Sources

Help build the largest human-edited directory on the web.
Submit a site - Become an editor

Wikipedia. Licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.

Are you an expert in this subject? Join the discussion and share your knowledge at Wikipedia.org.

Madrid (autonomous community)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

(Redirected from Madrid Autonomous Community)

Jump to: navigation, search

Comunidad de Madrid


Flag	Coat of arms

Capital

Madrid

Official language(s)

Spanish

Area
– Total
– % of Spain

Ranked 12th
8,030.1 km²
1.6%

Population
– Total (2005)
– % of Spain
– Density

Ranked 3rd
6,008,000 (2006)
13.5%
748.38/km²

Demonym
– English
– Spanish

Madrilenian
madrileño/a

Statute of Autonomy

March 1, 1983

Parliamentary
representation
– Congress seats
– Senate seats

35
4 (elected) + 6 (appointed)

President

Esperanza Aguirre (PP)

ISO 3166-2

Comunidad de Madrid

The Autonomous Community of Madrid (Spanish: Comunidad de Madrid) is one of Spain's seventeen autonomous communities, located in the centre of the country. It is coterminous with the province of Madrid, and contains the city of Madrid, which is the capital of the community, the province, and the country.

The Community is bordered by the autonomous communities of Castile-Leon (provinces of Ávila and Segovia) and Castile-La Mancha (provinces of Guadalajara, Cuenca, and Toledo).

Over half of the population live in the capital. Other historically or commercially important cities located in the community include Alcalá de Henares, Coslada, Torrejón de Ardoz, Getafe, Móstoles, San Lorenzo de El Escorial, Navalcarnero and Aranjuez. There are 179 municipalities in Madrid. See List of municipalities in Madrid.

Previously to its recognition as autonomous community, the province of Madrid was part of Castile "The New" (now Castile-La Mancha). When the autonomous communities were founded under the provisions of the 1978 Constitution, Madrid was made into its own community because of great economic disparity between it and the Castilian-Manchego hinterland. The Community of Madrid was constituted by law on 25 February 1983, and its statute of autonomy was approved on 1 March of the same year.

The citizens of the Autonomous Community of Madrid are represented by 120 elected deputies, that sit in the Madrid Assembly (regional legislature). The President of the Autonomous Community of Madrid is the elected by the assembly. Elections for the Madrid Assembly are held every four years. The current communal president is Esperanza Aguirre y Gil de Biedma (PP), who won a landslide majority in the elections held 27 May 2007. President since the communal elections held in October 2003, she is the first and the only female communal president in Spain.

According to the Instituto Nacional de Estadística Madrid was in 2006 the Spanish region with the highest GDP per capita (28.850€), followed by Basque Country (28.346€), Navarra (27.861€) and Catalonia (26.124€). Unemployment figures are among the lowest in the country (6,6% in the first quarter 2007 vs 8,5% Spain's average).