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About us

Barcelona Provincial Council is alocal government institution that promotes the progress and welfare of the public within its territorial boundaries: currently the province of Barcelona, a network of 311 municipalities, works directly by providing services and, above all, by co-operating with the councils.

It is part of the local Administration, the part closest to the public.

Mission: quality local services

Barcelona Provincial Council essentially provides technical, economic and technological support to councils so that they may provide quality local services on as even as possible a basis throughout the province. It co-ordinates municipal services and organises public services on a supramunicipal basis.

Work model: "Network of Municipalities"

Barcelona Provincial Council works in a network with councils, which means work on a joint basis to share objectives and create more welfare throughout the province and to improve the quality of services and professional skills and to disseminate good practices.

It means bringing effort, information and resources together to increase return: more and better services with current resources. It also involves optimising human, technical and material resources, applying economies of scale, sharing knowledge and preventing the duplication of structures.

Barcelona Provincial Council's "Network of Municipalities" is based on digital administration while encouraging the local use of new technologies.

Closer to people and providing more welfare:
institutional values

The provincial councils, like the town councils, are local administrative bodies and as such are the authorities closest to people and most aware of the situation in the province as it really is and of people's needs. The design of services at close quarters makes them more suitable and more efficient in bringing greater welfare to all.

Population and territory

Our territorial area covers 24% of the total area of Catalonia and accounts for 74.4% of Catalonia's total population.

Source: INE, data from January 2008.

Our background

Barcelona Provincial Council was heir to the council that was founded in 1836 after the division of Spain into provinces established in the 1812 Constitution of Cadiz. Initially, it had authority over public works, secondary education, and welfare services and acted as an intermediary between other municipalities and the State.

The presidency of Enric Prat de la Riba (1907-1914) prompted the resurgence of the Provincial Council with an ambitious project to create basic infrastructures that led to the creation of the Mancomunitat de Catalunya (an association of the provinces of Catalonia). In a ten-year period this institution, which was suppressed in 1924 by the dictatorship of Primo de Rivera, undertook to modernise the country.

The 1978 Constitution acknowledged the autonomy of the Local Administration (the town and provincial councils), the context in which Barcelona Provincial Council undertakes its work with the co-operation of the municipalities.