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The country displays a remarkable geographical diversity on a relatively reduced area of about 32.000 km² and about some 580 km of coastal strip.

Nowadays, Catalonia has more than seven million inhabitants. Barcelona is its capital and one of the large cities in the Mediterranean Sea. From an administrative point of view, the state division into provinces (Barcelona, Tarragona, Lleida and Girona) overlaps with the division of the Catalan Administration into 41 comarques (regions).

There are currently 946 municipalities in Catalonia. Of these, 28 have less than 100 inhabitants; 492 between 100 and 1.000; 254 between 1.001 and 5.000; 120 between 5.001 and 20.000; 31 between 20.001 and 50.000; and 21 have more than 50.000 inhabitants. Tanmateix, el 70% de la població catalana viu en els 45 municipis que superen els 20.000 habitants.

Catalonia is bounded on the east by the Mediterranean Sea, on the north by France and Andorra, and on the west and south by the autonomous communities of Aragon and Valencia. This strategic location has favoured a very intense relationship with the rest of the Mediterranean countries and with continental Europe.

The relevant relief features are the Pyrenees - Pre-Pyrenees, the Central or Ebre Depression and the Catalan Mediterranean system, apart from the coastal plains and the Serralada Transversal mountain range.

The climate of Catalonia is typically Mediterranean, with many hours of sunshine, mild in winter and warm in summer. The Pyrenees and the neighbouring areas have a high-altitude climate, with minimum temperatures below 0ºC, annual rainfall above 1000 mm and abundant snow during the winter. Along the coast, the climate is mild and temperate with temperatures increasing from north to south, while the rain behaves the opposite way. The hinterland, far from the sea, has a continental Mediterranean climate, with cold winters and very hot days.