The metropolitan area () is a type of administrative division in Portugal. Since the 2013 local government reform, there are two metropolitan areas: Lisbon and Porto. The metropolitan areas of Lisbon and Porto were created in 1991.Fernanda Paula Oliveira (2009), A law passed in 2003 supported the creation of more metropolitan areas, under the conditions that they consisted of at least nine municipalities (concelhos) and had at least 350,000 inhabitants. Several metropolitan areas were created under this law (Algarve, Aveiro, Coimbra, Minho and Viseu), but a law passed in 2008 abolished these, converting them into intermunicipal communities, whose territories are (roughly) based on the NUTS III statistical regions.
The branches of administration of the metropolitan area are the metropolitan council, the metropolitan executive committee and the strategic board for metropolitan development. The metropolitan council is composed of the presidents of the municipal chambers of the municipalities.
List The legal status of metropolitan area is held only by two:
Lisbon metropolitan area (Área Metropolitana de Lisboa) Porto metropolitan area (Área Metropolitana do Porto)
The OECD and Eurostat have identified the following metropolitan areas ("Functional Urban Areas") based on commuting patterns. Rank City name FUA population (2015) Region1 Lisbon 2,925,000 Lisbon2 Porto 1,265,000 Norte3 Coimbra 271,000 Centro4 Braga 250,000 Norte5 Funchal 213,000 Madeira6 Guimarães 179,000 Norte7 Aveiro 139,000 Centro 8 Faro 122,000 Algarve9 Ponta Delgada 119,000 Azores10 Viseu 111,000 Centro
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