, Trás-os-Montes, Centro Alentejo, Baixo Tâmega, Douro, Médio Tejo, Beiras, Beira Interior Sul, and Alto Alentejo;

Comunidades Intermunicipais - Intermunicipal Communities (less than 150,000 inhabitants)
o Pinhal and Vale do Minho.

Ad hoc geographic amalgamations also exist to answer the needs of specific economic sectors (e.g. tourist regions) or branches of the state (e.g. judicial areas), while historical or cultural subdivisions continue to be informally referenced such as the provinces (províncias, singular - província): Alentejo, Algarve, Beira, Douro Litoral, Estremadura, Minho, Ribatejo, and Trás-os-Montes.

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( Map showing mainland Portugal and the two autonomous regions (NUTS I) and the seven regions of Portugal (NUTS II) )

( Map of the Portuguese islands )