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			{{Short description|Autonomous community and nationality in Spain}}
	{{pp-protected|reason=Persistent ]|expiry=05:58, 4 January 2018|small=yes}}
	{{Otheruse|Catalonia (disambiguation)|Catalunya (disambiguation)}}		{{About|the Spanish autonomous community|the historic political entity|Principality of Catalonia||Catalonia (disambiguation)|and|Catalunya (disambiguation)}}
			{{dist|Cataonia|Catatonia}}
	{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2017}}
	{{Use British English|date=April 2014}}		{{Use British English|date=April 2014}}
			{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2022}}
	{{Infobox settlement
			{{Infobox autonomous community of Spain
	| name = Catalonia
			| name = Catalonia
	| official_name =
			| native_name = {{Collapsible list | titlestyle = background:transparent; text-align:center; font-size:10pt; | liststyle = text-align:center; | title = Native names: | 1 = {{native name|ca|'''Catalunya'''}} | 2 = {{native name|es|'''Cataluña'''}} | 3 = {{native name|oc|'''Catalonha'''}}}}
	| native_name = {{unbulleted list
			| settlement_type = ]
	| style = line-height:100%;
			| image_flag = Flag of Catalonia.svg
	| {{native name|ca|Catalunya|nbsp=omit}}
			| flag_alt = Flag of Catalonia (Senyera)
	| {{native name |oc|Catalonha|nbsp=omit}}
			| image_shield = Seal of the Generalitat of Catalonia.svg
	| {{native name|es|Cataluña|nbsp=omit}}
			| shield_alt = Seal of the Generalitat de Catalunya
	}}
			| anthem = {{Native name|ca|]}}<br /> ("The Reapers")<br /> <div style="display:inline-block;margin-top:0.4em;">]</div>
	| settlement_type = ]
			| label_map =
	| image_flag = Flag of Catalonia.svg
			| image_map = {{Switcher|]|Location of Catalonia (red) in Spain|]|Catalonia (dark green) in Spain and Europe|}}
	| flag_size = 125px
			| coordinates = {{Coord|41|51|N|1|34|E|region:ES-CT_type:adm1st|display=inline,title}}
	| flag_alt = Senyera
			| capital = ]
	| image_shield = Coat of Arms of Catalonia.svg
			| largest_city = ]
	| shield_size = 65px
			| provinces = {{Hlist|]|]|]|]}}
	| motto =
			| official_lang = {{Plainlist|
	| anthem = {{native name|ca|]|nbsp=omit}}<br /> {{smaller|"The Reapers"}}<br /> <div style="display:inline-block;margin-top:0.4em;">]</div>
			* ]
	| image_map = Cataluna in Spain (plus Canarias).svg
			* ]{{efn|name=e|As "the official language of the ]", according with the ].<ref>{{cite web|title=The Spanish Constitution|url=https://www.boe.es/legislacion/documentos/ConstitucionINGLES.pdf|website=Agencia Estatal Boletín Oficial del Estado|publisher=BOE|access-date=26 July 2016|archive-date=4 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304214738/https://www.boe.es/legislacion/documentos/ConstitucionINGLES.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref>}}
	| map_alt = Map of Catalonia in Spain
			* ] (]){{efn|name=f|Catalan and Occitan (Aranese in Aran) are the languages of Catalonia and Aran (respectively) and official languages of the autonomous community of Catalonia according with its Statute of Autonomy.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.gencat.cat/generalitat/eng/estatut/titol_preliminar.htm|title=Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia|publisher=Gencat.cat|access-date=13 September 2013|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080528011550/http://www.gencat.cat/generalitat/eng/estatut/titol_preliminar.htm|archive-date=28 May 2008}}</ref>}}
	| map_caption = Location of Catalonia in Spain (red)
			* ]{{efn|name=g|LSC was officially recognized as one of Catalonia's official languages on 3 June 2010 when Law 17/2010 of the Catalan Sign Language (LSC) was approved by the government.<ref name="estatut_langs" /><ref>{{cite web|title=Llei de la llengua de signes catalana|url=https://www.parlament.cat/document/nom/TL118.pdf|website=blogs.iec.cat|language=ca|access-date=9 October 2022|archive-date=9 October 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221009070458/https://www.parlament.cat/document/nom/TL118.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref>}}}}
	| image_map1 = E.U-Catalonia.png
			| government_footnotes =
	| mapsize1 = 270px
			| government_type = ] in a ]
	| map_alt1 = Catalonia in Spain and Europe
			| governing_body = ]
	| map_caption1 = {{map caption |location_color=dark green |region=Europe |region_color=dark grey |subregion=Spain |subregion_color=green}}
			| legislature = Parliament of Catalonia
	| coordinates = {{coord|41|49|N|1|28|E|region:ES-CT_type:adm1st|display=inline,title}}
			| president = ] (])
	| coor_pinpoint =
			| congress_seats = 48
	| subdivision_type = ]
			| senate_seats = 24
	| subdivision_name = {{flagcountry|Spain}}
			| formation = 801 (])<br /> 1137 (]) <br /> {{nowrap|1173 (<!-- established -->])}} <br /> 1516 (] under ]) <br /> 1716 (])
	| established_title = ]
			| statute = <!-- 9 September --> 1932 (])<!-- Abolished during Francoist Spain --> <br /> <!-- 18 September --> 1979 (]) <br /> <!-- 9 August --> 2006 (] – ''in force'')
	| established_date = 988 (])<br />1137 (])<br /> {{nowrap|1283 (<!-- Established -->])}}<br />1516 (] under ])<br />1716 (])
			| area_footnotes = <ref name="idescat-area">{{cite web|url=http://www.idescat.cat/pub/?id=inddt&n=396&lang=en|title=Indicadors geogràfics. Superfície, densitat i entitats de població: Catalunya|publisher=]|access-date=23 November 2015|archive-date=26 April 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200426061452/https://www.idescat.cat/pub/?id=inddt|url-status=live}}</ref>
	| established_title1 = ]
			| area_rank = ]
	| established_date1 = ]<!-- Abolished during Francoist Spain --> <br /> ]<br />] (current version)
			| area_total_km2 = 32113.86
	| established_title2 =
			| area_land_km2 =
	| established_date2 =
			| area_water_km2 =
	| seat_type = ]<br />{{nobold|and largest city}}
			| population_footnotes =
	| seat = ]<br /><small>{{Coord|41|23|N|2|11|E}}</small>
			| population_rank = ]
	| parts_type = ]
			| population_as_of =
	| parts_style = para
			| population_total =
	| p1 = ]
			| population_ref =
	| government_footnotes =
			| population_est = {{IncreaseNeutral}} 8067454
	| government_type = ] in a ]
			| population_density_km2 = auto
	| governing_body = ]
			| pop_est_as_of = 2024<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.idescat.cat/indicadors/?id=basics&n=10328|title=Idescat. Annual indicators. Population on 1 January 2024. By sex|access-date=12 July 2024|language=ca|archive-date=22 December 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231222153502/https://www.idescat.cat/novetats/?id=4707|url-status=live}}</ref>
	| leader_party =
			| pop_est_ref =
	| leader_title = ]
			| density_year =
	| leader_name =
			| population_demonym = ] or Catalonian <br/> &nbsp;• ''català'', ''-ana'' (]) <br/> &nbsp;• ''catalan'', ''-a'' (]) <br/> &nbsp;• ''catalán'', ''-ana'' (])
	| leader_title1 = Legislature
			| GDP_footnotes = <ref>{{cite web| url=http://www.datosmacro.com/pib/espana-comunidades-autonomas| title=PIB de las Comunidades Autónomas 2020 | website=www.datosmacro.com| access-date=13 August 2015| archive-date=31 December 2015| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151231224436/http://www.datosmacro.com/pib/espana-comunidades-autonomas| url-status=live}}</ref>
	| leader_name1 = ]
			| GDP_rank = ]
	| area_footnotes =<ref name="idescat-area">{{cite web|url=http://www.idescat.cat/pub/?id=inddt&n=396&lang=en|title=Indicadors geogràfics. Superfície, densitat i entitats de població: Catalunya|publisher=]|accessdate=23 November 2015}}</ref>
			| GDP_year = 2022
	| area_total_km2 = 32108
			| GDP_total = €255.154 billion
	| area_land_km2 =
			| GDP_per_capita = €32,550
	| area_water_km2 =
			| GDP_per_capita_rank = ]
	| area_water_percent =
			| HDI_year = 2021
	| area_rank = ]
	| population_total = 7,522,596<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.idescat.cat/pub/?id=aec&n=249&lang=en|title=IIdescat. Statistical Yearbook of Catalonia. Population density. Counties and Aran, areas and provinces|website=www.idescat.cat|access-date=13 July 2017}}</ref>		| HDI = 0.916<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://hdi.globaldatalab.org/areadata/shdi/|title=Sub-national HDI – Area Database – Global Data Lab|website=hdi.globaldatalab.org|language=en|access-date=24 June 2023}}</ref>
			| HDI_rank = {{color|darkgreen|very high}} · ]
	| population_as_of = 2016
			| timezone_link =
	| population_footnotes =
			| timezone1_location =
	| population_density_km2 = 234
			| timezone1 = ] (]+1)
	| population_rank = ] (16%)
			| utc_offset1 =
	| population_demonym = ] or Catalonian<br />{{lang|ca|''català, -ana''}} (])<br />{{lang|es|''catalán, -ana''}} (])<br />{{lang|oc|''catalan, -a''}} (])
			| timezone1_DST = ] (]+2)
	| population_note =
			| utc_offset1_DST =
	| demographics_type1 = ]
			| postal_code_prefix = {{hlist|08XXX (])|17XXX (])|25XXX (])|43XXX (])}}
	| demographics1_footnotes = &nbsp;(nominal; 2012)<ref name=SpainRef> (Spain's GDP and GRP), . GDP Figures of Spanish autonomous communities and provinces 2008–2012.</ref>
	| demographics1_title1 = Total		| iso_code = ES-CT
	| demographics_type2 = ]		| currency = ] (])
			| telephone_code = ]
	| demographics2_footnotes = &nbsp;(]; 2012)<ref name=SpainRef/>
			| patron = ] <br /> ]
	| demographics2_title1 = Total
			| holiday = ]
	| demographics2_info1 = $336.162 billion
			| website = gencat.cat
	| timezone1_DST = ]
			| module = {{Infobox mapframe |wikidata=yes |zoom=5 |height=300 |width= | stroke-width=1 |coord={{WikidataCoord|display=i}}}}
	| utc_offset1_DST = +2
	| postal_code_type =
	| postal_code =
	| area_code = +34 93 (Barcelona area) <br /> +34 97 (rest of Catalonia)
	| area_code_type = ]
	| iso_code = ES-CT
	| blank_name_sec1 = ]
	| blank_info_sec1 = ], ] (]),{{efn|name=f|Catalan and Occitan are the own languages of Catalonia and Aran (respectively) and official languages of the autonomous community of Catalonia according with its Statue of Autonomy.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.gencat.cat/generalitat/eng/estatut/titol_preliminar.htm |title=Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia |publisher=Gencat.cat |accessdate=13 September 2013 |deadurl=yes |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20080528011550/http://www.gencat.cat/generalitat/eng/estatut/titol_preliminar.htm |archivedate=28 May 2008 |df=dmy-all }}</ref>}} ],{{efn|name=e|As "the official language of the ]", according with the ].<ref>{{cite web|title=The Spanish Constitution|url=https://www.boe.es/legislacion/documentos/ConstitucionINGLES.pdf|website=Agencia Estatal Boletín Oficial del Estado|publisher=BOE|accessdate=26 July 2016}}</ref>}}<br />] (also&nbsp;recognised)
	| blank1_name_sec1 = ]
	| blank1_info_sec1 = ] (''Sant Jordi''), ]
	<!-- blank fields (section 2) -->
	| blank_name_sec2 = ]
	| blank_info_sec2 = ]
	| website =
	| footnotes =
	| p2 = ]
	| p3 = ]
	| p4 = ]
	| header1 = ]
	| leader_title3 = ]
	| leader_name3 = 47 deputies (of 350)
	| leader_title4 = ]
	| leader_name4 = 16 senators (of 264)
	| unemployment_rate =
	| demographics1_info1 = $255.204 billion
	| demographics1_title2 = Per capita
	| demographics1_info2 = $33,580
	| demographics2_title2 = Per capita
	| demographics2_info2 = $43,837
	| timezone = ]
	| utc_offset = +1
	}}		}}
	<!--		<!--
			Please note: The descriptions "autonomous community" and "nationality" are based on formal political terminology as found in official sources and have been discussed at length on the talk page in the past. Please do not directly change to "country" or "nation" – or, conversely, to "region" – but raise any issues or suggest any improvements on the talk page first, as direct edits on this subject will be controversial.
			-->
			'''Catalonia''' ({{IPAc-en|ˌ|k|æ|t|ə|ˈ|l|oʊ|n|i|ə}}; {{langx|ca|Catalunya}} {{IPA|ca|kətəˈluɲə||LL-Q7026 (cat)-Unjoanqualsevol-Catalunya.wav}}; {{langx|es|Cataluña}} {{IPA|es|kataˈluɲa||Pronunciation_of_Catalonia_in_Spanish.ogg}}; {{langx|oc|Catalonha}} {{IPA-oc|kataˈluɲa|}}<ref>{{citation|url=http://www.institutestudisaranesi.cat/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/33519-vocabulari-fonetic.pdf|title=Vocabulari fonetic basic der aranés|publisher=Institut D'Estudis Aranesi|date=2018|isbn=978-84-09-06340-6|page=8|access-date=5 January 2021|archive-date=5 July 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210705145917/http://www.institutestudisaranesi.cat/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/33519-vocabulari-fonetic.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref>) is an ], designated as a '']'' by its ].{{efn|In addition to the legal definition as a nationality, Catalonia is also defined as a ] in the preamble of its 2006 Statute of Autonomy, although it was rejected by the ] in 2010, which declared this definition without legal force. However, the definition was not modified nor suppressed, thus remaining in the text.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.expatica.com/es/news/country-news/Court-to-reject-nation-in-Catalonia-statute_167204.html|title=Court to reject 'nation' in Catalonia statute|date=22 November 2009|access-date=12 November 2015|archive-date=23 December 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151223190919/http://www.expatica.com/es/news/country-news/Court-to-reject-nation-in-Catalonia-statute_167204.html|url-status=live}}</ref>}}<!-- i.e. by the ] and its ] --><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.gencat.cat/generalitat/eng/estatut/titol_preliminar.htm|title=Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia, article 1|quote=Catalonia, as a nationality, exercises its self-government constituted as an autonomous community, in accordance with the Constitution and with this Statute, which is its basic institutional law.|publisher=Gencat.cat|access-date=13 September 2013|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080528011550/http://www.gencat.cat/generalitat/eng/estatut/titol_preliminar.htm|archive-date=28 May 2008}}</ref> Most of its territory (except the ]) is situated on the northeast of the ], to the south of the ] mountain range. Catalonia is administratively divided into four ] or eight ] (regions), which are in turn divided into 42 ]. The capital and largest city, ], is the second-most populous ] in Spain and the fifth-most populous urban area in the ].<ref name="demographia"> {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110805030244/http://www.demographia.com/db-worldua.pdf|date=5 August 2011}} – Demographia, April 2018</ref>
			Modern-day Catalonia comprises most of the medieval and early modern ] (with the remainder ] now part of France's ]). It is bordered by ] (]) and ] to the north, the ] to the east, and the Spanish autonomous communities of ] to the west and ] to the south. In addition to about 580&nbsp;km of coastline, Catalonia also has major high landforms such as the ] and the ], the Transversal Range (Serralada Transversal) or the Central Depression.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://exteriors.gencat.cat/en/ambits-dactuacio/afers_exteriors/delegacions_govern/welcome-to-catalonia/|title=Welcome to Catalonia|publisher=Ministry for Foreign Action and European Union|access-date=27 March 2024|archive-date=27 March 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240327072043/https://exteriors.gencat.cat/en/ambits-dactuacio/afers_exteriors/delegacions_govern/welcome-to-catalonia/|url-status=live}}</ref> The official languages are ], ] and the ] of ].<ref name="estatut_langs">{{cite web|title=Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia (2006), Articles 6, 50 – BOPC 224 |url=http://www.parlament-cat.net/porteso/estatut/estatut_angles_100506.pdf|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130826045656/http://www.parlament-cat.net/porteso/estatut/estatut_angles_100506.pdf|archive-date=26 August 2013|access-date=31 January 2014}}</ref>
	Please note: The descriptions "autonomous community" and "nationality" are based on formal political terminology as found in official sources and have been discussed at length on the talk page in the past. Please do not directly change to "country" or "nation" – or, conversely, to "region" – but raise any issues or suggest any improvements on the talk page first, as direct edits on this subject may be controversial.
			In the late 8th century, various counties across the eastern Pyrenees were established by the ] as a defensive barrier against Muslim invasions. In the 10th century, the County of Barcelona became progressively independent.<ref>Salrach, Josep Mª. ''Catalunya a la fi del primer mil·leni''. Pagès Editors (Lleida, 2004), pp. 144–149.</ref> In 1137, ] and the ] were united by marriage, resulting in a ] known as the ]. Within the Crown, the Catalan counties merged in to a polity, the ], developing its own institutional system, such as ], ] and ], becoming the base and promoter for the Crown's Mediterranean trade and expansionism. In the later Middle Ages, ] flourished. In 1469, ] of the crowns of Aragon and ] were married and ruled their realms together, retaining all of their distinct institutions and legislation.
	-->
	'''Catalonia''' ({{lang-ca|Catalunya}}, {{lang-oc|Catalonha}}, {{lang-es|Cataluña}}){{efn|name=a|Pronunciation:
	* English: "Catalonia" {{IPAc-en|k|æ|t|ə|ˈ|l|oʊ|n|i|ə}}
	* {{lang-ca|Catalunya}} {{IPA-ca|kətəˈluɲə|}} (] – Standard variety), {{IPA-ca|kataˈluɲɛ|}} (])
	* ] (]): ''Catalonha'' {{IPA-oc|kataˈluɲɔ|}}
	* {{lang-es|Cataluña}} {{IPA-es|kataˈluɲa|}}}} is an ] of ] located on the northeastern extremity of the ]. It is one of Spain's eight communities which are designated as a '']'' by their ].{{efn|Catalonia and the Catalan people are defined as a ] in the preambule of the 2006 Statute of Autonomy, although it was rejected and modified by the ], which declared this definition without legal standing.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.expatica.com/es/news/country-news/Court-to-reject-nation-in-Catalonia-statute_167204.html|title=Court to reject 'nation' in Catalonia statute}}</ref>}}<!-- i.e. by the ] and its ] --><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.gencat.cat/generalitat/eng/estatut/titol_preliminar.htm |title=First article of the Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia. 'Catalonia, as a nationality, exercises its self-government constituted as an autonomous community...' |publisher=Gencat.cat |accessdate=13 September 2013 |deadurl=yes |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20080528011550/http://www.gencat.cat/generalitat/eng/estatut/titol_preliminar.htm |archivedate=28 May 2008 |df=dmy-all }}</ref> Catalonia consists of four ]: ], ], ], and ]. The capital and largest city is ], the second-most populated ] in Spain and the core of the seventh most populous urban area in the ]. Catalonia comprises most of the territory of the former ] (with the remainder ] now part of France's ]). It is bordered by ] and ] to the north, the ] to the east, and the Spanish autonomous communities of ] to the west and ] to the south. The official languages are ], ], and the ] of Occitan.<ref name="estatut_langs">{{cite web |url=http://www.parlament-cat.net/porteso/estatut/estatut_angles_100506.pdf |title=Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia (2006), Articles 6, 50 - BOPC 224 |format=PDF |accessdate=31 January 2014 |deadurl=yes |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20130826045656/http://www.parlament-cat.net/porteso/estatut/estatut_angles_100506.pdf |archivedate=26 August 2013 |df=dmy-all }}</ref>
			During the ] (1635–1659), ] (1640–1652) against a burdensome presence of the royal army, being briefly established as a ] under French protection. By the ] (1659), the ], mostly the ], were ceded to France. During the ] (1701–1714), the Crown of Aragon sided against the ] ], but after the ] (1713) the Catalans were defeated with the ] on ]. Philip V subsequently imposed a unifying administration across Spain, enacting the ] which, like in the other realms of the Crown of Aragon, suppressed Catalan institutions and legislation. As a consequence, Catalan as a language of government and literature was eclipsed by Spanish.
	In the late 8th century, the counties of the ] and the ] were established by the ] as ] across and near the eastern ] as a defensive barrier against Muslim invasions. The eastern counties of these marches were united under the rule of the Frankish vassal, the ], and were later called Catalonia. In 1137, Catalonia and the ] were united by marriage under the ], and the Principality of Catalonia became the base for the Crown of Aragon's naval power and expansionism in the Mediterranean. In the later Middle Ages, ] flourished. Between 1469 and 1516, the king of Aragon and the queen of ] married and ruled their kingdoms together, retaining all their distinct institutions, ] (]), and ].
			In the 19th century, Catalonia was severely affected by the ] and ]. In the second third of the century, it experienced industrialisation. As wealth from the industrial expansion grew, it saw a ] coupled with incipient ] while several ]s appeared. The establishment of the ] (1931–1939) granted ], being restored the ] as the autonomous government. After the ], the ] dictatorship enacted repressive measures, abolishing Catalan self-government and banning the official use of the Catalan language. After a period of ], from the late 1950s through to the 1970s Catalonia saw ], drawing many workers from across Spain, making Barcelona one of Europe's largest industrial metropolitan areas and turning Catalonia into a major tourist destination. During the ] (1975–1982), the Generalitat was reestablished and Catalonia ], remaining one of the most economically dynamic communities in Spain.
	During the ] (1635–1659), ] (1640–1652) against a large and burdensome presence of the royal army in its territory, becoming a ] under French protection. Within a brief period France took full control of Catalonia, at a high economic cost for Catalonia, until it was largely reconquered by the Spanish army. Under the terms of the ] in 1659, which ended the wider Franco-Spanish War, the ] ceded the northern parts of Catalonia, mostly incorporated in the county of Roussillon, to France. During the ] (1701–1714), the Crown of Aragon sided against the ] ], whose subsequent victory led to the ] which abolished non-Castilian institutions in the Crown of Aragon, replaced Latin and other languages (such as Catalan) with Spanish in legal documents, abolished internal borders and customs except for the Basque and Navarrese territories and ended the Castilian monopoly over trade with the Spanish Empire.
			In the 2010s, there was growing support for ]. On 27 October 2017, the Catalan Parliament unilaterally declared independence following a ] that was deemed unconstitutional by the Spanish state. The Spanish Senate voted in favour of enforcing direct rule by removing the Catalan government and calling ]. The ] imprisoned seven former ministers of the Catalan government on charges of rebellion and misuse of public funds, while several others—including then-President ]—fled to other European countries. Those in prison{{Efn|Puigdemont is still wanted by the government in Madrid.<ref>{{Cite web|date=2022-05-24|title=EU court reinstates MEP immunity of Catalonia's Carles Puigdemont|url=https://www.euronews.com/2022/05/24/eu-court-reinstates-immunity-of-catalonia-s-ex-president-carles-puigdemont|access-date=2022-06-22|publisher=]|language=en|archive-date=22 June 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220622190654/https://www.euronews.com/2022/05/24/eu-court-reinstates-immunity-of-catalonia-s-ex-president-carles-puigdemont|url-status=live}}</ref>}} were pardoned by the Spanish government in 2021.
	In the nineteenth century, Catalonia was severely affected by the ] and ]. In the second half of the century, Catalonia experienced significant industrialisation. As wealth from the industrial expansion grew, Catalonia saw a ] coupled with incipient ] while several workers movements appeared. In 1914, the four Catalan provinces formed a ], and with the return of democracy during the ] (1931–1939), the ] was restored as an autonomous government. After the ], the ] dictatorship enacted repressive measures, abolishing Catalan institutions and banning the official use of the Catalan language again. From the late 1950s through to the early 1970s, Catalonia saw ], drawing many workers from across Spain, making Barcelona one of Europe's largest industrial metropolitan areas and turning Catalonia into a major tourist destination. Since the ] (1975–1982), Catalonia has regained considerable local autonomy in political, educational, environmental, and cultural affairs and is now one of the most economically dynamic communities of Spain.
	== Etymology and pronunciation ==		== Etymology and pronunciation ==
	The name ''Catalunya'' (Catalonia)—spelled ''Cathalonia'', or ''Cathalaunia'', in ]—began to be used for the homeland of the ] (''Cathalanenses'') in the late 11th century and was probably used before as a territorial reference to the group of counties that comprised part of the March of Gothia and ] under the control of the ] and his relatives.<ref> (in Catalan) {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120206211826/http://www.enciclopedia.cat/fitxa_v2.jsp?NDCHEC=0016436 |date=6 February 2012 }}</ref> The origin of the name ''Catalunya'' is subject to diverse interpretations because of a lack of evidence.		The name "Catalonia" ({{Langx|la-x-medieval|Cathalaunia}}), spelled ''Cathalonia'', began to be used for the homeland of the ] (''Cathalanenses'') in the late 11th century and was probably used before as a territorial reference to the group of counties that comprised part of the March of Gothia and the ] under the control of the ] and his relatives.<ref> (in Catalan) {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120206211826/http://www.enciclopedia.cat/fitxa_v2.jsp?NDCHEC=0016436|date=6 February 2012}}</ref> The origin of the name ''Catalunya'' is subject to diverse interpretations because of a lack of evidence.
	One theory suggests that ''Catalunya'' derives from the name ''Gothia'' (or ''Gauthia'') ''Launia'' ("Land of the ]"), since the origins of the Catalan counts, lords and people were found in the March of Gothia, known as ''Gothia'', whence ''Gothland'' > ''Gothlandia'' > ''Gothalania'' > ''Cathalaunia'' > ''Catalonia'' theoretically derived.<ref name="Books.google.com"/><ref>{{cite book| author = Ulick Ralph Burke| title = A history of Spain from the earliest times to the death of Ferdinand the Catholic| url = https://books.google.com/?id=tz3g_YzTQaUC&pg=PA154| year = 1900| publisher = Longmans, Green, and co.| page = 154}}</ref> During the ], ] chroniclers claimed that ''Catalania'' derives from the local medley of ] with ], initially constituting a ''Goth-Alania''.<ref>The Sarmatians: 600 BC-AD 450 (Men-at-Arms) by Richard Brzezinski and Gerry Embleton, 19 August 2002.</ref>		One theory suggests that ''Catalunya'' derives from the name ''Gothia'' (or ''Gauthia'') ''Launia'' ("Land of the ]"), since the origins of the Catalan counts, lords and people were found in the March of Gothia, known as ''Gothia'', whence ''Gothland'' > {{Lang|la-x-medieval|Gothlandia}} > {{Lang|la-x-medieval|Gothalania}} > {{Lang|la-x-medieval|Cathalaunia}} > ''Catalonia'' theoretically derived.<ref name="Books.google.com"/><ref>{{cite book|author=Ulick Ralph Burke|title=A history of Spain from the earliest times to the death of Ferdinand the Catholic|url=https://archive.org/details/ahistoryspainfr02burkgoog|year=1900|publisher=Longmans, Green, and co.|page=}}</ref> During the ], ] chroniclers claimed that ''Catalania'' derives from the local medley of ] with ], initially constituting a ''Goth-Alania''.<ref>The Sarmatians: 600 BC-AD 450 (Men-at-Arms) by Richard Brzezinski and Gerry Embleton, 19 August 2002.</ref>
	Other less plausible or recent theories suggest:		Other theories suggest:
	* ''Catalunya'' derives from the term "land of castles", having evolved from the term ''castlà'' or ''castlan'', the medieval term for ] of a ].<ref name="Books.google.com">{{cite book| author = Maximiano García Venero| title = Historia del nacionalismo catalán: 2a edición| url = https://books.google.com/?id=nUABAAAAMAAJ| accessdate = 25 April 2010| date = 7 July 2006| publisher = Ed. Nacional}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.gencat.cat/catalunya/eng/historia/historia2.htm |title=La formació de Catalunya |publisher=Gencat.cat |accessdate=25 April 2010 |deadurl=yes |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20091215151546/http://www.gencat.cat/catalunya/eng/historia/historia2.htm |archivedate=15 December 2009}}</ref> This theory therefore suggests that the names ''Catalunya'' and '']'' have a common root.		*''Catalunya'' derives from the term "land of castles", having evolved from the term ''castlà'' or ''castlan'', the medieval term for a ] (a ruler of a ]).<ref name="Books.google.com">{{cite book|author=Maximiano García Venero|title=Historia del nacionalismo catalán: 2a edición|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nUABAAAAMAAJ|access-date=25 April 2010|date=7 July 2006|publisher=Ed. Nacional|archive-date=11 March 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220311111242/https://books.google.com/books?id=nUABAAAAMAAJ|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.gencat.cat/catalunya/eng/historia/historia2.htm|title=La formació de Catalunya|publisher=Gencat.cat|access-date=25 April 2010|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091215151546/http://www.gencat.cat/catalunya/eng/historia/historia2.htm|archive-date=15 December 2009}}</ref> This theory therefore suggests that the names ''Catalunya'' and '']'' have a common root.
	* The source is of Celtic origin, meaning "chiefs of battle". Although the area is not known to have been occupied by ], a Celtic culture was present within the interior of ] in pre-Roman times.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=Catalan&allowed_in_frame=0 |title=Online Etymology Dictionary |publisher=Etymonline.com |accessdate=31 January 2014}}</ref>		*The source is the Celtic '']'', meaning "chiefs of battle", similar to the Celtic given name ;<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Bonfante|first=Giuliano|date=1948|title=Le nom de la "Catalogne"|url=https://www.persee.fr/doc/ecelt_0373-1928_1948_num_4_2_1196|journal=Études celtiques|volume=4|issue=2|pages=365–368|doi=10.3406/ecelt.1948.1196|access-date=6 June 2020|archive-date=6 June 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200606104705/https://www.persee.fr/doc/ecelt_0373-1928_1948_num_4_2_1196|url-status=live|issn=0373-1928 }}</ref> although the area is not known to have been occupied by the ], a Celtic culture was present within the interior of the ] in pre-Roman times.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=Catalan&allowed_in_frame=0|title=Online Etymology Dictionary|publisher=Etymonline.com|access-date=31 January 2014|archive-date=3 February 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140203040542/http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=Catalan&allowed_in_frame=0|url-status=live}}</ref>
	* The ], an ] tribe that lived in the area and whose name, due to the ] influence, could have evolved by ] to ''Katelans'' and then ''Catalans''.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.mediterranees.net/vagabondages/divers/catalogne.html |title=La Catalogne: son nom et ses limites historiques, Histoire de Roussillon |publisher=Mediterranees.net |date=22 March 2008 |accessdate=1 February 2014}}</ref>		*The ], an ] that lived in the area and whose name, due to the ] influence, could have evolved by ] to ''Katelans'' and then ''Catalans''.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.mediterranees.net/vagabondages/divers/catalogne.html|title=La Catalogne: son nom et ses limites historiques, Histoire de Roussillon|publisher=Mediterranees.net|date=22 March 2008|access-date=1 February 2014|archive-date=18 December 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101218071954/http://mediterranees.net/vagabondages/divers/catalogne.html|url-status=live}}</ref>
	* ] , finding serious shortcomings with earlier proposals (such as that an original -''t''- would have, by normal sound laws in the local Romance languages, developed into -''d''-), suggested an Arabic etymology: ''{{transl|ar|qattāl}}'' ({{lang|ar|{{wt|en|قتالو}}}}, {{abbr|pl.|plural}} ''{{transl|ar|qattālūn}}'' {{lang|ar|قتالون}}) – meaning "killer" – could have been applied by Muslims to groups of raiders and bandits on the southern border of the ]. The name, originally derogatory, could have been ] by Christians as an ]. This is comparable to attested development of the term ] in nearby areas. In this model, the country name ''Catalunya'' derives from the plural ''qattālūn'' while the adjective and language name ''català'' derives from the singular ''qattāl'', both with the addition of common Romance suffixes.{{cn|date=November 2017}}		*Miguel Vidal, finding serious shortcomings with earlier proposals (such as that an original -''t''- would have, by normal sound laws in the local Romance languages, developed into -''d''-), suggested an Arabic etymology: ''{{transliteration|ar|qattāl}}'' ({{wikt-lang|ar|قتال}}, {{abbr|pl.|plural}} ''{{transliteration|ar|qattālūn}}'' {{lang|ar|قتالون}}) – meaning "killer" – could have been applied by Muslims to groups of raiders and bandits on the southern border of the ].<ref>Badia i Margarit, Antoni, 1981,
			Gramàtica històrica catalana, Barcelona; see also Miguel Vidal's "Etymology of català, Catalunya", available {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201101182645/https://www.academia.edu/3815281/Etymology_of_catal%C3%A0_Catalunya|date=1 November 2020}}.</ref> The name, originally derogatory, could have been reappropriated by Christians as an autonym. This is comparable to attested development of the term ] in nearby areas. In this model, the name ''Catalunya'' derives from the plural ''qattālūn'' while the adjective and language name ''català'' derives from the singular ''qattāl'', both with the addition of common Romance suffixes.<ref>Sabaté, Flocel (2015). ''Anàlisi històrica de la identitat catalana''. Barcelona, Institut d ́Estudis Catalans: p. 27; Publicacions de la Presidència (1).</ref>
	In English, ''Catalonia'' is pronounced {{IPAc-en|k|æ|t|ə|ˈ|l|oʊ|n|i|ə}}. The native name, ''Catalunya'', is pronounced {{IPA-ca|kətəˈluɲə|}} in ], the most widely spoken variety, whose pronunciation is considered standard.<ref>{{Cite book|first=Ingo|last=Feldhausen|year=2010|page=5|title= Sentential Form and Prosodic Structure of Catalan|publisher=John Benjamins B.V.|isbn=9789027255518}}</ref> The ] name is ''Cataluña'' ({{IPA-es|kataˈluɲa|}}), and the ] name is ''Catalonha'' ({{IPA-oc|kataˈluɲɔ|}}).
			In English, ''Catalonia'' is pronounced {{IPAc-en|k|æ|t|ə|ˈ|l|oʊ|n|i|ə}}. The native name, ''Catalunya'', is pronounced {{IPA|ca|kətəˈluɲə|}} in ], the most widely spoken variety, and {{IPA|ca|kataˈluɲa|}} in ]. The ] name is ''Cataluña'' ({{IPA|es|kataˈluɲa|}}), and the ] name is ''Catalonha'' ({{IPA-oc|kataˈluɲa|}}).
	== History ==		== History ==
	{{Main article|History of Catalonia}}		{{Main|History of Catalonia}}
			{{For timeline|Timeline of Catalan history}}
	=== Prehistory ===		=== Prehistory ===
	] contain paintings protected as part of a ]]]		] contains paintings protected as part of the Rock art of the ] Mediterranean Basin, a ].]]
	The first known human settlements in what is now Catalonia were at the beginning of the ]. The oldest known trace of human occupation is a mandible found in ], described by some sources as pre-] some 200,000 years old; other sources suggest it to be only about one third that old.<ref>{{citation | first1 = R | last1 = Grun | title = ESR and U-series analyses of enamel and dentine fragments of the Banyoles mandible | journal = Journal of Human Evolution | year = 2005 | url = http://www.naturalsciences.be/mars/litterature/bibliography/bibtest/Grun2005 | accessdate = 31 October 2006 | doi = 10.1016/j.jhevol.2005.10.001 |display-authors=etal | volume=50 | issue = 3 | pages=347–58 | pmid=16364406}}.</ref> From the next prehistoric era, the ] or ], important remains survive, the greater part dated between 8000 BC and 5000&nbsp;BC, such as those of Sant Gregori (]) and el Filador (] de Montsant).
			The first known human settlements in what is now Catalonia were at the beginning of the ]. The oldest known trace of human occupation is a ] found in ], described by some sources{{which|date=December 2022}} as pre-], that is, some 200,000 years old; other sources suggest it to be only about one third that old.<ref>{{citation|first1=R.|last1=Grun|title=ESR and U-series analyses of enamel and dentine fragments of the Banyoles mandible|journal=Journal of Human Evolution|year=2005|url=http://www.naturalsciences.be/mars/litterature/bibliography/bibtest/Grun2005|archive-url=https://archive.today/20120904090837/http://www.naturalsciences.be/mars/litterature/bibliography/bibtest/Grun2005|url-status=dead|archive-date=4 September 2012|access-date=31 October 2006|doi=10.1016/j.jhevol.2005.10.001|display-authors=etal|volume=50|issue=3|pages=347–58|pmid=16364406}}.</ref> From the next prehistoric era, the ] or ], important remains survive, the greater part dated between 8000 and 5000{{spaces}}BC, such as those of Sant Gregori (]) and el Filador (] de Montsant). The most important sites from these eras, all excavated in the region of ], are the Balma del Gai (Epipaleolithic) and the Balma de l'Espluga (late Epipaleolithic and Early Neolithic).<ref>Guilaine, Jean; Michel Barbaza, David Geddes, Jean-Louis Vernet, Miguel Llongueras & Maria Hopf (1982). "Prehistoric Human Adaptations in Catalonia (Spain)", ''Journal of Field Archaeology'', 9:4, 407–416.</ref>
	The ] era began in Catalonia around 5000 BC, although the population was slower to develop fixed settlements than in other places, thanks to the abundance of woods, which allowed the continuation of a fundamentally ] culture.
			The ] era began in Catalonia around 5000{{nbsp}}BC, although the population was slower to develop fixed settlements than in other places, thanks to the abundance of woods, which allowed the continuation of a fundamentally ] culture. An example of such settlements would be La Draga at Banyoles, an "early Neolithic village which dates from the end of the 6th millennium{{nbsp}}BC."<ref>Tarrus, Josep. "La Draga (Banyoles, Catalonia), an Early Neolithic Lakeside Village in Mediterranean Europe". ''Catalan Historical Review'', vol. 1, 2008, pp. 17–33.</ref>
	The Chalcolithic (]) period developed in Catalonia between 2500 and 1800 BC, with the beginning of the construction of copper objects. The ] occurred between 1800 and 700 BC. There are few remnants of this era, but there were some known settlements in the ] zone. The Bronze Age coincided with the arrival of the ] through the ], whose successive waves of migration began around 1200 BC, and they were responsible for the creation of the first proto-urban settlements. Around the middle of the 7th century BC, the ] arrived in Catalonia.
			The ] period developed in Catalonia between 2500 and 1800{{nbsp}}BC, with the beginning of the construction of copper objects. The ] occurred between 1800 and 700{{nbsp}}BC. There are few remnants of this era, but there were some known settlements in the ] zone. The Bronze Age coincided with the arrival of the ] through the ], whose successive waves of migration began around 1200{{nbsp}}BC, and they were responsible for the creation of the first proto-urban settlements.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.raco.cat/index.php/Pyrenae/article/viewFile/178964/242576|title=J. Maluquer de Motes: "Late Bronze and Early Iron in the valley of the Ebro" (''The Europea Community in Later Prehistory. Studies in honour of C. F. C. Hawkes''; Routledge & Kegan 1971, pp. 107–120) |access-date=24 January 2019|archive-date=2 October 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171002115946/http://www.raco.cat/index.php/Pyrenae/article/viewFile/178964/242576|url-status=live}}</ref> Around the middle of the 7th century{{nbsp}}BC, the ] arrived in Catalonia.
	=== Pre-Roman and Roman period ===		=== Pre-Roman and Roman period ===
	] in ]]]		], ] in ] ]]
			In pre-Roman times, the area that is now called Catalonia in the north-east of ] – like the rest of the ] side of the peninsula – was populated by the ]. The Iberians of this area – the ], ] and ] (Cerretains) – also maintained relations with the peoples of the Mediterranean. Some urban agglomerations became relevant, including Ilerda (]) inland, Hibera (perhaps ] or ]) or Indika (]). Coastal trading colonies were established by the ], who settled around the ], in Emporion (]) and ] in the ]. The ] briefly ruled the territory in the course of the ] and traded with ].
	] in ] ]]
	In pre-Roman times, the area that is now called Catalonia in the north-east of ] – like the rest of the ] side of the peninsula – was populated by the ]. The Iberians of this area – the ], ] and ] (Cerretains) – also maintained relations with the peoples of the Mediterranean. Some urban agglomerations became relevant, including Ilerda (Lleida) inland, Hibera (perhaps ] or ]) or Indika (]). Coastal trading colonies were established by the ], who settled around the ], in Emporion (]) and ] in the ]. The ] briefly ruled the territory in the course of the ] and traded with ].
	After the Carthaginian defeat by the ], the north-east of Iberia became the first to come under Roman rule and became part of ], the westernmost part of the ]. ] (modern ]) was one of the most important Roman cities in Hispania and the capital of the ] of ]. Other important cities of the Roman period are Ilerda (Lleida), Dertosa (Tortosa), Gerunda (Girona) as well as the ports of Empuriæ (former Emporion) and Barcino (Barcelona). As for the rest of Hispania, ] was granted to all cities under the reign of ] (69-79 AD), while ] was granted to all free men of the empire by the ] ] in 212 AD (Tarraco, the capital, was already a colony of ] since 45 BC). It was a rich agricultural province (olive oil, vine, ]), and the first centuries of the Empire saw the construction of roads (the most important being the ], parallel to Mediterranean coastline) and infrastructure like ].		After the Carthaginian defeat by the ], the north-east of Iberia became the first to come under Roman rule and became part of ], the westernmost part of the ]. ] (modern ]) was one of the most important Roman cities in Hispania and the capital of the ] of ]. Other important cities of the Roman period are Ilerda (Lleida), Dertosa (Tortosa), Gerunda (Girona) as well as the ports of Empuriæ (former Emporion) and Barcino (]). As for the rest of Hispania, ] was granted to all cities under the reign of ] (69–79{{nbsp}}AD), while ] was granted to all free men of the empire by the ] in 212{{nbsp}}AD (Tarraco, the capital, was already a colony of ] since 45{{nbsp}}BC). It was a rich agricultural province (olive oil, wine, ]), and the first centuries of the Empire saw the construction of roads (the most important being the ], parallel to Mediterranean coastline) and infrastructure like ].
	Conversion to ], attested in the 3rd century, was completed in urban areas in the 4th century. Although Hispania remained under Roman rule and did not fall under the rule of ], ] and ] in the 5th century, the main cities suffered frequent sacking and some ].		Conversion to ], attested in the 3rd{{nbsp}}century, was completed in urban areas in the 4th{{nbsp}}century. Although Hispania remained under Roman rule and did not fall under the rule of ], ] and ] in the 5th{{nbsp}}century, the main cities suffered frequent sacking and some ].
	=== Middle Ages ===		=== Middle Ages ===
	] ]]		] ]]
	After the fall of the ], the area was conquered by the ] and was ruled as part of the ] for almost two and a half centuries. In 718, it came under ] control and became part of ], a province of the ]. From the conquest of Roussillon in 760, to the conquest of Barcelona in 801, the ] took control of the area between Septimania and the ] river from the Muslims and created heavily militarised, self-governing ]. These counties formed part of the ] and ] marches, a ] in the south of the Frankish empire in the former province of Septimania and in the northeast of the Iberian Peninsula, to act as a defensive barrier for the Frankish empire against further Muslim invasions from Al-Andalus.		After the fall of the ], the area was conquered by the ] and was ruled as part of the ] for almost two and a half centuries. In 718, it came under ] control and became part of ], a province of the ]. From the conquest of Roussillon in 760, to the ] of Barcelona in 801, the ] took control of the area between Septimania and the ] river from the Muslims and created heavily militarised, self-governing ]. These counties formed part of the historiographically known as the ] and ] Marches, a ] in the south of the Frankish Empire in the former province of Septimania and in the northeast of the Iberian Peninsula, to act as a defensive barrier for the Frankish Empire against further Muslim invasions from Al-Andalus.<ref>Ramos, Luis G-G (2002). ''Las Invasiones Bárbaras en Hispania y la Creación del Reino Visigodo''. Barcelona: Ariel. pp. 3–30. {{ISBN|978-84-344-6668-5}}</ref>
			] (left), ] (right) and their son Alfonso II of Aragon and I of Barcelona, dynastic union of the ]]]
			These counties came under the rule of the ], who were Frankish ]s nominated by the emperor of the Franks, to whom they were ] (801–988). The earliest known use of the name "]" for these counties dates to 1117. At the end of the 9th{{nbsp}}century, the Count of Barcelona ] (878–897) made his titles hereditaries and thus founded the dynasty of the ], which reigned in Catalonia until 1410.
			]
	These counties came under the rule of the ], who were Frankish ]s nominated by the emperor of the Franks, to whom they were ] (801–987). The earliest known use of the name "]" for these counties dates to 1117. During the 9th century, the Count ] made its title hereditary and founded the dynasty of the ], which ruled Catalonia until 1410.
			]
			In 988 ], Count of Barcelona, did not recognise the new French king ] as his king, evidencing the loss of dependency from Frankish rule and confirming his successors (from ] onwards) as independent of the Capetian crown whom they regarded as usurpers of the Carolingian Frankish realm.<ref>Salrach, Josep Mª. ''Catalunya a la fi del primer mil·leni''. Pagès Editors, (Lleida, 2004) pp. 144–49.</ref> At the beginning of eleventh century the Catalan counties experienced an important process of feudalisation, however, the efforts of church's sponsored ] and the intervention of ], count of Barcelona (1035–1076) in the negotiations with the rebel nobility resulted in the partial restoration of the comital authority under the new feudal order. To fulfill that purpose, Ramon Berenguer began the modification of the legislation in the written ], being one of the first European compilations of feudal law.
			In 1137, ] decided to accept ]'s proposal to receive the ] and to marry his daughter ], establishing the dynastic union of the County of Barcelona with Aragon, creating a composite monarchy later known as the ] and making the Catalan counties that were vassalized or merged with the County of Barcelona into a ] of the Aragonese Crown. During the reign of his son ], in 1173, Catalonia was regarded as a legal entity for the first time, while the Usages of Barcelona were compiled in the process to turn them into the law and custom of Catalonia (''Consuetudinem Cathalonie''), being considered one of the "milestones of Catalan political identity".<ref>Cingolani, Stefano Maria (2006). "Seguir les Vestígies dels Antecessors. Llinatge, Reialesa i Historiografia a Catalunya des de Ramon Berenguer IV a Pere II (1131–1285)", Anuario de Estudios Medievales, p 225.</ref>
	In 987 ], Count of Barcelona, did not recognise ] as his king, making his successors (from Ramon Borrell I to Ramon Berenguer IV) de facto independent of the Carolingian crown. At the start of eleventh century the Catalan Counties suffer an important process of feudalisation, partially controlled by the ] and by the power and negotiation skills of the Counts of Barcelona like ]. In 1137, ] decided to accept ]'s proposal to marry Queen ], establishing the dynastic union of the County of Barcelona with the ], joining the ] and making the Catalan counties that were united under the county of Barcelona into a ] of the Aragonese Crown.
	In 1258, by means of the ], the ] and King of Aragon, of Mallorca and of Valencia, ] renounced his family rights and dominions in ] and recognised the king of France as heir of the ]. The king of France formally relinquished his nominal feudal lordship over all the Catalan counties, except the ], despite the opposition of the king of Aragon and count of Barcelona. This treaty transformed the principality's '']'' union with Aragon into a '']'' one and was the origin of the definitive separation between the geographical areas of Catalonia and ].		In 1258, by means of the ], ] King of Aragon and ], king of Mallorca and of Valencia, renounced his family rights and dominions in ], while the king of France, ], formally relinquished to any historical claim of feudal lordship he might have over the Catalan counties, except the ], despite the opposition of king James.<ref name="Petit-Dutaillis2013">{{cite book|author=C. Petit-Dutaillis|title=The Feudal Monarchy in France and England|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vXr5AQAAQBAJ&pg=PA324|date=5 November 2013|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-136-20350-3|page=324|access-date=6 February 2019|archive-date=11 March 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220311110534/https://books.google.com/books?id=vXr5AQAAQBAJ&pg=PA324|url-status=live}}</ref> This treaty confirmed, from French point of view, the independence of the Catalan counties established and exercised during the previous three centuries, but also meant the irremediable separation between the geographical areas of Catalonia and ].
			As a coastal territory, Catalonia became the base of the Aragonese Crown's maritime forces, which spread the power of the Crown in the Mediterranean, turning Barcelona into a powerful and wealthy city. In the period of 1164–1410, new territories, the ], the ], the ], the ], and, briefly, the ] of ] and ], were incorporated into the dynastic domains of the ]. The expansion was accompanied by a great development of the Catalan trade, creating an extensive trade network across the Mediterranean which competed with those of the maritime republics of ] and ].
	]
	As a coastal territory, Catalonia became the base of the Aragonese Crown's maritime forces, which spread the power of the Aragonese Crown in the Mediterranean, and made Barcelona into a powerful and wealthy city. In the period of 1164–1410, new territories, the ], the ], ], the ], ], and (briefly) the ] of ] and ], were incorporated into the dynastic domains of the ].
	At the same time, the Principality of Catalonia developed a complex institutional and political system based in the concept of a pact between the ] and the king. Laws had to be approved in the ], one of the first parliamentary bodies of Europe that banned the royal power to create legislation unilaterally (since 1283).<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://usuarios.multimania.es/maarian/Catalunya/historiacataluna/las_cortes_catalanas_.htm |title=Las Cortes Catalanas y la primera Generalidad medieval (s. XIII–XIV) |accessdate=21 January 2013 |deadurl=yes |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20101019003946/http://usuarios.multimania.es/Maarian/Catalunya/historiacataluna/las_cortes_catalanas_.htm |archivedate=19 October 2010 |df=dmy-all }}</ref> The Courts were composed of the three Estates, were presided over by the king of Aragon, and approved the ], which created a compilation of rights for the citizenship of the Principality. In order to collect general taxes, the Courts of 1359 established a permanent representative of deputies position, called the Deputation of the General (and later usually known as ]), which gained political power over the next centuries.		At the same time, the ] developed a complex institutional and political system based in the concept of a pact between the ] and the king. The legislation of Catalonia had to be passed the ] (''Corts Catalanes''), one of the first parliamentary bodies of Europe that, since 1283, obtained the power to legislate with the monarch.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://usuarios.multimania.es/maarian/Catalunya/historiacataluna/las_cortes_catalanas_.htm|title=Las Cortes Catalanas y la primera Generalidad medieval (s. XIII–XIV)|access-date=21 January 2013|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101019003946/http://usuarios.multimania.es/Maarian/Catalunya/historiacataluna/las_cortes_catalanas_.htm|archive-date=19 October 2010}}</ref> The Courts were composed of the three Estates organized into "arms" (''braços''), were presided over by the monarch, and approved the ], which established a compilation of rights for the inhabitants of the Principality. In order to collect general taxes, the Catalan Courts of 1359 established a permanent representative body, known as the "Deputation of the General" or ], which gained considerable political power over the next centuries.<ref> {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200916163434/https://web.gencat.cat/ca/generalitat/historia/la-diputacio-del-general/|date=16 September 2020}} gencat.cat</ref>
			]. The Principality of Catalonia appears in light green]]
	In 1410, King ] died without surviving descendants. Under the ], Ferdinand from the Castilian ] received the Crown of Aragon as ]. During the reign of his son, ], social and political tensions caused the ] (1462–1472). The domains of the Aragonese Crown were severely affected by the ] pandemic and by later outbreaks of the ]. Between 1347 and 1497 Catalonia lost 37 percent of its population.<ref>According to John Huxtable Elliott, "Between 1347 and 1497 the Principality had lost 37% of its inhabitants, and was reduced to a population of something like 300,000." {{cite book| author = John Huxtable Elliott| title = The revolt of the Catalans: a study in the decline of Spain (1598–1640)| url = https://books.google.com/?id=X2Hf-crzPjUC&pg=PA26| year = 1984| publisher = ]| isbn = 0-521-27890-2| page = 26 }}</ref>
			The domains of the Aragonese Crown were severely affected by the ] pandemic and by later outbreaks of the ]. Between 1347 and 1497 Catalonia lost 37{{nbsp}}percent of its population.<ref>According to John Huxtable Elliott, "Between 1347 and 1497 the Principality had lost 37% of its inhabitants, and was reduced to a population of something like 300,000." {{cite book|author=]|title=The revolt of the Catalans: a study in the decline of Spain (1598–1640) |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=X2Hf-crzPjUC&pg=PA26|year=1984|publisher=]|isbn=0-521-27890-2|page=26|access-date=9 November 2020|archive-date=11 March 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220311111240/https://books.google.com/books?id=X2Hf-crzPjUC&pg=PA26|url-status=live}}</ref> In 1410, the last reigning monarch of the House of Barcelona, King ] died without surviving descendants. Under the ] (1412), the representatives of the kingdoms of Aragon, Valencia and the Principality of Catalonia appointed ] from the Castilian ] as King of the Crown of Aragon.<ref name=Reilly>{{cite book|last=Reilly|first=Bernard|title=The Medieval Spain|year=1993|publisher=]|location=Cambridge|isbn=0-521-39436-8}}</ref> During the reign of his son, ], the persistent economic crisis and social and political tensions in the Principality led to the ] (1462–1472) and the ] (1462–1486) that left Catalonia exhausted. The ] (1486) liberated the ] peasants from the feudal ].
			In the later Middle Ages, ] flourished in Catalonia proper and in the kingdoms of Majorca and Valencia, with such remarkable authors as the philosopher ], the Valencian poet ], and ], author of the novel '']'', published in 1490.
	=== Modern Era ===
			=== Modern era ===
	] (1608)]]		] (1608)]]
	], the grandson of Ferdinand I, and Queen ] were married in 1469, later taking the title the ]; subsequently, this event was seen by historiographers as the dawn of a unified Spain. At this time, though united by marriage, the Crowns of ] and ] maintained distinct territories, each keeping its own traditional institutions, parliaments, and laws. Castile commissioned expeditions to the ] and benefited from the riches acquired in the ], but, in time, also carried the main burden of military expenses of the united Spanish kingdoms. After Isabella's death, Ferdinand II personally ruled both kingdoms.		], the grandson of Ferdinand I, and Queen ] were married in 1469, later taking the title the ]; subsequently, this event was seen by historiographers as the dawn of a unified Spain. At this time, though united by marriage, the Crowns of ] and ] maintained distinct territories, each keeping its own traditional institutions, parliaments, laws and currency.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Imperial Spain 1469–1716 |last=Huxtable|first=Elliott, J. H. (John)|date=2002|publisher=Penguin|isbn=0141007036|location=London|oclc=49691947}}</ref> Castile commissioned expeditions to the ] and benefited from the riches acquired in the ], but, in time, also carried the main burden of military expenses of the united Spanish kingdoms. After Isabella's death, Ferdinand II personally ruled both crowns.
	By virtue of descent from his maternal grandparents, Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile, in 1516 ] became the first king to rule the Crowns of Castile and Aragon simultaneously by his own right. Following the death of his paternal (]) grandfather, ], he was also elected ], in 1519.<ref>{{cite web |last=Encyclopædia Britannica online |title=Charles V |url=http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/107009/Charles-V |accessdate=3 October 2012}}</ref>		By virtue of descent from his maternal grandparents, Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile, in 1516 ] became the first king to rule the Crowns of Castile and Aragon simultaneously by his own right. Following the death of his paternal (]) grandfather, ], he was also elected ], in 1519.<ref>{{cite web|last=Encyclopædia Britannica online|title=Charles V|url=https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/107009/Charles-V|access-date=3 October 2012|archive-date=1 October 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121001224341/http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/107009/Charles-V|url-status=live}}</ref>
			]'' (7 June 1640), one of the main events of the Reaper's War. Painted in 1910]]
	Over the next few centuries, the Principality of Catalonia was generally on the losing side of a series of wars that led steadily to more centralization of power in Spain. Despite this fact, between the 16th and 18th centuries, the participation of the political community in the local and the general Catalan government was increased, while the kings remained absent and its constitutional system continued to consolidate. The ] (1640–1652) saw Catalonia rebel (briefly as a ] led by ]) with French help against the Spanish Crown for overstepping Catalonia's rights during the ]. Most of Catalonia was reconquered by the Spanish monarchy but Catalan rights were recognised. Roussillon was lost to France by the ] (1659).
			Over the next few centuries, the Principality of Catalonia was generally on the losing side of a series of wars that led steadily to an increased centralization of power in Spain. Despite this fact, between the 16th and 18th centuries, the participation of the political community in the local and the general Catalan government grew (thus consolidating its constitutional system), while the kings remained absent, represented by a ]. Tensions between Catalan institutions and the monarchy began to arise. The large and burdensome presence of the Spanish royal army in the Principality due to the ] led to an uprising of peasants, provoking the ] (1640–1652), which saw Catalonia rebel (briefly as a ] led by the president of the Generalitat, ]) with French help against the Spanish Crown for overstepping Catalonia's rights during the ].<ref>Gelderen, Martin van; Skinner, Quentin (2002). {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201016133313/https://books.google.com/books?id=H1ZgD7vlFLYC&lpg=PA284&hl=en&pg=PA284|date=16 October 2020}}. Cambridge University Press. p. 284. {{ISBN|9781139439619}}</ref> Within a brief period France took full control of Catalonia. Most of Catalonia was reconquered by the Spanish monarchy but Catalan rights were mostly recognised. ] and half of Cerdanya was lost to France by the ] (1659).<ref name=pyrconditions>{{cite book|last=Maland|first=David|title=Europe in the Seventeenth Century|publisher=Macmillan|year=1991|edition=Second|pages=227|isbn=0-333-33574-0}}</ref>
			The most significant conflict concerning the governing monarchy was the ] (1701–1715), which began when the childless ], the last Spanish Habsburg, died without an heir in 1700. Charles II had chosen ] from the French ]. Catalonia, like other territories that formed the Crown of Aragon, rose up in support of the Austrian Habsburg pretender ], in his claim for the Spanish throne as Charles III of Spain. The fight between the houses of Bourbon and Habsburg for the Spanish Crown split Spain and Europe.
	]'' (7 June 1640), one of the main events of the Catalan Revolt]]
	The most significant conflict concerning the governing monarchy was the ], which began when the childless ], the last Spanish Habsburg, died without an heir in 1700. Charles II had chosen ] from the French ]. Catalonia, like other territories that formed the Crown of Aragon, rose up in support of the Austrian Habsburg pretender ], in his claim for the Spanish throne as Charles III of Spain. The fight between the houses of Bourbon and Habsburg for the Spanish Crown split Spain and Europe.
	The ] on 11 September 1714 to the ] king ] militarily ended the Habsburg claim to the Spanish Crown, which became legal fact in the ]. Philip felt that he had been betrayed by the Catalan Courts, as it had initially sworn its loyalty to him when he had presided over it in 1701. In retaliation for the betrayal, the first Bourbon king introduced the ] that incorporated the territories of the Crown of Aragon, including Catalonia, as provinces under the Crown of Castile in 1716, terminating their separate institutions, laws and rights, within a united kingdom of Spain. During the second half of 18th century Catalonia started a successful process of ].		The ] on 11 September 1714 to the ] king ] militarily ended the Habsburg claim to the Spanish Crown, which became legal fact in the ]. Philip felt that he had been betrayed by the Catalan Courts, as it had initially sworn its loyalty to him when he had presided over it in 1701. In retaliation for the betrayal, and inspired by the French model, the first Bourbon king enacted the ] of 1707, 1715 and 1716, incorporating the realms of the Crown of Aragon, including the Principality of Catalonia in 1716, as provinces of the Crown of Castile, terminating their status as separate states along with their parliaments, institutions and ], as well as their {{not a typo|pactist}} politics, within a French-style centralized and ] kingdom of Spain.<ref>Mercader, J. ''Felip V i Catalunya''. (Barcelona, 1968).</ref> In the second half of the 17th century and the 18th century (excluding the parentesis of the Succession War and the post-war inestability) Catalonia carried out a successful process of economic growth and ], reinforced in the late quarter of the century when Castile's trade monopoly with American colonies ended.
			==== The beginning of the Spanish nation state ====
	=== Industrialisation, Republic and civil war era ===
			After the ], the assimilation of the ] by the ] through the ] was the first step in the creation of the Spanish ]. <ref>Simon, Antoni. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220605094401/https://roderic.uv.es/handle/10550/34591|date=5 June 2022}}, páginas 45–46, ''L'Espill'', nº 24, Universitat de València.</ref> These nationalist policies, sometimes very aggressive,<ref>{{cite book|isbn=978-8429723632|last=Ferrer Gironès|publisher=Edicions 62|language=ca|first=Francesc|pages=320|title=La persecució política de la llengua catalana|year=1985}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|isbn=84-7826-620-8|last=Benet|date=1995|publisher=Publicacions de l'Abadia de Montserrat|language=ca|first=Josep|title=L'intent franquista de genocidi cultural contra Catalunya}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|isbn=9788418434983|last=Lluís|publisher=Base|language=ca|first=García Sevilla|pages=300|title=Recopilació d'accions genocides contra la nació catalana|year=2021}}</ref><ref name=":03">{{cite book|isbn=9788418849107|last=Llaudó Avila|date=2021|edition=7a|publisher=Parcir|location=Manresa|first=Eduard|title=Racisme i supremacisme polítics a l'Espanya contemporània}}</ref> and still in force,<ref>{{cite web|editor=Plataforma per la llengua|url=https://www.plataforma-llengua.cat/media/upload/pdf/novetats_legislatives_en_materia_linguistic02_1571310685.pdf|title=Novetats legislatives en matèria lingüística aprovades el 2018 que afecten els territoris de parla catalana |access-date=22 May 2022|archive-date=20 October 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211020181407/https://www.plataforma-llengua.cat/media/upload/pdf/novetats_legislatives_en_materia_linguistic02_1571310685.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|editor=Plataforma per la llengua|url=https://plataforma-llengua.cat/media/upload/arxius/ambits-treball/Drets%20Ling%C3%BC%C3%ADstics/Novetats_legislatives_en_mat%C3%A8ria_ling%C3%BC%C3%ADstic-2019-ok.pdf|title=Novetats legislatives en matèria lingüística aprovades el 2019 que afecten els territoris de parla catalana |access-date=22 May 2022|archive-date=27 March 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220327162711/https://plataforma-llengua.cat/media/upload/arxius/ambits-treball/Drets%20Ling%C3%BC%C3%ADstics/Novetats_legislatives_en_mat%C3%A8ria_ling%C3%BC%C3%ADstic-2019-ok.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|editor=Plataforma per la llengua|url=https://www.plataforma-llengua.cat/media/upload/pdf/linguisticcossospolicials_1576579756.pdf|date=2019|title=Comportament lingüístic davant dels cossos policials espanyols|access-date=22 May 2022|archive-date=20 October 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211020181419/https://www.plataforma-llengua.cat/media/upload/pdf/linguisticcossospolicials_1576579756.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref> have been and are the seed of repeated territorial conflicts within the state.
	At the beginning of the nineteenth century Catalonia was severely affected by the ] and ]. In the latter half of the 19th century, it became an industrial center. This process was boosted by, amongst other things, national ] (although the policy of the Spanish government during those times changed many times between free trade and protectionism) and the conditions of proto-industrialization of the prior two centuries of the Catalan urban areas and its countryside. To this day it remains one of the most industrialised areas of Spain. During those years, Barcelona was the focus of important revolutionary uprisings, while the Catalan language saw a cultural renaissance (the '']'').
			=== Late modern history ===
	], 1909]]
			] (1809), ] against Napoleon]]
	The Anarchists had been active throughout the early 20th century, achieving the first ] in Europe in 1919. In the first third of the 20th century, Catalonia gained and lost varying degrees of autonomy several times. In 1914, the four Catalan provinces were authorized to create a Commonwealth (''Mancomunitat''), without any legislative power or specific autonomy, that was disbanded in 1925 by the dictatorship of ]. After the fall of the dictator and a brief proclamation of the ], it received its ] during the ] (1931), establishing an autonomous body, the Generalitat of Catalonia, which included a parliament, a government and a ], and the left-wing independentist leader ] was elected its first president. The governments of the Republican Generalitat tried to implement an advanced social program. This period was marked by political unrest and the preeminence of ] during the ] (1936–1939).
			At the beginning of the nineteenth century, Catalonia was severely affected by the ]. In 1808, it was occupied by French troops under general ] after he conquered Barcelona; the resistance against the occupation eventually developed into the ]. The rejection of French dominion was institutionalized with the creation of "juntas" (councils) who, remaining loyal to the Bourbons, exercised the sovereignty and representation of the territory due to the disappearance of the old institutions. Napoleon took direct control of Catalonia to reestablish order, creating the Government of Catalonia under the rule of ], and making Catalan briefly an official language again. Between 1812 and 1814, Catalonia was annexed to France and organized as four ].<ref>''{{cite web|url=http://www.histoire-empire.org/departements/france_modifications.htm|title=Les modifications intérieures de la France|access-date=24 January 2019|archive-date=19 May 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200519002900/http://www.histoire-empire.org/departements/france_modifications.htm|url-status=live}}''</ref> The French troops evacuated Catalan territory at the end of 1814. After the Bourbon restoration in Spain and the death of the absolutist king ] (1833), ] erupted against the newly established ] of ]. Catalonia was divided, with the coastal and most industrialized areas supporting liberalism, while most of the countryside were in the hands of the ]; the latter proposed to reestablish the institutional systems suppressed by the Nueva Planta decrees in the ancient realms of the Crown of Aragon. The consolidation of the liberal state saw a new provincial division of Spain, including Catalonia, which was divided into four provinces (Barcelona, Girona, Lleida and Tarragona).
	=== Under Franco's rule (1939–1975) ===
	] (1938)]]
			] during the ], 1909]]
	The defeat of the ] in the ] brought ultraconservative dictator<ref>Payne, Stanley Fascism in Spain, 1923–1977, p. 476 1999 Univ. of Wisconsin Press</ref> ] to power. His regime imposed linguistic, political and cultural restrictions across Spain. In Catalonia, any kind of public activities associated with ], ], ], ], ], ] or ], including the publication of books on those subjects or simply discussion of them in open meetings, was banned. ] in ], 1940]] Franco's regime banned the use of Catalan in government-run institutions and during public events, and also the Catalan institutions of self-government were abolished. The pro-Republic of Spain president of Catalonia, ], was taken to Spain from his exile in the German-occupied France, and was tortured and executed in the ] of Barcelona for the crime of 'military rebellion'.<ref>Preston, Paul. (2012). ''The Spanish Holocaust.'' Harper Press. London p. 493</ref>
			In the second third of the 19th{{nbsp}}century, Catalonia became an important industrial center, particularly focused on ]. This process was a consequence of the conditions of proto-industrialisation of textile production in the prior two centuries, growing capital from wine and brandy export,
			<ref>{{cite book|first=Francesc|last=Valls Junyent|year=2004|title=La Catalunya atlàntica: aiguardent i teixits a l'arrencada industrial catalana|trans-title=Atlantic Catalonia: brandy and textiles at the beginning of the catalan industrialisation|location=Vic| language=ca| publisher=Eumo|isbn=84-9766-044-7}}</ref>{{rp|page=27}}
			and was later boosted by the government support for domestic manufacturing. In 1832, the ] in Barcelona became the first factory in the country to make use of the ].
			<ref>{{Cite book|first=J.K.J.|last=Thomson|title=A distinctive industrialisation. Cotton in Barcelona 1728–1832|year=1992|isbn=0-521-39482-1|language=en|publisher=Cambridge University Press|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FLfvq7-5_a8C|access-date=14 July 2022|archive-date=25 April 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240425120734/https://books.google.com/books?id=FLfvq7-5_a8C|url-status=live}}</ref>{{rp|page=308}}
			The first railway on the Iberian Peninsula was built between Barcelona and ] in 1848.{{citation needed|date=December 2022}} A policy to encourage ] also saw the textile industry flourish in the countryside in the 1860s and 1870s. Although the policy of Spanish governments oscillated between free trade and protectionism, {{ill|protectionist laws|es|Ley de Relaciones Comerciales con las Antillas|vertical-align=sup}} become more common. To this day Catalonia remains one of the most industrialised areas of Spain.
			In the same period, Barcelona was the focus of industrial conflict and revolutionary uprisings known as "bullangues". In Catalonia, a ] current began to develop among the progressives, attrackting many Catalans who favored the federalisation of Spain. Meanwhile, the Catalan language saw a ] cultural renaissance from the second third of the century onwards, the '']'', among both the working class and the bourgeoisie. Right after the fall of the ] (1873–1874) and the subsequent restoration of the Bourbon dynasty (1874), Catalan nationalism began to be organized politically under the leadership of the republican federalist ].
			] proclaiming the Catalan Republic on 14 April 1931 in Barcelona]]
			The ] movement had been active throughout the last quarter of the 19th century and the early 20th century, founding the ] trade union in 1910 and achieving one of the first ] in Europe in 1919.<ref>{{cite book|title=]|last=Meaker|first=Gerald H.|date=1974|publisher=]|page= ff|isbn=0-8047-0845-2}}</ref> Growing resentment of conscription and of the military culminated in the ] (Catalan: ''Setmana Tràgica'') in Barcelona in 1909. Under the hegemony of the ], Catalonia gained a degree of administrative unity for the first time in the Modern era. In 1914, the four Catalan provinces were authorized to create a ] (Catalan: ''Mancomunitat de Catalunya''), lacking any legislative power or specific political autonomy, which carried out an ambitious program of modernization, but it was disbanded in 1925 by the dictatorship of ] (1923–1930). During the final stage of the Dictatorship, with Spain beginning to suffer an economic crisis, Barcelona hosted the ].<ref name="MonclúsFraga2006">{{cite book|author1=Monclús, Francisco Javier|author2=Francisco Javier Monclús Fraga|title=Exposiciones internacionales y urbanismo: el proyecto Expo Zaragoza 2008 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2d6KJ2VnfAkC&pg=PA48|year=2006|publisher=Univ. Politèc. de Catalunya|isbn=978-84-8301-893-4|page=48|access-date=24 January 2019|archive-date=19 May 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200519024403/https://books.google.com/books?id=2d6KJ2VnfAkC&pg=PA48|url-status=live}}</ref>
			After the fall of the dictatorship and a brief proclamation of the ], during the events of the proclamation of the ] (14–17{{nbsp}}April{{nbsp}}1931),<ref>Roglan, Joaquim (2006). ''14 d'abril: la Catalunya republicana (1931–1939)''. Cossetània Edicions, p.13 {{ISBN|8497912039}}</ref> Catalonia received, in 1932, its ] from the Spanish Republic's Parliament, granting it a considerable degree of self-government, establishing an autonomous body, the Generalitat of Catalonia, which included a ], an executive and a ]. The left-wing pro-independence leader ] was appointed its first president. Under the Statute, Catalan became an official language. The governments of the ], led by the ] (ERC) leaders Francesc Macià (1931–1933) and ] (1933–1940), sought to implement a modernizing and progressive social agenda, despite the internal difficulties. This period was marked by political unrest, the effects of the economic crisis and their social repercussions. The Statute of Autonomy was suspended in 1934, due to the ] in Barcelona, as a response{{clarify|date=January 2019}} to the accession of right-wing Spanish nationalist party ] to the government of the Republic, considered close to ].<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Finestres|first1=Jordi|last2=López|first2=Manel|title=Entre la revolució i l'estelada|journal=Sàpiens|year=2014|location=Barcelona|language=ca|issn=1695-2014|pages=31–32}}</ref> After the electoral victory of the left wing ] in February 1936, the Government of Catalonia was pardoned and the self-government was restored.
			=== Spanish Civil War (1936–1939) and Franco's rule (1939–1975) ===
			{{main|Revolutionary Catalonia|Francoist Catalonia}}
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			The defeat of the ] placed Catalonia firmly in the ] of the ]. During the war, there were two rival powers in Catalonia: the de jure power of the Generalitat and the de facto power of the armed popular militias.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Spanish Civil war: Revolution and counter-revolution.|last=Bolloten|first=Burnett|author-link=Burnett Bolloten|year=1991|publisher=]|pages=388–389}}</ref> Violent confrontations between the workers' parties (] and ] against the ]) culminated in the defeat of the first ones in 1937. The situation resolved itself progressively in favor of the Generalitat, but at the same time the Generalitat lost most of its autonomous powers within Republican Spain. In 1938 Franco's troops broke the Republican territory in two, isolating Catalonia from the rest of the Republican territory. The defeat of the Republican army in the ] led in 1938 and 1939 to the occupation of Catalonia by Franco's forces.
			The defeat of the Spanish Republic in the ] brought to power the dictatorship of ], whose first ten-year rule was particularly violent, autocratic, and repressive both in a political, cultural, social, and economical sense.<ref>] (1999). ''Fascism in Spain, 1923–1977'', pp. 476–477. Univ. of Wisconsin Press.</ref> In Catalonia, any kind of public activities associated with ], ], ], ], ], ] or ], including the publication of books on those subjects or simply discussion of them in open meetings, was banned. ] in ], 1940]] Franco's regime banned the use of Catalan in government-run institutions and during public events, and the Catalan institutions of self-government were abolished. The pro-Republic of Spain president of Catalonia, ], was taken to Spain from his exile in the German-occupied France and was tortured and executed in the ] of Barcelona for the crime of 'military rebellion'.<ref>]. (2012). ''The Spanish Holocaust''. Harper Press. London p. 493.</ref>
	During later stages of ], certain folkloric and religious celebrations in Catalan resumed and were tolerated. Use of Catalan in the ] had been forbidden, but was permitted from the early 1950s<ref>{{cite book| author = Ross| title = Cultural Contestation in Ethnic Conflict| url = https://books.google.com/?id=Oe4popSDfW0C&pg=PA139| publisher = Cambridge University Press| isbn = 978-1-139-46307-2| page = 139 | date = 3 May 2007}}</ref> in the theatre. Despite the ban during the first years and the difficulties of the next period, publishing in Catalan continued throughout his rule.<ref>{{citation |title=The Resurgence of Catalan |first=Earl W |last=Thomas |work=Hispania |volume=45 |issue=1 |date=March 1962 |pages=43–48 |doi=10.2307/337523|jstor=337523 }}</ref>
			During later stages of ], certain folkloric and religious celebrations in Catalan resumed and were tolerated. Use of Catalan in the ] had been forbidden but was permitted from the early 1950s<ref>{{cite book|author=Ross|title=Cultural Contestation in Ethnic Conflict|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Oe4popSDfW0C&pg=PA139|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1-139-46307-2|page=139|date=3 May 2007|access-date=9 November 2020|archive-date=11 March 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220311112038/https://books.google.com/books?id=Oe4popSDfW0C&pg=PA139|url-status=live}}</ref> in the theatre. Despite the ban during the first years and the difficulties of the next period, publishing in Catalan continued throughout his rule.<ref>{{citation|title=The Resurgence of Catalan|first=Earl W.|last=Thomas|journal=Hispania|volume=45|issue=1|date=March 1962|pages=43–48|doi=10.2307/337523|jstor=337523}}</ref>
	The years after the war were extremely hard. Catalonia, like many other parts of Spain, had been devastated by the war. Recovery from the war damage was slow and made more difficult by the international trade embargo against Franco's regime. By the late 1950s the country had recovered its pre-war economic levels and in the 1960s was the second fastest growing economy in the world in what became known as the ]. During this period there was a spectacular growth of industry and tourism in Catalonia that drew large numbers of workers to the region from across Spain and made the area around Barcelona into one of Europe's largest industrial metropolitan areas.
			The years after the war were extremely hard. Catalonia, like many other parts of Spain, had been devastated by the war. Recovery from the war damage was slow and made more difficult by the international trade embargo and the ] politics of Franco's regime. By the late 1950s, the region had recovered its pre-war economic levels and in the 1960s was the second-fastest growing economy in the world in what became known as the ]. During this period there was a spectacular<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Albaladejo|first1=Isabel P.|last2=Gonzalez-Martinez|first2=Maria Isabel|last3=Martinez-Garcia|first3=Maria Pilar|title=A Double Life Cycle in Tourism Arrivals to Spain: Unit Root Tests with Gradual Change Analysis|year=2020|volume=18|page=100497|journal=Journal of Destination Marketing & Management|doi=10.1016/j.jdmm.2020.100497|pmc=7577662}}</ref> growth of industry and tourism in Catalonia that drew large numbers of workers to the region from across Spain and made the area around Barcelona one of Europe's largest industrial metropolitan areas.{{citation needed|date=December 2022}}
	=== Contemporary era (1975–2014) ===
	]
	After Franco's death in 1975, Catalonia voted for the adoption of a democratic Spanish Constitution in 1978, in which Catalonia recovered political and cultural autonomy, restoring the Generalitat (exiled since the end of the Civil War in 1939) in 1977 and adopting a ] in 1979. Today, Catalonia is one of the most economically dynamic communities of Spain. The Catalan capital and largest city, Barcelona, is a major international cultural centre and a major tourist destination. In 1992, ] the ].
			=== Transition and democratic period (1975–''present'') ===
	The new Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia, approved after a referendum in 2006, was contested by important sectors of the Spanish society, especially by the conservative ], which sent the law to the ]. In 2010, the Court declared non valid some of the articles that established an autonomous Catalan system of Justice, better aspects of the financing, a new territorial division, the status of Catalan language or the symbolical declaration of Catalonia as a nation.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.vilaweb.cat/noticia/3748884/20100629/sentencia-lestatut-obre-nova-era-politica-catalunya.html|title=Anàlisi de les retallades a l'estatut de Catalunya|last=associats|first=Partal, Maresma i|access-date=13 September 2016}}</ref> This decision was severely contested by large sectors of Catalan society, which increased the demands of independence.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.ara.cat/especials/gentada-centre-Barcelona-mitja-manifestacio_0_772122901.html|title=Un milió i mig de manifestants per la independència de Catalunya|access-date=13 September 2016}}</ref>
			] of ] during the ]]]
			After Franco's death in 1975, Catalonia voted for the adoption of a democratic Spanish Constitution in 1978, in which Catalonia recovered political and cultural autonomy, restoring the Generalitat (exiled since the end of the Civil War in 1939) in 1977 and adopting a ] in 1979, which defined Catalonia as a "nationality". The ] to the Parliament of Catalonia under this Statute gave the Catalan presidency to ], leader of ] (CiU), a center-right Catalan nationalist electoral coalition, with Pujol re-elected until 2003. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, the institutions of Catalan autonomy were deployed, among them an autonomous police force, the ], in 1983,<ref> {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200929085556/https://mossos.gencat.cat/ca/els_mossos_desquadra/historia_de_la_pg-me/|date=29 September 2020}} mossos.gencat.cat</ref> and the broadcasting network ] and its first channel ], created in 1983.<ref> {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200923021301/https://www.ccma.cat/corporatiu/en/historia/|date=23 September 2020}} ccma.cat</ref> An extensive program of normalization of Catalan language was carried out. Today, Catalonia remains one of the most economically dynamic communities of Spain. The Catalan capital and largest city, Barcelona, is a major international cultural centre and a major tourist destination. In 1992, ] the ].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://olympics.com/ioc/news/barcelona-1992-a-city-turning-towards-the-sea-and-winning-the-hearts-of-the-world|title=Barcelona 1992: a city turning towards the sea and winning the hearts of the world|publisher=]|date=22 July 2022|access-date=18 February 2024|archive-date=2 October 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221002102449/https://olympics.com/ioc/news/barcelona-1992-a-city-turning-towards-the-sea-and-winning-the-hearts-of-the-world|url-status=live}}</ref>
	=== Independence movement (2014–present) ===		==== Independence movement ====
	{{Main article|Catalan independence|Catalan declaration of independence}}		{{Main|Catalan independence movement|2017–18 Spanish constitutional crisis}}
			In November 2003, elections to the Parliament of Catalonia gave the government to a left-wing Catalanist coalition formed by the ] (PSC-PSOE), ] (ERC) and ] (ICV), and the socialist ] was appointed president. The new government redacted a ], with the aim of consolidate and expand certain aspects of self-government.
	] Blava}}'' ("the Blue Starred Flag"), the blue version of the pro-independence flag]]A ] indicated that 92% of the 2.3 million voters supported Catalonia's transformation into a state. 80% of the 2.3 million voters expressed their preference that this state would be independent.<ref>{{cite web|title=Resultats Participa 2014|url=http://www.participa2014.cat|publisher=Generalitat de Catalunya|accessdate=1 October 2017}}</ref> Estimates for the turnout as published by the news media ranged from 37.0%, as given in ''The Economist'' and ''El País'' among others, to 41.6% as per the Catalan government's preliminary data. On 9 November 2015, Catalan lawmakers approved a ] with a majority vote 72 to 63. The plan was suspended by the Spanish Constitutional Court, but the Catalan government has insisted that it will complete the plan despite the suspension.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://elpais.com/m/elpais/2015/11/05/inenglish/1446747744_752094.html|title=Constitutional Court rejects blocking Catalan independence motion vote|work=Ediciones El País|date=5 November 2015|language=en|access-date=13 September 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.euroweeklynews.com/3.0.15/news/on-euro-weekly-news/spain-news-in-english/134935-constitutional-court-rejects-blocking-motion-on-catalan-independence|title=Constitutional Court rejects blocking motion on Catalan independence|access-date=13 September 2016}}</ref> On 9 June 2017, the Catalan government announced that an ] would be held 1 October 2017. However, Spanish courts had declared the referendum to be illegal, and the Public Prosecutor's Office of Catalonia ordered the seizure of paraphernalia related to the referendum, including ballots, ballot boxes, promotional materials, and websites.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-41268845|title=Spain plays cat and mouse as Catalan vote looms|last=Badcock|first=James|date=15 September 2017|publisher=BBC News |access-date=25 September 2017|language=en-GB}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-41240613|title=Catalan ballot papers 'must be seized' |date=12 September 2017|publisher=BBC News|access-date=25 September 2017|language=en-GB}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/06/09/tensions-grow-spain-catalonia-independence-referendum-confirmed/|title=Tensions grow in Spain as Catalonia independence referendum confirmed|date=9 June 2017|work=The Telegraph|access-date=25 September 2017|language=en-GB|issn=0307-1235}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/08/world/europe/spain-catalonia-independence.html |title=Catalonia Independence Bid Pushes Spain Toward Crisis|last=Minder|first=Raphael|date=8 September 2017|work=The New York Times|access-date=25 September 2017|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331}}</ref> On 20 September 2017, eleven days prior to the referendum, the ] mounted ] to raid the offices of government ministries and detain officials involved in the referendum, which resulted in large protests by independence supporters.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-41331152|title=Spain steps up raids to halt Catalan vote|date=20 September 2017|publisher=BBC News|access-date=25 September 2017 |language=en-GB}}</ref>
			The new Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia, approved after a referendum in 2006, was contested by important sectors of the Spanish society, especially by the conservative ], which sent the law to the ]. In 2010, the Court declared non-valid some of the articles that established an autonomous Catalan system of Justice, improved aspects of the financing, a new territorial division, the status of Catalan language or the symbolical declaration of Catalonia as a nation.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.vilaweb.cat/noticia/3748884/20100629/sentencia-lestatut-obre-nova-era-politica-catalunya.html|title=Anàlisi de les retallades a l'estatut de Catalunya|last=associats|first=Partal, Maresma i|access-date=13 September 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160913152842/http://www.vilaweb.cat/noticia/3748884/20100629/sentencia-lestatut-obre-nova-era-politica-catalunya.html|archive-date=13 September 2016|url-status=dead}}</ref> This decision was severely contested by large sectors of Catalan society, which increased the demands of independence.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.ara.cat/especials/gentada-centre-Barcelona-mitja-manifestacio_0_772122901.html|title=Un milió i mig de manifestants per la independència de Catalunya|access-date=13 September 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160918025513/http://www.ara.cat/especials/gentada-centre-Barcelona-mitja-manifestacio_0_772122901.html|archive-date=18 September 2016|url-status=dead}}</ref>
	A controversial ] was held in Catalonia on 1 October 2017, using a disputed voting process.<ref name="ElPais03102017">{{cite web|url=https://elpais.com/elpais/2017/10/01/inenglish/1506858911_482600.html|title=Did the referendum comply with basic voting regulations?|date=3 October 2017|work=]|accessdate=5 October 2017 }}</ref><ref name="TheIndependent02102017" /><ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.pbs.org/newshour/updates/happened-catalonias-vote-independence-whats-next/|title=What happened with Catalonia's vote for independence -- and what's next|last=Epatko |first=Larisa|date=4 October 2017|work=]|accessdate=4 October 2017}}</ref> It was declared illegal on 6 September 2017 and suspended by the ] because it breached the ].<ref name="boe2162017">{{cite web|url=https://www.boe.es/boe/dias/2017/09/08/pdfs/BOE-A-2017-10287.pdf|title=Recurso de inconstitucionalidad n.º 4334-2017, contra la Ley del Parlamento de Cataluña 19/2017, de 6 de septiembre, del Referéndum de Autodeterminación.|publisher=Agencia Estatal Boletín Oficial del Estado|date=6 September 2017|accessdate=5 October 2017|language=es}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-09-10/catalan-separatists-plot-show-of-strength-in-battle-with-madrid|title=Catalan Separatists Plot Show of Force in Battle With Madrid|last=Duarte|first=Esteban|date=11 September 2017|publisher=Bloomberg|access-date=13 September 2017|language=en}}</ref> Subsequently, the ] agreed that the referendum was illegal.<ref name="TheIndependent02102017">{{cite news |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/catalan-independence-referendum-not-legal-spanish-constitution-european-commission-juncker-spain-law-a7978386.html|title=The EU Commission just said the Catalan referendum was illegal|date=2 October 2017|work=]|access-date=7 October 2017}}</ref> The referendum asked the question: "Do you want Catalonia to become an independent state in the form of a republic?". More than 2,020,000 voters (91.96%) answered "Yes" and around 177,000 answered "No",<ref>{{cite news|title=Catalan government says 90 percent voted to leave Spain|url=https://www.cnbc.com/2017/10/01/catalan-independence-referendum-government-says-90-percent-voted-to-leave-spain.html|publisher=CNBC|date=2 October 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Catalan Parliament Moves To Declare Independence From Spain - Global Gathering|url=http://www.global-gathering.com/news/18001?gclid=Cj0KCQjw09zOBRCqARIsAH8XF1ZZdibMppQLicvaMJVEE4XpAWYe2qmdq1jZ2_1nABiPx282YKCc1P8aAnn0EALw_wcB |publisher=global-gathering.com}}</ref> on a turnout of 43.03%. The Catalan government estimated that up to 770,000 votes were not cast due to polling stations being closed off during the police crackdown, although the "universal census" system introduced earlier in the day allowed electors to vote in any given polling station. Catalan government officials have argued that the turnout would be higher were it not for Spanish police suppression of the vote,<ref name="TurullSays">{{cite news|url=http://www.cnn.com/2017/10/01/europe/catalonia-spain-independence-referendum-result/index.html |title=Catalonia referendum plunges Spain into political crisis |author=Hilary Clarke, Isa Soares and Vasco Cotovio |agency=] |date=2 October 2017 |accessdate=4 October 2017 |quote=Turnout was about 42% of the 5.3 million eligible voters... Turull said more people would have voted had it not been for Spanish police suppression. Up to 770,000 votes were lost as a result of the crackdowns at police stations, the Catalan government estimated.}}</ref> and that were it not for closures and police pressure, turnout could have been as high as 55%.<ref name="Ara">{{cite news|url=http://www.ara.cat/politica/independencai-simposa-vots_0_1879612291.html|title=El 'sí' a la independència s'imposa amb 2.020.144 vots, el 90%|agency=Ara.Cat|date=2 October 2017|accessdate=4 October 2017|author=Gerard Pruina|quote="Els encarregats de donar els resultats des del Centre Internacional de Premsa, el vicepresident, Oriol Junqueras; el conseller de la Presidència, Jordi Turull, i el conseller d'Exteriors, Raül Romeva, han remarcat contínuament que, tot i que els 2.248.000 vots no suposen 'per se' el 50% del cens, els càlculs dels experts apunten que sense pressió policial i tancament de col·legis s'hauria pogut arribar al 55% de participació."}}</ref> On the other hand, many voters who did not support Catalan independence did not turn out.<ref name="auto">{{cite news|last1=Erickson |first1=Amanda|title=Catalonia independence vote: What you need to know|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2017/09/30/catalonia-independence-referendum-spain/|accessdate=2 October 2017|work=Washington Post|date=30 September 2017}}</ref> Anti-independence groups have alleged that there are irregularities in the voting, such as the same people voting more than once.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-41463719|title=Catalans 'win right to break with Spain'|date=2 October 2017|publisher=BBC News|access-date=5 October 2017|language=en-GB}}</ref>
			], ], addresses the crowd following the unilateral declaration of independence on 27 October.]]
	In the first interview since the referendum, Catalonia's regional president, ], stated he would declare independence as soon as a final vote tally was determined, and would subsequently act in a matter of days.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-41493014|title=Catalonia independence 'in matter of days'|date=4 October 2017|publisher=BBC News|access-date=4 October 2017|language=en-GB}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/oct/04/can-catalonia-declare-independence-from-spain|title=Can Catalonia declare independence from Spain?|last=Jones|first=Sam|date=4 October 2017|work=The Guardian|access-date=4 October 2017|language=en-GB|issn=0261-3077}}</ref> Spain's ] criticized the referendum for "erod the harmony and co-existence within Catalan society itself, managing, unfortunately, to divide it".<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/oct/03/king-felipe-catalan-authorities-have-scorned-all-spaniards-with-referendum|title=King Felipe: Catalonia's authorities have 'scorned' all Spaniards with referendum|last=Jones|first=Sam|date=4 October 2017|work=The Guardian|access-date=4 October 2017|language=en-GB|issn=0261-3077}}</ref>
			A controversial ] was held in Catalonia on 1 October 2017, using a disputed voting process.<ref name="ElPais03102017">{{cite web|url=https://elpais.com/elpais/2017/10/01/inenglish/1506858911_482600.html|title=Did the referendum comply with basic voting regulations?|date=3 October 2017|work=]|access-date=5 October 2017|archive-date=19 December 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191219083639/https://elpais.com/elpais/2017/10/01/inenglish/1506858911_482600.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.pbs.org/newshour/updates/happened-catalonias-vote-independence-whats-next/|title=What happened with Catalonia's vote for independence – and what's next|last=Epatko|first=Larisa|date=4 October 2017|work=]|access-date=4 October 2017|archive-date=18 October 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171018212431/http://www.pbs.org/newshour/updates/happened-catalonias-vote-independence-whats-next/|url-status=live}}</ref> It was declared illegal and suspended by the ], because it breached the ].<ref name="boe2162017">{{cite web|url=https://www.boe.es/boe/dias/2017/09/08/pdfs/BOE-A-2017-10287.pdf|title=Recurso de inconstitucionalidad n.º 4334-2017, contra la Ley del Parlamento de Cataluña 19/2017, de 6 de septiembre, del Referéndum de Autodeterminación. |publisher=Agencia Estatal Boletín Oficial del Estado|date=6 September 2017|access-date=5 October 2017|language=es|archive-date=10 May 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190510084254/https://www.boe.es/boe/dias/2017/09/08/pdfs/BOE-A-2017-10287.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-09-10/catalan-separatists-plot-show-of-strength-in-battle-with-madrid|title=Catalan Separatists Plot Show of Force in Battle With Madrid|last=Duarte|first=Esteban|date=11 September 2017|publisher=Bloomberg|access-date=13 September 2017|language=en|archive-date=13 September 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170913135534/https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-09-10/catalan-separatists-plot-show-of-strength-in-battle-with-madrid|url-status=live}}</ref> Subsequent developments saw, on 27 October 2017, a symbolic ] by the Parliament of Catalonia, the enforcement of ] by the Spanish government through the use of Article 155 of the Constitution,<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/gallery/2017/oct/22/protests-in-barcelona-against-suspension-of-catalan-autonomy-in-pictures|title=Protests in Barcelona against suspension of Catalan autonomy – in pictures|last=Fidler|first=Matt|date=22 October 2017|work=The Guardian|access-date=2 August 2018|language=en-GB|issn=0261-3077|archive-date=27 July 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200727075818/https://www.theguardian.com/world/gallery/2017/oct/22/protests-in-barcelona-against-suspension-of-catalan-autonomy-in-pictures|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-41780116|title=Catalans declare independence from Spain|date=27 October 2017|work=BBC News|access-date=27 October 2017|language=en-GB|archive-date=22 January 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180122093014/http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-41780116|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|last1=Jones|first1=Sam|last2=Burgen|first2=Stephen|last3=Graham-Harrison|first3=Emma|title=Spain dissolves Catalan parliament and calls fresh elections|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/oct/27/spanish-pm-mariano-rajoy-asks-senate-powers-dismiss-catalonia-president|work=]|date=28 October 2017|language=en|access-date=28 February 2018|archive-date=26 April 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190426010929/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/oct/27/spanish-pm-mariano-rajoy-asks-senate-powers-dismiss-catalonia-president|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.huffingtonpost.es/2017/10/27/directo-el-senado-vota-la-aplicacion-del-155-y-el-parlament-catalan-su-respuesta-al-mismo_a_23257831/|title=Directo: El Senado aprueba la aplicación del 155|date=27 October 2017|access-date=20 November 2017|archive-date=29 July 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200729205030/https://www.huffingtonpost.es/2017/10/27/directo-el-senado-vota-la-aplicacion-del-155-y-el-parlament-catalan-su-respuesta-al-mismo_a_23257831/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.elmundo.es/cataluna/2017/10/27/59f2d55aca4741a0668b4646.html|title=En vivo – Rajoy disuelve el Parlament y convoca elecciones catalanas el 21 de diciembre|date=27 October 2017|access-date=20 November 2017|archive-date=30 July 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200730004007/https://www.elmundo.es/cataluna/2017/10/27/59f2d55aca4741a0668b4646.html|url-status=live}}</ref> the dismissal of the ] and the dissolution of the Parliament, with a ] called for 21 December 2017, which ended with a victory of pro-independence parties.<ref name="eldiario.es-27Oct17">{{cite news|last=Ponce de León|first=Rodrigo|date=27 October 2017|title=Rajoy cesa a Puigdemont y su Govern y convoca elecciones para el 21 de diciembre|url=http://www.eldiario.es/politica/Rajoy-cesa-Puigdemont-Govern_0_701680927.html|language=es|work=El Diario|access-date=27 October 2017|archive-date=27 October 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171027232406/http://www.eldiario.es/politica/Rajoy-cesa-Puigdemont-Govern_0_701680927.html|url-status=live}}</ref> Former President ] and five former cabinet ministers fled Spain and took refuge in other European countries (such as ], in Puigdemont's case), whereas nine other cabinet members, including vice-president ], were sentenced to prison under various charges of rebellion, sedition, and misuse of public funds.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-41871476|title=Catalonia's longest week|date=4 November 2017|work=BBC News|access-date=7 November 2017|language=en-GB|archive-date=13 August 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200813153635/https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-41871476|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.theweek.co.uk/catalonia-independence/89469/catalonia-independence-nine-former-ministers-jailed|title=Catalonia Independence: nine former ministers jailed|date=3 November 2017|work=The Week|access-date=7 October 2018|archive-date=29 July 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200729190415/https://www.theweek.co.uk/catalonia-independence/89469/catalonia-independence-nine-former-ministers-jailed|url-status=live}}</ref> ] became the ] ] on 17 May 2018,<ref name="GeneralitatdeCataluny17052018">{{cite web|title=Quim Torra pren possessió com a 131è president de la Generalitat|url=https://web.gencat.cat/ca/actualitat/detall/20180517_Quim-Torra-pren-possessio-com-131e-president-de-la-Generalitat|website=Generalitat de Catalunya|language=ca|date=17 May 2018|access-date=21 August 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180622032919/https://web.gencat.cat/ca/actualitat/detall/20180517_Quim-Torra-pren-possessio-com-131e-president-de-la-Generalitat|archive-date=22 June 2018|url-status=dead}}</ref> after the Spanish courts blocked three other candidates.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/03/23/spanish-judge-jails-proposed-catalan-leader-hours-ahead-planned/|archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220110/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/03/23/spanish-judge-jails-proposed-catalan-leader-hours-ahead-planned/|archive-date=10 January 2022|url-access=subscription|url-status=live|title=Spanish judge jails proposed Catalan leader hours ahead of planned inauguration|first=Hannah|last=Strange|date=23 March 2018|newspaper=The Telegraph}}{{cbignore}}</ref>
			In 2018, the ] joined the ] (UNPO) on behalf of Catalonia.<ref>{{Cite web|title=UNPO: UNPO Welcomes the Assemblea Nacional Catalana as its Newest Member|work=unpo.org|access-date=31 January 2019|date=10 January 2019|url=https://unpo.org/article/21315|archive-date=28 July 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190728192535/https://unpo.org/article/21315|url-status=live}}</ref>
	] following Catalonia's ], 3 October 2017]]
	On 5 October, the ] suspended the Catalan parliamentary session on Monday, 9 October, after Puigdemont said they would be pushing for a declaration of independence.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-41514398|title=Spain court halts independence move by MPs|date=5 October 2017 |publisher=BBC News|access-date=5 October 2017|language=en-GB}}</ref> On 10 October, Puigdemont signed a declaration of independence.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-41576870|title=Madrid scorns Catalan leader's move|date=11 October 2017|publisher=BBC News|access-date=11 October 2017|language=en-GB}}</ref> The referendum led to the arrests of ], speaker of the ] and ], the leader of pro-independence group ].<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/oct/17/madrid-jails-catalan-separatist-leaders-jordi-cuixart-and-jordi-sanchez-pending-investigation|title=Spain High Court jails Catalan separatist leaders pending investigation|last=Reuters|date=2017-10-17|work=The Guardian|access-date=2017-11-07|language=en-GB|issn=0261-3077}}</ref> On 22 October 2017, Catalans demonstrated against prime minister ]'s plan to impose ].
			On 14 October 2019, the Spanish Supreme court ], involved in organizing a referendum on Catalonia's independence from Spain, and convicted them on charges ranging from ] to ], with sentences ranging from 9 to 13 years in prison. This decision sparked demonstrations around Catalonia.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/spanish-supreme-court-sentences-catalan-separatists-to-jail/2019/10/14/a0590366-ee59-11e9-89eb-ec56cd414732_story.html|title=Spanish Supreme Court sentences Catalan separatists to prison, sparking protests|newspaper=The Washington Post|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191014110950/https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/spanish-supreme-court-sentences-catalan-separatists-to-jail/2019/10/14/a0590366-ee59-11e9-89eb-ec56cd414732_story.html|archive-date=14 October 2019|access-date=12 December 2019}}</ref> They were later pardoned by the Spanish government and left prison in June 2021.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Boira|first1=Paula|title=El Gobierno concede el indulto a los presos del 'procés'|url=https://www.newtral.es/indulto-presos-proces-gobierno/20210622/|work=Newtral|date=22 June 2021|language=es|access-date=28 May 2022|archive-date=31 December 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211231012411/https://www.newtral.es/indulto-presos-proces-gobierno/20210622/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|date=23 June 2021|title=Los presos del 'procés' abandonan la cárcel tras el indulto del Gobierno|language=es|url=https://cincodias.elpais.com/cincodias/2021/06/23/economia/1624443952_813940.html|access-date=28 May 2022|archive-date=23 June 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210623111825/https://cincodias.elpais.com/cincodias/2021/06/23/economia/1624443952_813940.html|url-status=live}}</ref>
	On 27 October 2017, the Catalan parliament ] in the afternoon to declare independence, a vote which 3 opposition parties boycotted. Right after the declaration was made, the ] gave the Spanish government permission to trigger Article 155 of the ].<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-41780116|title=Catalans declare independence from Spain|date=27 October 2017|publisher=BBC News|access-date=27 October 2017|language=en-GB}}</ref> This was not the consequence of an impromptu meeting of the Senate, but the result of decision of the Senate, but the result of the parliamentary timing of the process triggering this article<ref>http://www.huffingtonpost.es/2017/10/27/directo-el-senado-vota-la-aplicacion-del-155-y-el-parlament-catalan-su-respuesta-al-mismo_a_23257831/</ref><ref>http://www.elmundo.es/cataluna/2017/10/27/59f2d55aca4741a0668b4646.html</ref>. That evening, after an emergency cabinet meeting and with the green light of the Senate, Prime Minister ] dismissed the ], dissolving the Parliament of Catalonia and calling a ] for 21 December 2017.<ref name="eldiario.es-27Oct17">{{cite news |last=Ponce de León |first=Rodrigo |date=27 October 2017 |title=Rajoy cesa a Puigdemont y su Govern y convoca elecciones para el 21 de diciembre |url=http://www.eldiario.es/politica/Rajoy-cesa-Puigdemont-Govern_0_701680927.html |language=Spanish |work=El Diario |access-date=27 October 2017}}</ref> Afterwards on 30 October 2017, Spain's top prosecutor announced that ] and 13 other sacked Catalan cabinet ministers were being charged with rebellion, sedition, and ]. Puigdemont and 5 other cabinet ministers slipped out of Spain and fled to ], ] that same day. On 2 November, 9 other members of the Catalan cabinet were jailed after appearing in court in ], including ], Catalan vice-president, and ], Catalan foreign affairs chief.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-41871476|title=Catalonia's longest week|date=2017-11-04|work=BBC News|access-date=2017-11-07|language=en-GB}}</ref>
			In the early-to-mid 2020s support for independence declined.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Centre d'Estudis d'Opinió, Generalitat de Catalunya |title=Baròmetre d'Opinió Política |url=https://upceo.ceo.gencat.cat/wsceop/9148/Dossier%20de%20premsa_1082.pdf |website=upceo.ceo.gencat.cat |access-date=23 July 2024}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Jones |first1=Sam |title=Separatist parties set to lose power in Catalan regional election, polls show |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/may/12/catalonia-polls-vote-gauge-support-independence-spain |access-date=23 July 2024 |work=The Guardian |date=12 May 2024}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Polls Show Support for Catalonia Independence Declining |url=https://www.voanews.com/a/polls-show-support-for-catalonia-independence-declining/6749031.html |access-date=23 July 2024 |work=Voice of America |date=15 September 2022 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Heller |first1=Fernando |title=Support for Catalan independence falls to historic low, poll reveals |url=https://www.euractiv.com/section/politics/news/support-for-catalan-independence-falls-to-historic-low-poll-reveals/ |work=www.euractiv.com |date=19 July 2024}}</ref>
	As of 28 October 2017, the Catalan Republic is unrecognized by the international community, which regards the region as part of the Kingdom of Spain.<ref name="EuN_20171027">{{cite news|last1=Sandford|first1=Alasdair|title=Catalonia: what direct rule from Madrid could mean|url=http://www.euronews.com/2017/10/27/catalonia-what-direct-rule-from-madrid-could-mean|access-date=27 October 2017|work=euronews|date=27 October 2017|language=en}}</ref>
	== Geography ==		== Geography ==
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	] map of Catalonia:		] map of Catalonia:
	{{unbulleted list		{{unbulleted list
	|{{legend2|#ff3f3f|] }}		|{{legend2|#ff3f3f|]}}
	|{{legend2|#ffa545|] }}		|{{legend2|#ffa545|]}}
	|{{legend2|#fff915|]}}		|{{legend2|#fff915|]}}
	|{{legend2|#d8c03d|Smaller mountain ranges of the Central Depression }}		|{{legend2|#d8c03d|Smaller mountain ranges of<br /> the Central Depression}}
	|{{legend2|#917654|] }}		|{{legend2|#917654|]}}
	|{{legend2|#487048|] }}		|{{legend2|#487048|]}}
	|{{legend2|#679772|] }}		|{{legend2|#679772|]}}
	|{{legend2|#a0d486|] and other coastal and pre-coastal plains}}		|{{legend2|#a0d486|]<br /> and other coastal and pre-coastal plains}}
	}}]]		}}]]
	] ]]		] in Catalan ] ]]
	Catalonia has a marked geographical diversity, considering the relatively small size of its territory. The ] is conditioned by the Mediterranean coast, with {{convert|580|km|mi|abbr=off}} of coastline, and large relief units of the Pyrenees to the north. The Catalan territory is divided into three main geomorphological units:<ref>{{cite web|title=Geological map of Catalonia|url=http://www.icgc.cat/en/Public-Administration-and-Enterprises/Downloads/Geological-and-geothematic-cartography/Geological-mapping/Geological-map-of-Catalonia-1-50.000|publisher=Institut Cartogràfic i Geològic de Catalunya|accessdate=11 October 2017|date=2016}}</ref>		Catalonia has a marked geographical diversity, considering the relatively small size of its territory. The ] is conditioned by the Mediterranean coast, with {{convert|580|km|mi|abbr=off}} of coastline, and the towering Pyrenees along the long northern border. Catalonia is divided into three main geomorphological units:<ref>{{cite web|title=Geological map of Catalonia|url=http://www.icgc.cat/en/Public-Administration-and-Enterprises/Downloads/Geological-and-geothematic-cartography/Geological-mapping/Geological-map-of-Catalonia-1-50.000|publisher=Institut Cartogràfic i Geològic de Catalunya|access-date=11 October 2017|date=2016|archive-date=12 October 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171012044144/http://www.icgc.cat/en/Public-Administration-and-Enterprises/Downloads/Geological-and-geothematic-cartography/Geological-mapping/Geological-map-of-Catalonia-1-50.000|url-status=live}}</ref>
	* The Pyrenees: mountainous formation that connects the Iberian Peninsula with the ], and located in the north of Catalonia;		*The Pyrenees: mountainous formation that connects the Iberian Peninsula with the ] (see passage above);
	* The Catalan Coastal mountain ranges or the Catalan Mediterranean System: an alternating delevacions and planes parallel to the Mediterranean coast;		*The Catalan Coastal mountain ranges or the Catalan Mediterranean System: an alternating delevacions and planes parallel to the Mediterranean coast;
	* The ]: structural unit which forms the eastern sector of the Valley of the Ebro.		*The ]: structural unit which forms the eastern sector of the Valley of the Ebro.
	] (part of the ]) and the mountain of ]]]		] and the ]]]
	The Catalan Pyrenees represent almost half in length of the Pyrenees, as it extends more than {{convert|200|km|abbr=off}}. Traditionally differentiated the Axial Pyrenees (the main part) and the ] (southern from the Axial) which are mountainous formations parallel to the main mountain ranges but with lower altitudes, less steep and a different geological formation. The highest mountain of Catalonia, located north of the comarca of Pallars Sobirà is the Pica d'Estats (3,143&nbsp;m), followed by the Puigpedrós (2,914&nbspm). On the Pre-Pyrenees is located the ], that separates the valley of ] from the Central Depression.		The Catalan Pyrenees represent almost half in length of the Pyrenees, as it extends more than {{convert|200|km|abbr=off}}. Traditionally differentiated the Axial Pyrenees (the main part) and the ] (southern from the Axial) which are mountainous formations parallel to the main mountain ranges but with lower altitudes, less steep and a different geological formation. The highest mountain of Catalonia, located north of the comarca of Pallars Sobirà is the Pica d'Estats (3,143{{spaces}}m), followed by the Puigpedrós (2,914{{spaces}}m). The ] comprises the highest peaks in the Pre-Pyrenees and forms the southern boundary of the ] valley.
	Central Catalan Depression is a plain located between the Pyrenees and Pre-Coastal Mountains. The Depression lands are located between {{convert|200|and|600|m|ft|abbr=off}}. The plains and the water that descend from the Pyrenees have made it fertile territory for ] and there are built numerous irrigation canals. Other important plain is the ], located on the northeast.		The Central Catalan Depression is a plain located between the Pyrenees and Pre-Coastal Mountains. Elevation ranges from {{convert|200|to|600|m|ft|abbr=off}}. The plains and the water that descend from the Pyrenees have made it fertile territory for ] and numerous irrigation canals have been built. Another major plain is the ], located in the northeast.
	The Catalan Mediterranean system is based on two (more or less) parallel ranges to the coast, in a Northwest direction towards the Southwest. These two mountain ranges are the Coastal and the Pre-Coastal. The Coastal Range is minor extent and it has lower altitudes, while the Pre-Coastal is larger in both length and height. The most relevant mountains of this area are ], ] and ]. Within the ranges are a series of plains, the entities over which form the Coastal and the Pre-Coastal Depressions. The Coastal Depression is located on the East of the Coastal Range towards the coast. The Pre-Coastal, on the other hand, is located in the interior, between the two mountain ranges, and constitutes the basis of the plains of ] and ].		The Catalan Mediterranean system is based on two ranges running roughly parallel to the coast (southwest–northeast), called the Coastal and the Pre-Coastal Ranges. The Coastal Range is both the shorter and the lower of the two, while the Pre-Coastal is greater in both length and elevation. Areas within the Pre-Coastal Range include ], ] and the ]. Lowlands alternate with the Coastal and Pre-Coastal Ranges. The Coastal Lowland is located to the East of the Coastal Range between it and the coast, while the Pre-Coastal Lowlands are located inland, between the Coastal and Pre-Coastal Ranges, and includes the ] and ] plains.
	=== Flora and fauna ===		=== Flora and fauna ===
	]''), ] to the ]]]		]''), ] to the ]]]
	Catalonia is a showcase of European ] on a small scale. Just over {{convert|30,000|km2|sqmi|abbr=off}} hosting a variety of substrates, soils, climates, directions, altitudes and distances to the sea. The area is of great ecological diversity and a remarkable wealth of landscapes, habitats and species.		Catalonia is a showcase of European ] on a small scale. Just over {{convert|30000|km2|sqmi|abbr=off}} hosting a variety of substrates, soils, climates, directions, altitudes and distances to the sea. The area is of great ecological diversity and a remarkable wealth of landscapes, habitats and species.
	The fauna of Catalonia comprises a minority of animals endemic to the region and a majority of non-native animals. Much of Catalonia enjoys a Mediterranean climate (except mountain areas), which makes many of the animals that live there adapted to Mediterranean ecosystems. Of mammals, there are plentiful ], red foxes, as well as ] and in the Pyrenees, the ]. Other large species such as the ] have been recently reintroduced.		The fauna of Catalonia comprises a minority of animals endemic to the region and a majority of non-endemic animals. Much of Catalonia enjoys a Mediterranean climate (except mountain areas), which makes many of the animals that live there adapted to Mediterranean ecosystems. Of mammals, there are plentiful ], red foxes, as well as ] and in the Pyrenees, the ]. Other large species such as the ] have been recently reintroduced.
	Waters of ] are rich in biodiversity, and even the ]s of ocean; various type of whales (such as ], ], and ]) and ]s live within the area.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.edmaktub.org/en/home-2/|title=EDMAKTUB I Estudio de cetáceos|website=www.edmaktub.org}}</ref><ref>Casinos A. Vericad R.J. 2009. . Mammalia. Volume 40. Issue 2, pp. 267–90. {{ISSN|1864-1547}}. {{ISSN|0025-1461}}. {{doi|10.1515/mamm.1976.40.2.267}}</ref>		The waters of the ] are rich in biodiversity, and even the ]s of the oceans; various types of whales (such as ], ], and ]) and ]s can be found in the area.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.edmaktub.org/en/home-2/|title=EDMAKTUB I Estudio de cetáceos|website=www.edmaktub.org|access-date=22 March 2017|archive-date=25 March 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170325202832/http://www.edmaktub.org/en/home-2/|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>Casinos, A.; Vericad, R. J. (2009). {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170525195641/https://www.degruyter.com/view/j/mamm.1976.40.issue-2/mamm.1976.40.2.267/mamm.1976.40.2.267.xml|date=25 May 2017}}. ''Mammalia''. Volume 40. Issue 2, pp. 267–90. {{ISSN|1864-1547}}. {{ISSN|0025-1461}}. {{doi|10.1515/mamm.1976.40.2.267}}</ref>
	=== Hydrography ===		=== Hydrography ===
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	Most of Catalonia belongs to the ]. The Catalan hydrographic network consists of two important basins, the one of the ] and the one that comprises the internal basins of Catalonia (respectively covering 46.84% and 51.43% of the territory), all of them flow to the ]. Furthermore, there is the ] river basin that flows to the ], but it only covers 1.73% of the Catalan territory.		Most of Catalonia belongs to the ]. The Catalan hydrographic network consists of two important basins, the one of the ] and the one that comprises the internal basins of Catalonia (respectively covering 46.84% and 51.43% of the territory), all of them flow to the ]. Furthermore, there is the ] river basin that flows to the ], but it only covers 1.73% of the Catalan territory.
	The hydrographic network can be divided in two sectors, an occidental slope or Ebro river slope and one oriental slope constituted by minor rivers that flow to the Mediterranean along the Catalan coast. The first slope provides an average of {{convert|18,700|hm3|cumi|lk=on|abbr=off}} per year, while the second only provides an average of {{convert|2,020|hm3|cumi|abbr=on}}/year. The difference is due to the big contribution of the Ebro river, from which the ] is an important tributary. Moreover, in Catalonia there is a relative wealth of groundwaters, although there is inequality between '']'', given the complex geological structure of the territory.<ref name="GEC clima">{{cite web |url=http://www.enciclopedia.cat/enciclop%C3%A8dies/gran-enciclop%C3%A8dia-catalana/EC-GEC-0016439.xml |title=Catalunya: El clima i la hidrografia |language=Catalan|work=l'Enciclopèdia |location=Barcelona |editor=Gran Enciclopedia Catalana}}{{dead link|date=January 2014}}</ref> In the Pyrenees there are many small lakes, remnants of the ]. The biggest are the ] and the recently recovered ].		The hydrographic network can be divided in two sectors, an occidental slope or Ebro river slope and one oriental slope constituted by minor rivers that flow to the Mediterranean along the Catalan coast. The first slope provides an average of {{convert|18700|hm3|cumi|lk=on|abbr=off}} per year, while the second only provides an average of {{convert|2020|hm3|cumi|abbr=on}}/year. The difference is due to the big contribution of the Ebro river, from which the ] is an important tributary. Moreover, in Catalonia there is a relative wealth of groundwaters, although there is inequality between '']'', given the complex geological structure of the territory.<ref name="GEC clima">{{cite web|url=http://www.enciclopedia.cat/enciclop%C3%A8dies/gran-enciclop%C3%A8dia-catalana/EC-GEC-0016439.xml|title=Catalunya: El clima i la hidrografia|language=ca|work=l'Enciclopèdia|location=Barcelona|editor=Gran Enciclopedia Catalana}}{{dead link|date=January 2014}}</ref> In the Pyrenees there are many small lakes, remnants of the ]. The biggest are the ] and the recently recovered ].
	The Catalan coast is almost rectilinear, with a length of {{convert|580|km}} and few ]s—the most relevant are the ] and the ] to the north and the ] to the south. The ] hugs the coastline, and it is split into two segments, one between ] and the town of ] (the ]), and the other at the south, at the Costes del ].		The Catalan coast is almost rectilinear, with a length of {{convert|580|km}} and few ]s—the most relevant are the ] and the ] to the north and the ] to the south. The ] hugs the coastline, and it is split into two segments, one between ] and the town of ] (the ]), and the other at the south, at the Costes del ].
	The principal ] are the ], ], and the ], all of which run into the ].		The principal ] are the ], ], and the ] (Catalan: {{lang|ca|Ebre}}), all of which run into the ].
			=== Anthropic pressure and protection of nature ===
	== Politics ==
			The majority of Catalan population is concentrated in 30% of the territory, mainly in the coastal plains. Intensive agriculture, livestock farming and industrial activities have been accompanied by a massive ] influx (more than 20{{spaces}}million annual visitors), a rate of urbanization and even of major metropolisation which has led to a strong urban sprawl: two thirds of Catalans live in the urban area of Barcelona, while the proportion of urban land increased from 4.2% in 1993 to 6.2% in 2009, a growth of 48.6% in sixteen years, complemented with a dense network of transport infrastructure. This is accompanied by a certain agricultural abandonment (decrease of 15% of all areas cultivated in Catalonia between 1993 and 2009) and a global threat to ]. Human activities have also put some animal species at risk, or even led to their disappearance from the territory, like the ] and probably the ] of the Pyrenees. The pressure created by this model of life means that the country's ] exceeds its administrative area.<ref>{{in lang|ca}} {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924082817/http://www.gencat.cat/mediamb/publicacions/monografies/bd_conservacio/bd_catalunya_ca_basic.pdf|date=24 September 2015}} Retrieved 29 July 2017.</ref>
	{{Politics of Catalonia}}
	{{Main article|Politics of Catalonia|Politics of Spain|Catalan independence}}
	], second president of the Generalitat of Catalonia between 1933 and 1940, executed by Franco's regime]]
			Faced with these problems, Catalan authorities initiated several measures whose purpose is to protect natural ecosystems. Thus, in 1990, the Catalan government created the Nature Conservation Council (Catalan: {{lang|ca|Consell de Protecció de la Natura}}), an advisory body with the aim to study, protect and manage the natural environments and landscapes of Catalonia. In addition, the Generalitat has carried out the Plan of Spaces of Natural Interest ({{lang|ca|Pla d'Espais d'Interès Natural}} or PEIN) in 1992 while eighteen Natural Spaces of Special Protection ({{lang|ca|Espais Naturals de Protecció Especial}} or ENPE) have been instituted.
	After Franco's death in 1975 and the adoption of a democratic constitution in Spain in 1978, Catalonia recovered and extended the powers that it had gained in the ] of 1932<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.gencat.net/generalitat/eng/guia/antecedents/antecedents15.htm |title=Beginnings of the autonomous regime, 1918–1932 |publisher=Gencat.net |accessdate=25 April 2010 |deadurl=yes |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20090113202504/http://www.gencat.net/generalitat/eng/guia/antecedents/antecedents15.htm |archivedate=13 January 2009 |df=dmy }}</ref> but lost with the fall of the ]<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.gencat.net/generalitat/eng/guia/antecedents/antecedents16.htm |title=The republican Government of Catalonia, 1931–1939 |publisher=Gencat.net |accessdate=25 April 2010 |deadurl=yes |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20090113202509/http://www.gencat.net/generalitat/eng/guia/antecedents/antecedents16.htm |archivedate=13 January 2009 |df=dmy }}</ref> at the end of the ] in 1939.
			There's a ], ]; fourteen ], ], Aiguamolls de l'Empordà, ], ], Sources of Ter and Freser, ], ], ], ], ], ], Sant Llorenç del Munt and l'Obac, ], and the ]; as well as three Natural Places of National Interest ({{lang|ca|Paratge Natural d'Interes Nacional}} or PNIN), the ], the ] Forest and the ].
	This autonomous community has gradually achieved more ] since the approval of the ]. The Generalitat holds exclusive jurisdiction in culture, environment, communications, transportation, commerce, public safety and local government, and shares jurisdiction with the Spanish government in education, health and justice.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.gencat.cat/generalitat/eng/estatut/titol_4.htm |title=Title IV. Powers (articles 110–173) of the 2006 Statute |publisher=Gencat.cat |accessdate=25 April 2010 |deadurl=yes |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20100303223008/http://www.gencat.cat/generalitat/eng/estatut/titol_4.htm |archivedate=3 March 2010 |df=dmy }}</ref> In all, some analysts argue that formally the current system grants Catalonia with "more self-government than almost any other corner in Europe".<ref>{{cite news|url=http://economist.com/news/leaders/21567088-even-though-spectre-secession-unwelcome-distraction-spain-still-needs |title=Centrifugal Spain: Umbrage in Catalonia |publisher=The Economist |date=24 November 2012 |accessdate=13 September 2013}}</ref>
			== Politics ==
	The support for Catalan nationalism ranges from a demand for further autonomy and the ] of Spain to the desire for independence from the rest of Spain, expressed by Catalan independentists.<ref name="CEO poll">{{cite web |url=http://premsa.gencat.cat/pres_fsvp/docs/2012/06/27/10/36/60220d32-3dde-4bbe-bd32-e66085959a29.pdf |title=CEO Public Opinion Poll covering, among others, nationalist opinions |publisher=ceo.gencat.cat |accessdate=12 October 2012}}</ref> The first survey following the Constitutional Court ruling that cut back elements of the 2006 Statute of Autonomy, published by '']'' on 18 July 2010, found that 46% of the voters would support independence in a referendum.<ref name="La Vanguardia poll">{{cite web |url=http://www.lavanguardia.es/politica/noticias/20100718/53967434806/el-fallo-del-tc-catapulta-el-respaldo-a-la-independencia-que-roza-el-50.html |title=La Vanguardia poll}}</ref> In February of the same year, a poll by the ] gave more or less the same results.<ref>http://www.uoc.edu/portal/_resources/CA/documents/sala_premsa/noticies/Dossier_premsa_Diagnxstic_Catalunya-_Espanya.pdf</ref> Other polls have shown lower support for independence, ranging from 40 to 49%.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.cadenaser.com/espana/articulo/42-catalanes-dice-quiere-cataluna-sea-independiente/csrcsrpor/20101115csrcsrnac_3/Tes |title=El 42% de los catalanes dice que quiere que Cataluña sea independiente |publisher=Cadenaser.com |accessdate=31 January 2014}}</ref><ref>. {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120118151355/http://www.racalacarta.com/audio/audio_rac1/Racometre28setembre.pdf |date=18 January 2012 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.lavanguardia.es/politica/noticias/20100907/53996153467/el-apoyo-a-la-independencia-remite-y-cae-al-40-tribunal-constitucional-partido-popular-instituto-nox.html |title=El apoyo a la independencia remite y cae al 40% |publisher=Lavanguardia.es |accessdate=31 January 2014}}</ref> Other polls shows more variable results, according with the Spanish CIS, as of December 2016, 47% of Catalans rejected independence and 45% supported it.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.antena3.com/noticias/espana/el-cis_20161229586516fb0cf2187c0d319a7d.html|title=El "no" a la independencia gana más apoyos, según el CIS catalán|publisher=}}</ref> Although it is established in the whole of the territory, support for independence is significantly higher in the hinterland and the northeast, away from the more populated coastal areas such as Barcelona.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.eldiario.es/catalunya/MAPA-distribuye-voto-independentista-Catalunya_0_435356948.html|title=MAPA - ¿Cómo se distribuye el voto independentista en Catalunya?|publisher=}}</ref>
			{{Politics of Catalonia}}
			{{Main|Politics of Catalonia|Politics of Spain|Catalan independence}}
			], second president of the Generalitat of Catalonia between 1933 and 1940, executed by Franco's regime]]
			After Franco's death in 1975 and the adoption of a democratic constitution in Spain in 1978, Catalonia recovered and extended the powers that it had gained in the ] of 1932<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.gencat.net/generalitat/eng/guia/antecedents/antecedents15.htm|title=Beginnings of the autonomous regime, 1918–1932 |publisher=Gencat.net|access-date=25 April 2010|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090113202504/http://www.gencat.net/generalitat/eng/guia/antecedents/antecedents15.htm|archive-date=13 January 2009}}</ref> but lost with the fall of the ]<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.gencat.net/generalitat/eng/guia/antecedents/antecedents16.htm|title=The republican Government of Catalonia, 1931–1939 |publisher=Gencat.net|access-date=25 April 2010|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090113202509/http://www.gencat.net/generalitat/eng/guia/antecedents/antecedents16.htm|archive-date=13 January 2009}}</ref> at the end of the ] in 1939.
	Since 2011 when the question started to be regularly surveyed by the governmental Center for Public Opinion Studies (CEO), support for Catalan independence has been on the rise.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.einesceo.cat/evolutius/referendum-per-la-independencia-de-catalunya-/39 |title=Referèndum per la independència de Catalunya – Centre d'Estudis d'Opinió |publisher=Einesceo.cat |accessdate=15 October 2013 |deadurl=yes |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20131014181236/http://www.einesceo.cat/evolutius/referendum-per-la-independencia-de-catalunya-/39 |archivedate=14 October 2013 |df=dmy-all }}</ref> According to the CEO opinion poll from July 2016, 47.7% of Catalans would vote for independence and 42.4% against it while, about the question of preferences, according to the CEO opinion poll from March 2016, a 57.2 claim to be "absolutely" or "fairly" in favour of independence.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://premsa.gencat.cat/pres_fsvp/docs/2016/07/22/11/04/749debaa-7941-47fa-861a-e4f4cebe1233.pdf|title=Baròmetre d'Opinió|publisher=Center for Public Opinion Studies|accessdate=9 September 2016|language=ca}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://ceo.gencat.cat/ceop/AppJava/pages/estudis/categories/fitxaEstudi.html?colId=3;5728&lastTitle=Bar%F2metre+d%27Opini%F3+Pol%EDtica%3BBar%F2metre+d%27Opini%F3+Pol%EDtica.+1a+onada+2016|title=Baròmetre d'Opinió|publisher=Center for Public Opinion Studies|accessdate=15 April 2016|language=ca}}</ref>
			This autonomous community has gradually achieved more ] since the approval of the ]. The Generalitat holds exclusive jurisdiction in education, health, culture, environment, communications, transportation, commerce, public safety and local government, and only shares jurisdiction with the Spanish government in justice.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.gencat.cat/generalitat/eng/estatut/titol_4.htm|title=Title IV. Powers (articles 110–173) of the 2006 Statute |publisher=Gencat.cat|access-date=25 April 2010|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100303223008/http://www.gencat.cat/generalitat/eng/estatut/titol_4.htm|archive-date=3 March 2010}}</ref> In all, some analysts argue that formally the current system grants Catalonia with "more self-government than almost any other corner in Europe".<ref>{{cite news|url=http://economist.com/news/leaders/21567088-even-though-spectre-secession-unwelcome-distraction-spain-still-needs|title=Centrifugal Spain: Umbrage in Catalonia|newspaper=The Economist|date=24 November 2012|access-date=13 September 2013|archive-date=25 September 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130925172404/http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21567088-even-though-spectre-secession-unwelcome-distraction-spain-still-needs|url-status=live}}</ref>
	In hundreds of non-binding local referendums on independence, organised across Catalonia from 13 September 2009, a large majority voted for independence, although critics argued that the polls were mostly held in pro-independence areas. In December 2009, 94% of those voting backed independence from Spain, on a turn-out of 25%.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8410730.stm |title=Spain's Catalonia region in symbolic independence vote |publisher=BBC News |date=14 December 2009 |accessdate=25 April 2010}}</ref> The final local referendum was held in Barcelona, in April 2011. On 11 September 2012, a pro-independence march pulled in a crowd of between 600,000 (according to the ]), 1.5 million (according to the ]), and 2 million (according to its promoters);<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.lavanguardia.com/politica/20120914/54349577571/manifestacion-independentista-600-000-personas.html |title="Unas 600.000 personas en la manifestación independentista". La Vanguardia de Catalunya |publisher=Lavanguardia.com |date=14 September 2012 |accessdate=1 February 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|last=Pi|first=Jaume|title=Masiva manifestación por la independencia de Catalunya|url=http://www.lavanguardia.com/politica/20120911/54349943522/diada-manifestacion-independencia-catalunya.html|accessdate=15 October 2013|newspaper=La Vanguardia|date=11 September 2012|language=Spanish}}</ref> whereas poll results revealed that half the population of Catalonia supported secession from Spain.
			The support for Catalan nationalism ranges from a demand for further autonomy and the ] of Spain to the desire for independence from the rest of Spain, expressed by Catalan independentists.<ref name="CEO poll">{{cite web|url=http://premsa.gencat.cat/pres_fsvp/docs/2012/06/27/10/36/60220d32-3dde-4bbe-bd32-e66085959a29.pdf|title=CEO Public Opinion Poll covering, among others, nationalist opinions|publisher=ceo.gencat.cat|access-date=12 October 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120913102322/http://premsa.gencat.cat/pres_fsvp/docs/2012/06/27/10/36/60220d32-3dde-4bbe-bd32-e66085959a29.pdf|archive-date=13 September 2012|url-status=dead}}</ref> The first survey following the Constitutional Court ruling that cut back elements of the 2006 Statute of Autonomy, published by '']'' on 18{{nbsp}}July{{nbsp}}2010, found that 46% of the voters would support independence in a referendum.<ref name="La Vanguardia poll">{{Cite web|url=http://www.lavanguardia.es/politica/noticias/20100718/53967434806/el-fallo-del-tc-catapulta-el-respaldo-a-la-independencia-que-roza-el-50.html|title=La Vanguardia poll|access-date=20 July 2010|archive-date=21 July 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100721040410/http://www.lavanguardia.es/politica/noticias/20100718/53967434806/el-fallo-del-tc-catapulta-el-respaldo-a-la-independencia-que-roza-el-50.html|url-status=dead}}</ref> In February of the same year, a poll by the ] gave more or less the same results.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.uoc.edu/portal/_resources/CA/documents/sala_premsa/noticies/Dossier_premsa_Diagnxstic_Catalunya-_Espanya.pdf|title=Diagnóstic de Percepcions Catalunya – Espanya|publisher=Universitat Oberta de Catalunya|access-date=21 February 2018|archive-date=4 October 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181004201004/http://www.uoc.edu/portal/_resources/CA/documents/sala_premsa/noticies/Dossier_premsa_Diagnxstic_Catalunya-_Espanya.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref> Other polls have shown lower support for independence, ranging from 40 to 49%.<ref name="Cadenaser.com">{{cite web|url=http://www.cadenaser.com/espana/articulo/42-catalanes-dice-quiere-cataluna-sea-independiente/csrcsrpor/20101115csrcsrnac_3/Tes|title=El 42% de los catalanes dice que quiere que Cataluña sea independiente|date=15 November 2010|publisher=Cadenaser.com|access-date=31 January 2014|archive-date=29 April 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140429162514/http://www.cadenaser.com/espana/articulo/42-catalanes-dice-quiere-cataluna-sea-independiente/csrcsrpor/20101115csrcsrnac_3/Tes|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="auto">. {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120118151355/http://www.racalacarta.com/audio/audio_rac1/Racometre28setembre.pdf|date=18 January 2012}}</ref><ref name="Lavanguardia.es">{{cite web|url=http://www.lavanguardia.es/politica/noticias/20100907/53996153467/el-apoyo-a-la-independencia-remite-y-cae-al-40-tribunal-constitucional-partido-popular-instituto-nox.html|title=El apoyo a la independencia remite y cae al 40%|publisher=Lavanguardia.es|access-date=31 January 2014|archive-date=10 September 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100910084250/http://www.lavanguardia.es/politica/noticias/20100907/53996153467/el-apoyo-a-la-independencia-remite-y-cae-al-40-tribunal-constitucional-partido-popular-instituto-nox.html|url-status=dead}}</ref> Although it is established in the whole of the territory, support for independence is significantly higher in the hinterland and the northeast, away from the more populous coastal areas such as Barcelona.<ref name="eldiario.es">{{Cite web|url=https://www.eldiario.es/catalunya/mapa-distribuye-voto-independentista-catalunya_1_2460004.html|title=MAPA &#124; ¿Cómo se distribuye el voto independentista en Catalunya?|first=Belén Picazo, David Ruiz|last=López|date=28 September 2015|website=ElDiario.es|access-date=24 July 2021|archive-date=24 July 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210724170437/https://www.eldiario.es/catalunya/mapa-distribuye-voto-independentista-catalunya_1_2460004.html|url-status=live}}</ref>
	{{multiple image|caption11_align=center|caption2_align=center|header_align=center
	| align = right
	| header = Prominent Catalan politicians in ].
			Since 2011 when the question started to be regularly surveyed by the governmental Center for Public Opinion Studies (CEO), support for Catalan independence has been on the rise.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.einesceo.cat/evolutius/referendum-per-la-independencia-de-catalunya-/39|title=Referèndum per la independència de Catalunya – Centre d'Estudis d'Opinió|publisher=Einesceo.cat|access-date=15 October 2013|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131014181236/http://www.einesceo.cat/evolutius/referendum-per-la-independencia-de-catalunya-/39|archive-date=14 October 2013}}</ref> According to the CEO opinion poll from July{{nbsp}}2016, 47.7% of Catalans would vote for independence and 42.4% against it while, about the question of preferences, according to the CEO opinion poll from March 2016, a 57.2 claim to be "absolutely" or "fairly" in favour of independence.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://premsa.gencat.cat/pres_fsvp/docs/2016/07/22/11/04/749debaa-7941-47fa-861a-e4f4cebe1233.pdf|title=Baròmetre d'Opinió|publisher=Center for Public Opinion Studies|access-date=9 September 2016|language=ca|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160911191341/http://premsa.gencat.cat/pres_fsvp/docs/2016/07/22/11/04/749debaa-7941-47fa-861a-e4f4cebe1233.pdf|archive-date=11 September 2016|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://ceo.gencat.cat/ceop/AppJava/pages/estudis/categories/fitxaEstudi.html?colId=3;5728&lastTitle=Bar%F2metre+d%27Opini%F3+Pol%EDtica%3BBar%F2metre+d%27Opini%F3+Pol%EDtica.+1a+onada+2016|archive-url=https://wayback.archive-it.org/all/20170525185231/http://ceo.gencat.cat/ceop/AppJava/pages/estudis/categories/fitxaEstudi.html?colId=3;5728&lastTitle=Bar%F2metre+d%27Opini%F3+Pol%EDtica%3BBar%F2metre+d%27Opini%F3+Pol%EDtica.+1a+onada+2016|url-status=dead|archive-date=25 May 2017|title=Baròmetre d'Opinió|publisher=Center for Public Opinion Studies|access-date=15 April 2016|language=ca}}</ref> Other polls have shown lower support for independence, ranging from 40 to 49%.<ref name="Cadenaser.com"/><ref name="auto"/><ref name="Lavanguardia.es"/> Other polls show more variable results, according with the Spanish CIS, as of December{{nbsp}}2016, 47% of Catalans rejected independence and 45% supported it.<ref name="antena3.com">{{cite web|title=El "no" a la independencia gana más apoyos, según el CIS catalán|url=https://www.antena3.com/noticias/espana/el-cis_20161229586516fb0cf2187c0d319a7d.html|website=Antena 3 Noticias|language=es|date=12 November 2017|access-date=20 October 2019|archive-date=20 October 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191020174708/https://www.antena3.com/noticias/espana/el-cis_20161229586516fb0cf2187c0d319a7d.html|url-status=live}}</ref>
	| image1 = Prim madrazo.jpeg
	| width1 = 150
	| alt1 =
	| caption1 = ] (] under regent ])
			In hundreds of non-binding local referendums on independence, organised across Catalonia from 13{{nbsp}}September{{nbsp}}2009, a large majority voted for independence, although critics argued that the polls were mostly held in pro-independence areas. In December{{nbsp}}2009, 94% of those voting backed independence from Spain, on a turn-out of 25%.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8410730.stm|title=Spain's Catalonia region in symbolic independence vote|work=BBC News|date=14 December 2009|access-date=25 April 2010|archive-date=31 October 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101031062306/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8410730.stm|url-status=live}}</ref> The final local referendum was held in Barcelona, in April{{nbsp}}2011. On 11{{nbsp}}September{{nbsp}}2012, a pro-independence march pulled in a crowd of between 600,000 (according to the ]), 1.5{{spaces}}million (according to the ]), and 2{{spaces}}million (according to its promoters);<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.lavanguardia.com/politica/20120914/54349577571/manifestacion-independentista-600-000-personas.html|title="Unas 600.000 personas en la manifestación independentista". La Vanguardia de Catalunya|publisher=Lavanguardia.com|date=14 September 2012|access-date=1 February 2014|archive-date=29 April 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140429163448/http://www.lavanguardia.com/politica/20120914/54349577571/manifestacion-independentista-600-000-personas.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|last=Pi|first=Jaume|title=Masiva manifestación por la independencia de Catalunya|url=http://www.lavanguardia.com/politica/20120911/54349943522/diada-manifestacion-independencia-catalunya.html|access-date=15 October 2013|newspaper=]|date=11 September 2012|language=es|archive-date=17 October 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131017082445/http://www.lavanguardia.com/politica/20120911/54349943522/diada-manifestacion-independencia-catalunya.html|url-status=dead}}</ref> whereas poll results revealed that half the population of Catalonia supported secession from Spain.
	| image2 = Figueras y Moragas.jpg
	| width2 = 121
	| alt2 =
	| caption2 = ] (president of the ])
			{{multiple image
	| image3 = Pi y margall.jpg
	| width3 = 159		| align = right
			| header = Prominent Catalan politicians in ].
	| alt3 =
			| header_align=center
	| caption3 = ]{{br}}(president of the ])
			| image1 = Prim madrazo.jpeg
			| width1 = 150
			| alt1 =
			| caption1 = ] (] under regent ])
			| image2 = Estanislao Figueras y Moragas.jpg
			| width2 = 140
			| alt2 =
			| caption2 = ] (president of the ])
			| image3 = Pi y margall.jpg
			| width3 = 159
			| alt3 =
			| caption3 = ]{{br}}(president of the ])
	}}		}}
	Two major factors were ] 2010 decision to declare part of the 2006 Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia unconstitutional, as well as the fact that Catalonia contributes 19.49% of the central government’s tax revenue, but only receives 14.03% of central government's spending.<ref>{{cite news |last=Abend |first=Lisa |title=Spain Barcelona Warns Madrid: Pay Up, or Catalonia Leaves Spain |url=http://world.time.com/2012/09/11/barcelona-warns-madrid-pay-up-or-catalonia-leaves-spain/?xid=newsletter-weekly |publisher=TIME |accessdate=17 September 2012 |date=11 September 2012}}</ref>		Two major factors were ] 2010 decision to declare part of the 2006 Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia unconstitutional, as well as the fact that Catalonia contributes 19.49% of the central government's tax revenue, but only receives 14.03% of central government's spending.<ref>{{cite magazine|last=Abend|first=Lisa|title=Spain Barcelona Warns Madrid: Pay Up, or Catalonia Leaves Spain|url=https://world.time.com/2012/09/11/barcelona-warns-madrid-pay-up-or-catalonia-leaves-spain/?xid=newsletter-weekly|magazine=]|access-date=17 September 2012|date=11 September 2012|archive-date=20 September 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120920215317/http://world.time.com/2012/09/11/barcelona-warns-madrid-pay-up-or-catalonia-leaves-spain/?xid=newsletter-weekly|url-status=live}}</ref>
	Parties that consider themselves either Catalan nationalist or ] have been present in all Catalan governments since 1980. The largest Catalan nationalist party, ], ruled Catalonia from 1980 to 2003, and returned to power in the ]. Between 2003 and 2010, a leftist coalition, composed by the ], the pro-independence ] and the leftist-environmentalist ], implemented policies that widened Catalan autonomy.<ref>{{cite book| author = Xavier Mir i Oliveras| title = Vostè Té Un Problema i Aquest Problema Es Diu PSC| url = https://books.google.com/?id=JKPZOz6t0TkC&pg=PA67| year = 2007| publisher = Lulu.com| isbn = 978-1-84799-752-4| page = 67 }}</ref>		Parties that consider themselves either Catalan nationalist or ] have been present in all Catalan governments since 1980. The largest Catalan nationalist party, ], ruled Catalonia from 1980 to 2003, and returned to power in the ]. Between 2003 and 2010, a leftist coalition, composed by the ], the pro-independence ] and the leftist-environmentalist ], implemented policies that widened Catalan autonomy.{{citation needed|date=February 2020}}
	In the ], sovereigntist parties supporting a secession referendum gathered 59.01% of the votes and held 87 of the 135 seats in the Catalan Parliament. Parties supporting independence from the rest of Spain obtained 49.12% of the votes and a majority of 74 seats.		In the ], sovereigntist parties supporting a secession referendum gathered 59.01% of the votes and held 87 of the 135{{nbsp}}seats in the Catalan Parliament. Parties supporting independence from the rest of Spain obtained 49.12% of the votes and a majority of 74{{nbsp}}seats.
	], then the president of Catalonia, organised early elections that took place on 27 September 2015. In these elections, Convergència and Esquerra Republicana decided to join, and they presented themselves under the coalition named "Junts pel Sí" (in ], "]"). "Junts pel Sí" won 62 seats and was the most voted party, and CUP (], a far-left and independentist party) won another 10, so the sum of all the independentist forces/parties was 72 seats, reaching an absolute majority, but not in number of individual votes, comprising 47,74% of the total.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://resultats.parlament2015.cat/09AU/DAU09999CM_L4.htm |title=Resultats provisionals 27S |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |date= |website=gencat.cat |publisher=Generalitat de Catalunya |access-date=29 September 2015 |deadurl=yes |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20150930003326/http://resultats.parlament2015.cat/09AU/DAU09999CM_L4.htm |archivedate=30 September 2015 |df=dmy-all }}</ref>		], then the president of Catalonia, organised early elections that took place on 27{{nbsp}}September{{nbsp}}2015. In these elections, Convergència and Esquerra Republicana decided to join, and they presented themselves under the coalition named ] (in ], Together for Yes). Junts pel Sí won 62{{nbsp}}seats and was the most voted party, and CUP (], a far-left and independentist party) won another 10, so the sum of all the independentist forces/parties was 72{{nbsp}}seats, reaching an absolute majority, but not in number of individual votes, comprising 47,74% of the total.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://resultats.parlament2015.cat/09AU/DAU09999CM_L4.htm|title=Resultats provisionals 27S|author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.-->|website=gencat.cat|publisher=Generalitat de Catalunya|access-date=29 September 2015|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150930003326/http://resultats.parlament2015.cat/09AU/DAU09999CM_L4.htm|archive-date=30 September 2015}}</ref>
	=== Statute of Autonomy ===		=== Statute of Autonomy ===
	{{Main article|Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia}}		{{Main|Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia}}
	{{See also|Autonomous communities of Spain|Nationalities and regions of Spain}}		{{See also|Autonomous communities of Spain|Nationalities and regions of Spain}}
	], 1932]]		], 1932]]
	The ] of Catalonia is the fundamental organic law, second only to the Spanish Constitution from which the Statute originates.		The ] of Catalonia is the fundamental organic law, second only to the Spanish Constitution from which the Statute originates.
	In the ] Catalonia, along with the ] and ], was defined as a "]". The same constitution gave Catalonia the automatic right to autonomy, which resulted in the ].		In the ] Catalonia, along with the ] and ], was defined as a "]".{{dubious|date=November 2021}} The same constitution gave Catalonia the automatic right to autonomy, which resulted in the ].{{explain|date=November 2021}}
	Both the 1979 Statute of Autonomy and the current one, approved in 2006, state that "Catalonia, as a nationality, exercises its self-government constituted as an Autonomous Community in accordance with the Constitution and with the Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia, which is its basic institutional law, always under the law in Spain".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.gencat.net/generalitat/eng/estatut/titol_preliminar.htm#a1 |title=First article of the Statute of Autonomy of Catalunya |publisher=Gencat.net |accessdate=25 April 2010 |deadurl=yes |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20090113100832/http://www.gencat.net/generalitat/eng/estatut/titol_preliminar.htm#a1 |archivedate=13 January 2009 |df=dmy }}</ref>		Both the 1979 Statute of Autonomy and the current one, approved in 2006, state that "Catalonia, as a nationality, exercises its self-government constituted as an Autonomous Community in accordance with the Constitution and with the Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia, which is its basic institutional law, always under the law in Spain".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.gencat.net/generalitat/eng/estatut/titol_preliminar.htm#a1|title=First article of the Statute of Autonomy of Catalunya|publisher=Gencat.net|access-date=25 April 2010|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090113100832/http://www.gencat.net/generalitat/eng/estatut/titol_preliminar.htm#a1|archive-date=13 January 2009}}</ref>
	The Preamble of the 2006 Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia states that the ] has defined Catalonia as a ], but that "the Spanish Constitution recognizes Catalonia's national reality as a nationality".<ref>. {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071013022212/http://www.constitucion.es/constitucion/castellano/titulo_preliminar.html |date=13 October 2007 }}</ref> While the Statute was approved by and sanctioned by both the Catalan and Spanish parliaments, and later by referendum in Catalonia, it has been subject to a legal challenge by the surrounding autonomous communities of ], ] and ],<ref>{{cite web|author=Europa Press/Madrid |url=http://www.hoy.es/prensa/20061115/nacional/admitidos-recursos-aragon-valencia_20061115.html |title=Admitidos los recursos de Aragón, Valencia y Baleares contra el Estatuto catalán. |publisher=Hoy.es |date=1 December 1997 |accessdate=25 April 2010}}</ref> as well as by the conservative ]. The objections are based on various issues such as disputed ] but, especially, on the Statute's alleged breaches of the principle of "solidarity between regions" in fiscal and educational matters enshrined by the ].<ref>{{cite web |author=El País |url=http://www.elpais.com/articulo/espana/anos/encarnizada/batalla/politica/elpepuesp/20100416elpepunac_26/Tes |title=Cuatro años de encarnizada batalla política. |publisher=El País |date=29 June 2010 |accessdate=29 June 2010}}</ref>		The Preamble of the 2006 Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia states that the ] has defined Catalonia as a ], but that "the Spanish Constitution recognizes Catalonia's national reality as a nationality".<ref>. {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071013022212/http://www.constitucion.es/constitucion/castellano/titulo_preliminar.html|date=13 October 2007}}</ref> While the Statute was approved by and sanctioned by both the Catalan and Spanish parliaments, and later by referendum in Catalonia, it has been subject to a legal challenge by the surrounding autonomous communities of ], ] and ],<ref>{{cite web|author=Europa Press/Madrid|url=http://www.hoy.es/prensa/20061115/nacional/admitidos-recursos-aragon-valencia_20061115.html|title=Admitidos los recursos de Aragón, Valencia y Baleares contra el Estatuto catalán.|publisher=Hoy.es|date=1 December 1997|access-date=25 April 2010|archive-date=4 August 2012|archive-url=https://archive.today/20120804013947/http://www.hoy.es/prensa/20061115/nacional/admitidos-recursos-aragon-valencia_20061115.html|url-status=bot: unknown}}</ref> as well as by the conservative ]. The objections are based on various issues such as disputed ] but, especially, on the Statute's alleged breaches of the principle of "solidarity between regions" in fiscal and educational matters enshrined by the ].<ref>{{cite news|author=El País|url=http://www.elpais.com/articulo/espana/anos/encarnizada/batalla/politica/elpepuesp/20100416elpepunac_26/Tes|title=Cuatro años de encarnizada batalla política.|newspaper=El País|date=29 June 2010|access-date=29 June 2010|archive-date=3 July 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220703023004/https://elpais.com/elpais/2010/04/16/actualidad/1271405842_850215.html|url-status=live}}</ref>
	Spain's ] assessed the disputed articles and on 28 June 2010, issued its judgment on the principal allegation of unconstitutionality presented by the People's Party in 2006. The judgment granted clear passage to 182 articles of the 223 that make up the fundamental text. The court approved 73 of the 114 articles that the People's Party had contested, while declaring 14 articles unconstitutional in whole or in part and imposing a restrictive interpretation on 27 others.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.elpais.com/articulo/espana/retoque/74/articulos/recurridos/elpepunac/20100629elpepinac_4/Tes |title=Ni un retoque en 74 artículos recurridos |publisher=El País |accessdate=29 June 2010}}</ref> The court accepted the specific provision that described Catalonia as a "nation", however ruled that it was a historical and cultural term with no legal weight, and that Spain remained the only nation recognised by the constitution.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://news.scotsman.com/news/Catalonia-39is-not-a-nation39.6412380.jp |title=Catalonia 'is not a nation' 10 July 2010 |publisher=News.scotsman.com |date= 10 July 2010|accessdate=6 January 2011 |location=Edinburgh}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.matthewbennett.es/60/is-catalonia-a-nation-or-a-nationality-or-is-spain-the-only-nation-in-spain/ |title=Is Catalonia a nation or a nationality, or is Spain the only nation in Spain? |publisher=Matthewbennett.es |accessdate=6 January 2011 |deadurl=yes |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110908023751/http://www.matthewbennett.es/60/is-catalonia-a-nation-or-a-nationality-or-is-spain-the-only-nation-in-spain/ |archivedate=8 September 2011 |df=dmy }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |author=Fiona Govan |url=http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/spain/7861118/Catalonia-can-call-itself-a-nation-rules-Spains-top-court.html |title=Catalonia can call itself a 'nation', rules Spain's top court 29 Jun 2010 |publisher=Telegraph.co.uk |date=29 June 2010 |accessdate=6 January 2011 |location=London}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.economist.com/node/16490065 |title=A nationality, not a nation Jul 1st 2010 |publisher=Economist.com |date= 1 July 2010|accessdate=6 January 2011}}</ref>		Spain's ] assessed the disputed articles and on 28 June 2010, issued its judgment on the principal allegation of unconstitutionality presented by the People's Party in 2006. The judgment granted clear passage to 182 articles of the 223 that make up the fundamental text. The court approved 73 of the 114 articles that the People's Party had contested, while declaring 14 articles unconstitutional in whole or in part and imposing a restrictive interpretation on 27 others.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.elpais.com/articulo/espana/retoque/74/articulos/recurridos/elpepunac/20100629elpepinac_4/Tes|title=Ni un retoque en 74 artículos recurridos|newspaper=El País|access-date=29 June 2010|archive-date=3 July 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220703023004/https://elpais.com/diario/2010/06/29/espana/1277762404_850215.html|url-status=live}}</ref> The court accepted the specific provision that described Catalonia as a "nation", however ruled that it was a historical and cultural term with no legal weight, and that Spain remained the only nation recognised by the constitution.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://news.scotsman.com/news/Catalonia-39is-not-a-nation39.6412380.jp|title=Catalonia 'is not a nation' 10 July 2010 |publisher=News.scotsman.com|date=10 July 2010|access-date=6 January 2011|location=Edinburgh|archive-date=29 June 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110629141155/http://news.scotsman.com/news/Catalonia-39is-not-a-nation39.6412380.jp|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.matthewbennett.es/60/is-catalonia-a-nation-or-a-nationality-or-is-spain-the-only-nation-in-spain/|title=Is Catalonia a nation or a nationality, or is Spain the only nation in Spain?|publisher=Matthewbennett.es|access-date=6 January 2011|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110908023751/http://www.matthewbennett.es/60/is-catalonia-a-nation-or-a-nationality-or-is-spain-the-only-nation-in-spain/|archive-date=8 September 2011}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|author=Fiona Govan|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/spain/7861118/Catalonia-can-call-itself-a-nation-rules-Spains-top-court.html|archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220110/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/spain/7861118/Catalonia-can-call-itself-a-nation-rules-Spains-top-court.html|archive-date=10 January 2022|url-access=subscription|url-status=live|title=Catalonia can call itself a 'nation', rules Spain's top court 29 Jun 2010 |work=Telegraph|date=29 June 2010|access-date=6 January 2011|location=London}}{{cbignore}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.economist.com/node/16490065|title=A nationality, not a nation Jul 1st 2010 |newspaper=The Economist|date=1 July 2010|access-date=6 January 2011|archive-date=25 February 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180225082016/http://www.economist.com/node/16490065|url-status=live}}</ref>
	=== Government and law ===		=== Government and law ===
	{{Main article|Generalitat of Catalonia}}		{{Main|Generalitat of Catalonia}}
			{{multiple image
	], located in ], Barcelona]]
			| align = right
	The Catalan Statute of Autonomy establishes that Catalonia is organised politically through the ], conformed by the ], the Presidency of the Generalitat, the ] or Executive Council and the other institutions created by the Parliament.
			| direction = vertical
	]'', Barcelona, seat of the Government and the Presidency of Catalonia]]
			| caption_align = center
	]. Carles Puigdemont, Ex-president of the Generalitat, is at the centre of bottom row, ], the Ex-vice-president, on his right from his point of view.]]
			| image1 = Parliament of Catalunya edited.JPG
			| caption1 = ], located in ], Barcelona
			| image2 = Palau de la Generalitat de Catalunya 1.jpg
			| caption2 = ], Barcelona, headquarters of the President and the Government of Catalonia
			}}
			The Catalan Statute of Autonomy establishes that Catalonia, as an autonomous community, is organised politically through the ] (Catalan: {{lang|ca|Generalitat de Catalunya}}), confirmed by the ], the Presidency of the Generalitat, the ] or Executive Council and the other institutions established by the Parliament, among them the Ombudsman ({{lang|ca|]}}), the Office of Auditors ({{lang|ca|Sindicatura de Comptes}}) the Council for Statutory Guarantees ({{lang|ca|Consell de Garanties Estatutàries}}) or the Audiovisual Council of Catalonia ({{lang|ca|Consell de l'Audiovisual de Catalunya}}).
			], ] (2024–)]]
			The ] (Catalan: {{lang|ca|Parlament de Catalunya}}) is the unicameral legislative body of the Generalitat and represents the people of Catalonia. Its 135{{nbsp}}members (''diputats'') are elected by ] to serve for a four-year period. According to the Statute of Autonomy, it has powers to legislate over devolved matters such as education, health, culture, internal institutional and territorial organization, nomination of the President of the Generalitat and control the Government, budget and other affairs. The last Catalan election ], and its current speaker (president) is ], incumbent since 10{{nbsp}}June{{nbsp}}2024.
	==== Legislature ====
	The Parliament of Catalonia (in Catalan: ''Parlament de Catalunya'') is the legislative body of the Generalitat and represents the citizens of Catalonia. It is elected every four years by ], and it has powers to legislate in different matters such as education, health, culture, internal institutional and territorial organization, election and control of the president of the Generalitat and the Government, budget and others, according with the Statute of Autonomy. The last Catalan election was held on 27 September 2015, and its current president is ], incumbent since that year.
			The ] (Catalan: {{lang|ca|president de la Generalitat de Catalunya}}) is the highest representative of Catalonia, and is also responsible of leading the government's action, presiding the Executive Council. Since the restoration of the Generalitat on the return of democracy in Spain, the ] have been ] (1977–1980, president in exile since 1954), ] (1980–2003), ] (2003–2006), ] (2006–2010), ] (2010–2016), ] (2016–2017) and, after the imposition of direct rule from Madrid, ] (2018–2020), ] (2021–2024) and Salvador Illa (2024–).
	==== Presidency ====
	The ] (in Catalan: ''president de la Generalitat de Catalunya'') is the highest representative of Catalonia, and is also responsible of leading the government's action. Since the restoration of the Generalitat on the return of democracy in Spain, the ] have been ] (1977–1980, president in exile since 1954), ] (1980–2003), ] (2003–2006), ] (2006–2010), ] (2010–2016) and ] (2016-2017). The position is currently administered directly from Madrid due to direct rule.
			The ] (Catalan: {{lang|ca|Consell Executiu}}) or Government ({{lang|ca|Govern}}), is the body responsible of the government of the Generalitat, it holds executive and regulatory power, being accountable to the Catalan Parliament. It comprises the President of the Generalitat, the ] ({{lang|ca|conseller primer}}) or the ], and the ministers ({{lang|ca|consellers}}) appointed by the president. Its seat is the ], Barcelona. In 2021 the government was a coalition of two parties, the ] (ERC) and ] (Junts) and is made up of 14 ministers, including the vice President, alongside to the president and a secretary of government, but in October{{nbsp}}2022 Together for Catalonia (Junts) left the coalition and the government.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Catalan government broken: Junts leaves coalition cabinet, Esquerra stays alone|url=https://english.vilaweb.cat/noticies/catalan-government-broken-junts-leaves-coalition-cabinet-esquerra-stays-alone/|access-date=2022-10-28|website=VilaWeb|language=ca|archive-date=28 October 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221028034515/https://english.vilaweb.cat/noticies/catalan-government-broken-junts-leaves-coalition-cabinet-esquerra-stays-alone/|url-status=live}}</ref>
	==== Executive ====
	The ] (in Catalan: ''Consell Executiu'') or Government (''Govern''), is the body responsible of the government of the Generalitat, it holds executive and regulatory power. It comprises the president of the Generalitat, the ] (or the ]) and the Ministers (''consellers''). Its seat is the ], in Barcelona.
	=== Security forces and Justice ===		=== Security forces and Justice ===
	{{Main article|Mossos d'Esquadra}}		{{Main|Mossos d'Esquadra}}
	Catalonia has its own police force, the '']'' (officially called ''Mossos d'Esquadra-Policia de la Generalitat de Catalunya''), whose origins date back to the 18th century. Since 1980 they have been under the command of the Generalitat, and since 1994 they have expanded in number in order to replace the national ] and ], which report directly to the Homeland Department of Spain. The national bodies retain personnel within Catalonia to exercise functions of national scope such as overseeing ports, airports, coasts, international borders, custom offices, the identification of documents and arms control, immigration control, terrorism prevention, arms trafficking prevention, amongst others.		Catalonia has its own police force, the {{lang|ca|]}} (officially called {{lang|ca|Mossos d'Esquadra-Policia de la Generalitat de Catalunya}}), whose origins date back to the 18th{{nbsp}}century. Since 1980 they have been under the command of the Generalitat, and since 1994 they have expanded in number in order to replace the national ] and ], which report directly to the Homeland Department of Spain. The national bodies retain personnel within Catalonia to exercise functions of national scope such as overseeing ports, airports, coasts, international borders, custom offices, the identification of documents and arms control, immigration control, terrorism prevention, arms trafficking prevention, amongst others.
	Most of the justice system is administered by national judicial institutions, the highest body and last judicial instance in the Catalan jurisdiction, integrating the Spanish judiciary, is the ]. The ] system is uniform throughout Spain, while ] is administered separately within Catalonia. The civil laws that are subject to autonomous legislation have been codified in the ] (''Codi civil de Catalunya'') since 2002.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://civil.udg.es/normacivil/catalunya.htm |title=Legislació civil catalana |publisher=Civil.udg.es |date=20 July 2006 |accessdate=25 April 2010}}</ref>		Most of the justice system is administered by national judicial institutions, the highest body and last judicial instance in the Catalan jurisdiction, integrating the Spanish judiciary, is the ]. The ] system is uniform throughout Spain, while ] is administered separately within Catalonia. The civil laws that are subject to autonomous legislation have been codified in the ] ({{lang|ca|Codi civil de Catalunya}}) since 2002.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://civil.udg.es/normacivil/catalunya.htm|title=Legislació civil catalana|publisher=Civil.udg.es|date=20 July 2006|access-date=25 April 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110706215412/http://civil.udg.es/normacivil/catalunya.htm|archive-date=6 July 2011|url-status=dead}}</ref>
	], the ] and Catalonia are the Spanish communities with the highest degree of autonomy in terms of ].		Catalonia, together with ] and the ], are the Spanish communities with the highest degree of autonomy in terms of ].
	=== Administrative divisions ===		=== Administrative divisions ===
	]		]{{Main|Subdivisions of Catalonia}}
			{{See also|Political divisions of Spain|Local government in Spain}}
	Catalonia is organised territorially into ]s, further subdivided into ] and ]. The 2006 Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia establishes the administrative organisation of three local authorities: ], comarques, and municipalities.		Catalonia is organised territorially into ] or ], further subdivided into ] and ]. The ] establishes the administrative organisation of the later three.
	==== Provinces ====		==== Provinces ====
	{{Further information|Provinces of Spain}}		{{Further|Provinces of Spain}}
	Catalonia is divided administratively into four provinces, the governing body of which is the Provincial Deputation ({{lang-ca|Diputació Provincial|links=no}}, {{lang-es|Diputación Provincial|links=no}}). The four provinces and their populations are:<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.idescat.cat/territ/BasicTerr?TC=5&V0=5&V1=08&V3=863&V4=435&ALLINFO=TRUE&PARENT=1&GERMANS=TRUE&CTX=B |title=Padró municipal d'habitants. Xifres Oficials. Recomptes. Any 2010 |author= |work= |publisher=idescat |accessdate=20 July 2010 |deadurl=yes |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20091113212952/http://www.idescat.cat/territ/BasicTerr?TC=5&V0=5&V1=08&V3=863&V4=435&ALLINFO=TRUE&PARENT=1&GERMANS=TRUE&CTX=B |archivedate=13 November 2009 }}</ref>		Much like the rest of Spain, Catalonia is divided administratively into four provinces, the governing body of which is the ] ({{langx|ca|Diputació Provincial|links=no}}, {{langx|oc|Deputacion Provinciau|links=no}}, {{langx|es|Diputación Provincial|links=no}}). As of 2010, the four provinces and their populations were:<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.idescat.cat/territ/BasicTerr?TC=5&V0=5&V1=08&V3=863&V4=435&ALLINFO=TRUE&PARENT=1&GERMANS=TRUE&CTX=B|title=Padró municipal d'habitants. Xifres Oficials. Recomptes. Any 2010 |publisher=idescat|access-date=20 July 2010|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091113212952/http://www.idescat.cat/territ/BasicTerr?TC=5&V0=5&V1=08&V3=863&V4=435&ALLINFO=TRUE&PARENT=1&GERMANS=TRUE&CTX=B|archive-date=13 November 2009}}</ref>
	* ]: 5,507,813 population		*]: 5,701,708 population
	* ]: 752,026 population		*]: 777,258 population
	* ]: 439,253 population		*]: 437,939 population
	* ]: 805,789 population		*]: 830,804 population
			Unlike vegueries, provinces do not follow the limitations of the subdivisional counties, notably ], which is split in half between the demarcations of Lleida and Girona. This situation has led some isolated municipalities to request province changes from the Spanish government.<ref>{{Cite web|last=324cat|date=2023-11-28|title=El cas singular de Gósol, que vol deixar de dependre de quatre administracions: "Cal un debat"|url=https://www.ccma.cat/324/el-cas-singular-de-gosol-que-vol-deixar-de-dependre-de-quatre-administracions-cal-un-debat/noticia/3263567/|access-date=2024-02-04|website=CCMA|language=ca|archive-date=4 February 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240204193735/https://www.ccma.cat/324/el-cas-singular-de-gosol-que-vol-deixar-de-dependre-de-quatre-administracions-cal-un-debat/noticia/3263567/|url-status=live}}</ref>
	==== Municipalities ====		==== Vegueries ====
	{{Further information|Municipalities of Catalonia}}		{{Main|Vegueries of Catalonia}}
	There are at present 948 municipalities (''municipis'') in Catalonia. Each municipality is run by a council (''ajuntament'') elected by the residents in local elections. The council consists of a number of members (''regidors'') depending on population, who elect the mayor (''alcalde'' or ''batlle''). Its seat is the town hall (''ajuntament'', ''casa de la ciutat'' or ''casa de la vila'').
	{{clear left}}
	{| class="wikitable"
	|-
	!style="background: #e3e3e3;"|Ranking
	!style="background: #e3e3e3;"|Municipality
	!style="background: #e3e3e3;"|Comarca
	!style="background: #e3e3e3;"|Population<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ine.es/jaxi/menu.do?type=pcaxis&path=%2Ft20%2Fe260%2Fa2009%2F&file=pcaxis&N=&L=0 |title=Actualització INE 2009 |publisher=Ine.es |date=28 May 2010 |accessdate=6 January 2011 |deadurl=yes |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20101118110601/http://www.ine.es/jaxi/menu.do?L=0&type=pcaxis&path=%2Ft20%2Fe260%2Fa2009%2F&file=pcaxis&N= |archivedate=18 November 2010 |df=dmy }}</ref>
	|-
	|1 ||] Barcelona ||] ||1,621,537
	|-
	|2 ||] ] ||Barcelonès ||257,038
	|-
	|3 ||] ] ||Barcelonès ||219,547
	|-
	|4 ||] ] ||] ||210,941
	|-
	|5 ||] ] ||] ||206,493
	|-
	|6 ||] Tarragona ||] ||140,323
	|-
	|7 ||] ] ||] ||135,920
	|-
	|8 ||] ] ||] ||121,722
	|-
	|9 ||] ] ||Barcelonès ||119,717
	|-
	|10 ||] ] ||] ||107,118
	|}
			Besides provinces, Catalonia is internally divided into eight regions or vegueries, based on the feudal administrative territorial jurisdiction of the ].<ref name=":1">{{Cite web|title=vegueria {{!}} enciclopedia.cat|url=https://www.enciclopedia.cat/gran-enciclopedia-catalana/vegueria-1|access-date=2024-02-04|website=www.enciclopedia.cat|archive-date=30 June 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230630102826/https://www.enciclopedia.cat/gran-enciclopedia-catalana/vegueria-1|url-status=live}}</ref> Established in 2006, vegueries are used by the ] with the aim to more effectively divide Catalonia administratively. In addition, vegueries are intended to become Catalonia's first-level administrative division and a full replacement for the four deputations of the Catalan provinces, creating a council for each vegueria,<ref name=":2">{{Cite web|last=palau|first=òscar|title=Traient l'entrellat a les vegueries – 12 març 2010 |url=https://www.elpuntavui.cat/article/146574-traient-lentrellat-a-les-vegueries.html|access-date=2023-06-29|website=El Punt Avui|language=ca|archive-date=29 June 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230629220933/https://www.elpuntavui.cat/article/146574-traient-lentrellat-a-les-vegueries.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last=femVallès|date=2020-04-28|title=La Catalunya de 9 vegueries (en 4 províncies) – femVallès|url=https://www.femvalles.cat/la-catalunya-de-9-vegueries-en-4-provincies/|access-date=2023-06-29|language=ca|archive-date=8 December 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231208083647/https://www.femvalles.cat/la-catalunya-de-9-vegueries-en-4-provincies/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Se impide crear veguerías alterando los límites provinciales {{!}} Barcelona {{!}} elmundo.es|url=https://www.elmundo.es/elmundo/2010/07/09/barcelona/1278690407.html|access-date=2023-06-29|website=www.elmundo.es|archive-date=15 June 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230615115731/https://www.elmundo.es/elmundo/2010/07/09/barcelona/1278690407.html|url-status=live}}</ref> but this has not been realised as changes to the statewide provinces system are unconstitutional without a constitutional amendment.<ref name=":3">{{Cite web|last=324cat|date=2010-07-09|title=El Constitucional només admet les vegueries si es conserven les províncies|url=https://www.ccma.cat/324/el-constitucional-nomes-admet-les-vegueries-si-es-conserven-les-provincies/noticia/761666/|access-date=2023-06-29|website=CCMA|language=ca|archive-date=29 June 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230629220939/https://www.ccma.cat/324/el-constitucional-nomes-admet-les-vegueries-si-es-conserven-les-provincies/noticia/761666/|url-status=live}}</ref>
	<gallery caption="Catalan capital cities" class=center widths=185 heights=150>
	File:Eixample aire.jpg|An aerial view of ]
			The territorial plan of Catalonia ({{lang|ca|Pla territorial general de Catalunya}}) provided six general functional areas,<ref>{{cite web|title=Pla territorial general de Catalunya|url=http://www10.gencat.net/ptop/AppJava/cat/plans/general/ptgeneral.jsp|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100704031039/http://www10.gencat.net/ptop/AppJava/cat/plans/general/ptgeneral.jsp|archive-date=4 July 2010|access-date=20 July 2010|publisher=Generalitat de Catalunya}}</ref> but was amended by Law{{nbsp}}24/2001, of 31{{nbsp}}December, recognizing ''Alt Pirineu and Aran'' as a new functional area differentiated of Ponent.<ref>. {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080513132200/http://www10.gencat.net/ptop/AppJava/cat/plans/parcials/ptapa/aprovacio_definitiva.jsp|date=13 May 2008}}</ref> After some opposition from some territories, it was made possible for the Aran Valley to retain its government (the vegueria is renamed to ''Alt Pirineu'', although the name ''Alt Pirineu and Aran'' is still used by the regional plan)<ref>{{Cite web|date=2021-04-21|title=Mapa de Vegueries a Catalunya (2021): On és el teu municipi? |url=https://beteve.cat/mobilitat/mapa-vegueries-catalunya/|access-date=2023-06-29|website=beteve.cat|language=ca|archive-date=29 June 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230629220932/https://beteve.cat/mobilitat/mapa-vegueries-catalunya/|url-status=live}}</ref> and in 2016, the Catalan Parliament approved the eighth vegueria, Penedès, split from the Barcelona region.<ref name=":4">{{cite web|date=8 February 2017|title=Catalunya ja té vuit vegueries: El Parlament aprova la creació de la vegueria del Penedès|url=https://www.ara.cat/societat/catalunya-vegueries-parlament-vegueria-penedes_1_1410475.html|access-date=4 February 2024|archive-date=6 March 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240306141747/https://www.ara.cat/societat/catalunya-vegueries-parlament-vegueria-penedes_1_1410475.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name=":1" />
	File:E5320-Vista-de-Tarragona.jpg|The city of ]
	File:Lleida - La Seu Vella (des de Cappont)detalle.jpg|The city of ]
			As of 2022, the eight regions and their populations were:
	File:Girona des de l aire.jpg|The city of ]
	</gallery>
			* ] (capital ]): 63,892 population
			* ] (capital ]): 4,916,847 population
			* ] (capital ]): 536,453 population
			* ] (capital ]): 413,349 population
			* ] (capital ]): 761,690 population
			* ] (capital ]): 365,289 population
			* ] (capital ]): 497,764 population
			* ] (capital ]): 182,231 population
			* ] (capital ]): 10,194 population
	==== Comarques ====		==== Comarques ====
	{{Main article|Comarques of Catalonia}}		{{Main|Comarques of Catalonia}}
			Comarques (often known as ''counties'' in English, but different from the historical ]<ref>{{Cite web|title=Idescat. Statistical Yearbook of Catalonia. County councils. Councillors. Counties.|url=https://www.idescat.cat/indicadors/?id=aec&n=15897&lang=en|access-date=2023-11-27|website=www.idescat.cat|archive-date=4 February 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240204193734/https://www.idescat.cat/indicadors/?id=aec&n=15897&lang=en|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|date=2023-05-06|title=Festivals in southern Terres de l'Ebre counties form new group to increase visibility|url=https://www.catalannews.com/culture/item/festivals-in-southern-terres-de-lebre-counties-unite-in-new-group-to-increase-visibility|access-date=2023-11-27|website=www.catalannews.com|language=en|archive-date=4 February 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240204193735/https://www.catalannews.com/culture/item/festivals-in-southern-terres-de-lebre-counties-unite-in-new-group-to-increase-visibility|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Coronavirus: Spain puts 200,000 people in Catalonia back into lockdown as cases rise|url=https://news.sky.com/story/coronavirus-spain-puts-200-000-people-in-catalonia-back-into-lockdown-as-cases-rise-12020938|access-date=2023-11-27|website=Sky News|language=en|archive-date=4 February 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240204193734/https://news.sky.com/story/coronavirus-spain-puts-200-000-people-in-catalonia-back-into-lockdown-as-cases-rise-12020938|url-status=live}}</ref>) are entities composed of municipalities to internally manage their responsibilities and services. The current regional division has its roots in a decree of the Generalitat de Catalunya of 1936, in effect until 1939, when it was suppressed by Franco. In 1987 the Catalan Government reestablished the comarcal division and in 1988 three new comarques were added (], ] and ]). Some further revisions have been realised since then, such as the additions of ] and ] counties, in 2015 and 2023 respectively. Except for ], every comarca is administered by a ] ({{lang|ca|consell comarcal}}).
	Comarques are entities composed by the municipalities to manage their responsibilities and services. The current regional division has its roots in a decree of the Generalitat de Catalunya of 1936, in effect until 1939, when it was suppressed by Franco. In 1987 the Government adopted the territorial division again and in 1988 three new comarques were added (], ] and ]), and in 2015 was created the last comarca, the ]. At present there are 41.
	The comarca of ] (Aran Valley) has a special status and its autonomous government is named '']''.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://noticias.juridicas.com/base_datos/CCAA/ca-l16-1990.html# |title=Ley 16/1990, de 13 de julio, sobre el régimen especial del Valle de Arán. |author= |work= |publisher=Noticias Jurídicas |accessdate=20 July 2010}}</ref>		As of 2024, Catalonia is divided in 42 counties plus the ]. The latter, although previously (and still informally) considered a comarca, obtained in 1990 a particular status within Catalonia due to its differences in culture and language, being administered by a body known as the {{lang|oc|]}} (General Council of Aran), and in 2015 it was defined as a "unique territorial entity" instead of a county.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://noticias.juridicas.com/base_datos/CCAA/ca-l16-1990.html#|title=Ley 16/1990, de 13 de julio, sobre el régimen especial del Valle de Arán. |publisher=Noticias Jurídicas|access-date=20 July 2010|archive-date=8 June 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110608204441/http://noticias.juridicas.com/base_datos/CCAA/ca-l16-1990.html|url-status=live}}</ref>
	==== Vegueries ====		==== Municipalities ====
	{{Main article|Vegueries of Catalonia}}		{{Further|Municipalities of Catalonia}}
			There are at present 947{{nbsp}}municipalities ({{lang|ca|municipis}}) in Catalonia. Each municipality is run by a council ({{lang|ca|ajuntament}}) elected every four years by the residents in local elections. The council consists of a number of members ({{lang|ca|regidors}}) depending on population, who elect the ] ({{lang|ca|alcalde}} or {{lang|ca|batlle}}). Its seat is the ] ({{lang|ca|ajuntament}}, {{lang|ca|casa de la ciutat}} or {{lang|ca|casa de la vila}}).
	The ''vegueria'' is a new type of division defined as a specific territorial area for the exercise of government and inter-local cooperation with legal personality. The current Statute of Autonomy states vegueries are intended to supersede provinces in Catalonia, and take over many of functions of the comarques.
			<gallery class="center" widths="185" heights="150" caption="Catalan regional capitals">
	The territorial plan of Catalonia (''Pla territorial general de Catalunya'') provided six general functional areas,<ref>{{cite web|title=Pla territorial general de Catalunya |url=http://www10.gencat.net/ptop/AppJava/cat/plans/general/ptgeneral.jsp |publisher=Generalitat de Catalunya |accessdate=20 July 2010 |deadurl=yes |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20100704031039/http://www10.gencat.net/ptop/AppJava/cat/plans/general/ptgeneral.jsp |archivedate=4 July 2010 }}</ref> but was amended by Law 24/2001, of 31 December, recognizing the ] as a new functional area differentiated of Ponent.<ref>. {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080513132200/http://www10.gencat.net/ptop/AppJava/cat/plans/parcials/ptapa/aprovacio_definitiva.jsp |date=13 May 2008 }}</ref> On 14 July 2010 the Catalan Parliament approved the creation of the functional area of the ].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://avui.elpunt.cat/noticia/article/3-politica/17-politica/195270.html |date=15 July 2010 |work=Avui |title=El Parlament reconeix l'àmbit funcional del Penedès}}</ref>
			Eixample aire cropped.jpg|An aerial view of ]
			La Seu d'Urgell (Torre Solsona).JPG|] from the Solsona tower
	* ]: ], ], ], ], ] and Val d'Aran.
			E5320-Vista-de-Tarragona.jpg|The city of ]
	* ]: ], Barcelonès, ], ], ] and ].
			Manresa des del mirador de la Balconada.jpg|The city of ] from the Balconada viewpoint
	* ]: ], ], ], ] and ].
			Girona des de l aire.jpg|The city of ]
	* ]: ], ], ], ], ], ] and ].
			Lleida (40262867523).jpg|The city of ] by the Segre river
	* ]: ] (8 municipalities of 33), ], ], ] and ].
			Vilanova i la Geltru.jpg|] from the city's port
	* ]: ], ], Anoia (25 municipalities of 33) and ].
			Tortosa - La Suda.jpg|The city of ]
	* ]: ], ], ], ], ] and ].
			VIELHA - VAL D'ARAN - IB-399.JPG|] from the Vielha viewpoint
	* ]: ], ], ] and ].
			</gallery>
	== Economy ==		== Economy ==
	{{Main article|Economy of Spain}}		{{Main|Economy of Spain}}
			]
	]]]		]]]
			] beach. ] plays an important role in the Catalan economy.]]
	]]]
	A highly industrialized land, the nominal ] of Catalonia in 2014 was €200 billion (the highest in Spain)<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.datosmacro.com/pib/espana-comunidades-autonomas|title=PIB de las Comunidades Autónomas 2016|access-date=13 September 2016}}</ref> and the per capita GDP was €27,000 ($30,000), behind ] (€31,000), the Basque Country (€30,000), and ] (€28,000).<ref name="ine.es">http://www.ine.es/prensa/np901.pdf</ref> In that year, the GDP growth was 1.4%.<ref name="ine.es"/> In recent years there has been a negative net relocation rate of companies based in Catalonia moving to other autonomous communities of Spain. In 2014, for example, Catalonia lost 987 companies to other parts of Spain (mainly Madrid), gaining 602 new ones from the rest of the country.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.expansion.com/economia/grafico/2015/05/04/55474c83e2704e69438b456f.html|title=Empresas: Cataluña pierde, Madrid gana|last=|first=|date=|website=|publisher=|access-date=8 May 2015}}</ref>		A highly industrialized region, the nominal ] of Catalonia in 2018 was €228{{spaces}}billion (second after the ], €230{{spaces}}billion) and the per capita{{nbsp}}GDP was €30,426 ($32,888), behind ] (€35,041), the Basque Country (€33,223), and ] (€31,389).<ref>{{Cite web|title=Comparar Comunidades Autónomas Madrid vs Cataluña 2020 |url=https://datosmacro.expansion.com/ccaa/comparar/madrid/cataluna|website=datosmacro.com|language=es|access-date=15 May 2020|archive-date=29 May 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200529020337/https://datosmacro.expansion.com/ccaa/comparar/madrid/cataluna|url-status=live}}</ref> That year, the GDP growth was 2.3%.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Catalunya mantiene el papel de locomotora de España en el 2018 |url=https://www.lavanguardia.com/economia/20190429/461934212168/cataluna-madrid-pib-crecimiento-economia.html|date=29 April 2019|website=]|language=es|access-date=15 May 2020|archive-date=19 May 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200519094559/https://www.lavanguardia.com/economia/20190429/461934212168/cataluna-madrid-pib-crecimiento-economia.html|url-status=live}}</ref>
	Catalonia's long-term credit rating is BB (Non-Investment Grade) according to ], Ba2 (Non-Investment Grade) according to ], and BBB- (Low Investment Grade) according to ].<ref>{{cite news|title=S&P mantiene la deuda de Cataluña en "bono basura"|url=http://www.expansion.com/catalunya/2015/04/17/5531492622601d6b098b456e.html|accessdate=13 August 2015|work=Expansión|publisher=Unidad Editorial|date=17 April 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Standard & Poor's degrada la calificación de Catalunya a 'bono basura'|url=http://www.lavanguardia.com/economia/20120831/54344088562/standard-poor-s-catalunya-bono-basura.html|accessdate=13 August 2015|work=La Vanguardia Economía|agency=La Vanguardia|publisher=Javier Godó|date=31 August 2012}}</ref><ref name="agency-ratings">{{cite news|title=Rating: Calificación de la deuda de las Comunidades Autónomas |url=http://www.datosmacro.com/ratings/espana-comunidades-autonomas|accessdate=14 August 2015}}</ref> Catalonia's rating is tied for worst with between 1 and 5 other autonomous communities of Spain, depending on the rating agency.<ref name="agency-ratings"/>		Catalonia's long-term credit rating is BB{{nbsp}}(Non-Investment Grade) according to ], Ba2{{nbsp}}(Non-Investment Grade) according to ], and BBB-{{nbsp}}(Low Investment Grade) according to ].<ref>{{cite news|title=S&P mantiene la deuda de Cataluña en "bono basura"|url=http://www.expansion.com/catalunya/2015/04/17/5531492622601d6b098b456e.html|access-date=13 August 2015|work=Expansión|publisher=Unidad Editorial|date=17 April 2015|archive-date=20 August 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150820021919/http://www.expansion.com/catalunya/2015/04/17/5531492622601d6b098b456e.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Standard & Poor's degrada la calificación de Catalunya a 'bono basura'|url=http://www.lavanguardia.com/economia/20120831/54344088562/standard-poor-s-catalunya-bono-basura.html|access-date=13 August 2015|work=]|agency=La Vanguardia|publisher=Javier Godó|date=31 August 2012|archive-date=3 September 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150903215156/http://www.lavanguardia.com/economia/20120831/54344088562/standard-poor-s-catalunya-bono-basura.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="agency-ratings">{{cite news|title=Rating: Calificación de la deuda de las Comunidades Autónomas|url=http://www.datosmacro.com/ratings/espana-comunidades-autonomas|access-date=14 August 2015|archive-date=21 August 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150821043546/http://www.datosmacro.com/ratings/espana-comunidades-autonomas|url-status=live}}</ref> Catalonia's rating is tied for worst with between 1 and 5 other autonomous communities of Spain, depending on the rating agency.<ref name="agency-ratings"/>
			The city of Barcelona occupies the eighth position as one of the world's best cities to live, work, research and visit in 2021, according to the report "The World's Best Cities 2021", prepared by Resonance Consultancy.<ref>{{Cite web|date=3 January 2021|title=Barcelona, la octava mejor ciudad del mundo para vivir y trabajar|url=https://www.lavanguardia.com/local/barcelona/20210103/6163911/barcelona-the-world-s-best-cities-2021-resonance-consultancy.html|access-date=3 January 2021|website=]|language=es|archive-date=3 January 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210103170328/https://www.lavanguardia.com/local/barcelona/20210103/6163911/barcelona-the-world-s-best-cities-2021-resonance-consultancy.html|url-status=live}}</ref>
	In the context of the ], Catalonia was expected to suffer a ] amounting to almost a 2% contraction of its regional GDP in 2009.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.elpais.com/articulo/economia/BBVA/descarta/economia/catalana/caiga/elpepuespcat/20090114elpepueco_7/Tes |title=BBVA no descarta que la economía catalana caiga un 2% • ELPAÍS.com |publisher=Elpais.com |accessdate=25 April 2010}}</ref> Catalonia's debt in 2012 was the highest of all Spain's autonomous communities,<ref> ] News. Retrieved 14 October 2013.</ref> reaching €13,476 million, i.e. 38% of the total debt of the 17 autonomous communities,<ref>{{cite news|author=Financial Crisis |url=http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financialcrisis/9290206/Catalonia-calls-for-help-from-central-government-to-pay-debts.html |title="Catalonia calls for help from central government to pay debts". The Telegraph |publisher=Telegraph.co.uk |accessdate=1 February 2014 |location=London |date=25 May 2012}}</ref> but in recent years its economy recovered a positive evolution and the GDP grew a 3.3% in 2015.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.ara.cat/economia/creixement-catalunya-PIB-2015-airef_0_1514848604.html|title=Catalunya va créixer un 3,3% el 2015, una dècima més que Espanya|access-date=13 September 2016}}</ref>
			According to a 2020 study by Eu-Starts-Up, the Catalan capital is one of the European bases of "reference for start-ups" and the fifth city in the world to establish one of these companies, behind London, Berlin, Paris and Amsterdam. Barcelona is behind London, New York, Paris, Moscow, Tokyo, Dubai and Singapore and ahead of Los Angeles and Madrid.<ref>{{Cite web|date=2021|title=Barcelona, considerada la octava mejor ciudad del mundo {{!}} Barcelona International Welcome {{!}} Barcelona|url=https://www.barcelona.cat/internationalwelcome/es/noticia/barcelona-considerada-la-octava-mejor-ciudad-del-mundo_1013838|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210116180530/https://www.barcelona.cat/internationalwelcome/es/noticia/barcelona-considerada-la-octava-mejor-ciudad-del-mundo_1013838|archive-date=16 January 2021|access-date=27 February 2022|website=barcelona.cat}}</ref>
	In 2011, Catalonia ranked the ]. Catalonia belongs to the organisation ].
			In the context of the ], Catalonia was expected to suffer a ] amounting to almost a 2% contraction of its regional GDP in 2009.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.elpais.com/articulo/economia/BBVA/descarta/economia/catalana/caiga/elpepuespcat/20090114elpepueco_7/Tes|title=BBVA no descarta que la economía catalana caiga un 2%|newspaper=]|date=14 January 2009|publisher=Elpais.com|access-date=25 April 2010|archive-date=3 July 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220703023014/https://elpais.com/economia/2009/01/14/actualidad/1231921979_850215.html|url-status=live}}</ref> Catalonia's debt in 2012 was the highest of all Spain's autonomous communities,<ref> ] News. Retrieved 14 October 2013.</ref> reaching €13,476{{spaces}}million, i.e. 38% of the total debt of the 17{{nbsp}}autonomous communities,<ref>{{cite news|author=Financial Crisis|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financialcrisis/9290206/Catalonia-calls-for-help-from-central-government-to-pay-debts.html|archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220110/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financialcrisis/9290206/Catalonia-calls-for-help-from-central-government-to-pay-debts.html|archive-date=10 January 2022|url-access=subscription|url-status=live|title="Catalonia calls for help from central government to pay debts".|work=Telegraph|access-date=1 February 2014|location=London|date=25 May 2012}}{{cbignore}}</ref> but in recent years its economy recovered a positive evolution and the GDP grew a 3.3% in 2015.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.ara.cat/economia/creixement-catalunya-PIB-2015-airef_0_1514848604.html|title=Catalunya va créixer un 3,3% el 2015, una dècima més que Espanya |newspaper=Ara.cat|access-date=13 September 2016|author1=Ara|archive-date=5 October 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161005114645/http://www.ara.cat/economia/creixement-catalunya-PIB-2015-airef_0_1514848604.html|url-status=live}}</ref>
	The distribution of sectors is as follows:<ref>{{cite web|url=http://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/atlas/spain/factsheets/pdf/fact_es51_en.pdf |title=Structural Funds programmes in Catalonia – (2000–2006) |format=PDF |accessdate=25 April 2010 |deadurl=yes |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20090325180143/http://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/atlas/spain/factsheets/pdf/fact_es51_en.pdf |archivedate=25 March 2009 }}</ref>
			]]]
	* ]: 3%. The amount of land devoted to agricultural use is 33%.
			], Tarragona]]
	* ]: 37% (compared to Spain's 29%)
			Catalonia is amongst the ] and is a member of the ] organisation.
	* ]: 60% (compared to Spain's 67%)
			The distribution of sectors is as follows:<ref>{{cite web|url=http://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/atlas/spain/factsheets/pdf/fact_es51_en.pdf|title=Structural Funds programmes in Catalonia – (2000–2006) |access-date=25 April 2010|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090325180143/http://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/atlas/spain/factsheets/pdf/fact_es51_en.pdf|archive-date=25 March 2009}}</ref>
	The main tourist destinations in Catalonia are the city of Barcelona, the beaches of the Costa Brava in ], the beaches of the ] and ] from ] to ] and the ] in Tarragona. In the High Pyrenees there are several ski resorts, near ]. On 1 November 2012, Catalonia started charging a tourist tax.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://costabravatouristguide.com/152-catalonia-tourist-tax-fees |title=Catalonia Tourist Tax |publisher=Costa Brava Tourist Guide |accessdate=24 June 2015}}</ref> The revenue is used to promote tourism, and to maintain and upgrade tourism-related infrastructure.
			*]: 3%. The amount of land devoted to agricultural use is 33%.
	Many ]s are based in Catalonia, with 10 of the 46 Spanish savings banks having headquarters in the region. This list includes Europe's premier savings bank, ].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.pdf.lacaixa.comunicacions.com/im/esp/199507rkg_esp.pdf |title=Ranking of Savings Banks |format=PDF |accessdate=25 April 2010 |deadurl=yes |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20081029161516/http://www.pdf.lacaixa.comunicacions.com/im/esp/199507rkg_esp.pdf |archivedate=29 October 2008 }}</ref> The first ] in Catalonia is ], ranked fourth among all Spanish private banks.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.euroinvestor.es/Stock/ShowStockInfo.aspx?StockID=555911 |title=Profile of "Banc Sabadell" in Euroinvestor |publisher=Euroinvestor.es |accessdate=6 January 2011}}</ref>
			*]: 37% (compared to Spain's 29%)
			*]: 60% (compared to Spain's 67%)
			The main tourist destinations in Catalonia are the city of Barcelona, the beaches of the Costa Brava in ], the beaches of the ] and ] from ] to ] and the ] in Tarragona. In the High Pyrenees there are several ski resorts, near ]. On 1{{nbsp}}November{{nbsp}}2012, Catalonia started charging a tourist tax.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://costabravatouristguide.com/152-catalonia-tourist-tax-fees|title=Catalonia Tourist Tax|publisher=Costa Brava Tourist Guide|access-date=24 June 2015|archive-date=26 June 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150626144939/http://costabravatouristguide.com/152-catalonia-tourist-tax-fees|url-status=live}}</ref> The revenue is used to promote tourism, and to maintain and upgrade tourism-related infrastructure.
	The stock market of Barcelona, which in 2016 had a volume of around €152 billion, is the second largest of Spain after Madrid, and ] organizes international exhibitions and congresses to do with different sectors of the economy.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.borsabcn.es/docs/BBarna/docsSubidos/DatosBasicos/factb2016.pdf|title=|last=|first=|date=|website=|archive-url=|archive-date=|dead-url=|access-date=}}</ref>
			]]]
	The main economic cost for the Catalan families is the purchase of a home. According to data from the Society of Appraisal on 31 December 2005 Catalonia is, after Madrid, the second most expensive region in Spain for housing: 3,397&nbsp;€/m² on average (see ]).
			Many of Spain's leading ]s were based in Catalonia before the ]. However, in the aftermath of the referendum, many of them moved their registered office to other parts of Spain. That includes the two biggest Catalan banks at that moment, ], which moved its office to ], and ], ranked fourth among all Spanish private banks and which moved its office to ].<ref>{{Cite web|title=CaixaBank traslada su sede a Valencia y La Fundación Bancaria La Caixa y Criteria a Palma|url=https://www.expansion.com/economia/politica/2017/10/05/59d66b8d46163f200d8b458a.html|date=5 October 2017|website=Expansión.com|language=es|access-date=15 May 2020|archive-date=19 May 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200519034451/https://www.expansion.com/economia/politica/2017/10/05/59d66b8d46163f200d8b458a.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Banco Sabadell traslada su domicilio social a Alicante|url=https://www.europapress.es/economia/finanzas-00340/noticia-sabadell-traslada-domicilio-social-alicante-20171005180329.html|date=5 October 2017|publisher=Europa Press|access-date=15 May 2020|archive-date=19 May 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200519050300/https://www.europapress.es/economia/finanzas-00340/noticia-sabadell-traslada-domicilio-social-alicante-20171005180329.html|url-status=live}}</ref> That happened after the Spanish government passed a law allowing companies to move their registered office without requiring the approval of the company's general meeting of shareholders.<ref>{{Cite web|date=2017-10-06|title=El Govern espanyol aprova un decret per facilitar la fugida d'empreses de Catalunya|url=https://beteve.cat/economia/decret-govern-espanyol-trasllat-empreses-catalunya/|access-date=2023-04-10|website=beteve.cat|language=ca|archive-date=10 April 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230410134636/https://beteve.cat/economia/decret-govern-espanyol-trasllat-empreses-catalunya/|url-status=live}}</ref> Overall, there was a negative net relocation rate of companies based in Catalonia moving to other autonomous communities of Spain. From the 2017 independence referendum until the end of 2018, for example, Catalonia lost 5454{{nbsp}}companies to other parts of Spain (mainly Madrid), 2359 only in 2018, gaining 467 new ones from the rest of the country during 2018.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Más de 5.400 empresas trasladaron su sede desde Catalunya tras la consulta del 1-O|url=https://www.elperiodico.com/es/economia/20191012/mas-de-5400-empresas-trasladaron-su-sede-desde-catalunya-desde-la-consulta-del-1-o-7678362|last=Efe|date=12 October 2019|website=elperiodico|language=es|access-date=15 May 2020|archive-date=19 May 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200519052907/https://www.elperiodico.com/es/economia/20191012/mas-de-5400-empresas-trasladaron-su-sede-desde-catalunya-desde-la-consulta-del-1-o-7678362|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Más de 5.600 empresas han huido de Cataluña en dos años|url=https://www.libremercado.com/2019-10-14/empresas-huido-cataluna-referendun-1276646261/|date=14 October 2019|website=Libre Mercado|language=es-ES|access-date=15 May 2020|archive-date=19 May 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200519052907/https://www.libremercado.com/2019-10-14/empresas-huido-cataluna-referendun-1276646261/|url-status=live}}</ref> It has been reported that the Spanish government and the Spanish King ] pressured some of the big Catalan companies to move their headquarters outside of the region.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Manté|first=Albert Martín / àlex Font|date=2018-10-05|title=L'Estat va treure milers de milions de dipòsits dels bancs catalans el 2-O|url=https://www.ara.cat/economia/treure-milers-milions-diposits-catalans_1_1196067.html|access-date=2023-04-10|website=Ara.cat|language=ca|archive-date=10 April 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230410134634/https://www.ara.cat/economia/treure-milers-milions-diposits-catalans_1_1196067.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last=Martín|first=Àlex Font Manté, Natàlia Vila, Albert|date=2018-10-06|title=Així va fer l'Estat la guerra econòmica contra Catalunya|url=https://emprenem.ara.cat/empreses/aixi-guerra-economica-contra-catalunya_1_1033187.html|access-date=2023-04-10|website=Ara.cat|language=ca|archive-date=10 April 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230410134635/https://emprenem.ara.cat/empreses/aixi-guerra-economica-contra-catalunya_1_1033187.html|url-status=live}}</ref>
			The stock market of Barcelona, which in 2016 had a volume of around €152{{spaces}}billion, is the second largest of Spain after Madrid, and ] organizes international exhibitions and congresses to do with different sectors of the economy.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.borsabcn.es/docs/BBarna/docsSubidos/DatosBasicos/factb2016.pdf|title=Fact Sheet 2016 |publisher=Barcelona Stock Exchange|access-date=21 February 2018|archive-date=7 November 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171107055735/http://www.borsabcn.es/docs/BBarna/docsSubidos/DatosBasicos/factb2016.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref>
			The main economic cost for Catalan families is the purchase of a home. According to data from the Society of Appraisal on 31{{nbsp}}December{{nbsp}}2005 Catalonia is, after Madrid, the second most expensive region in Spain for housing: 3,397{{spaces}}€/m<sup>2</sup> on average{{citation needed|date=December 2022}} (see ]).
			=== Unemployment ===
			The unemployment rate stood at 10.5% in 2019 and was lower than the national average.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/tgm/table.do?tab=table&init=1&language=de&pcode=tgs00010&plugin=1|title=Regional Unemployment by NUTS2 Region|website=Eurostat|access-date=13 November 2018|archive-date=5 November 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181105202703/https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/tgm/table.do?tab=table&init=1&language=de&pcode=tgs00010&plugin=1|url-status=live}}</ref>
			{| class="wikitable"
			|+Unemployment rate (December data) (%)
			|-
			!2006
			!2007
			!2008
			!2009
			!2010
			!2011
			!2012
			!2013
			!2014
			!2015
			!2016
			!2017
			!2018
			!2019
			|-
			|align="right"|6.6%
			|align="right"|6.5%
			|align="right"|11.8%
			|align="right"|16.9%
			|align="right"|17.9%
			|align="right"|20.4%
			|align="right"|23.8%
			|align="right"|21.9%
			|align="right"|19.9%
			|align="right"|17.7%
			|align="right"|14.9%
			|align="right"|12.6%
			|align="right"|11.8%
			|10.5%
			|}
	=== Transport ===		=== Transport ===
	==== Airports ====		==== Airports ====
	] tower]]		] tower]]
	{{See also|List of airports in Catalonia}}		{{See also|List of airports in Catalonia}}
	Airports in Catalonia are owned and operated by ] (a ] entity) except two airports in Lleida which are operated by ] (an entity belonging to the ]).		Airports in Catalonia are owned and operated by ] (a ] entity) except two airports in Lleida which are operated by ] (an entity belonging to the ]).
	* ] (BCN, Aena)		*] (Aena)
	* ] (GRO, Aena)		*] (Aena)
	* ] (REU, Aena)		*] (Aena)
	* ] (ILD, Aeroports de Catalunya)		*] (Aeroports de Catalunya)
	* ] (QSA, Aena)		*] (Aena)
	* ] (LEU, Aeroports de Catalunya)		*] (Aeroports de Catalunya)
	==== Ports ====		==== Ports ====
	{{See also|List of ports in Spain}}		{{See also|List of ports in Spain}}
			]
	Since the Middle Ages, Catalonia has been well integrated into international maritime networks. The ] (owned and operated by '']'', a Spanish Government entity) is an industrial, commercial and tourist port of worldwide importance. With 1,950,000 ] in 2015, it is the first container port in Catalonia, the third in Spain after Valencia and ] in Andalusia, the 9th in the Mediterranean Sea, the 14th in Europe and the 68th in the world. It is sixth largest cruise port in the world, the first in Europe and the Mediterranean with 2,364,292 passengers in 2014. The ports of ] (owned and operated by Puertos del Estado) in the southwest and ] near Girona at northeast are much more modest. The port of Palamós and the other ports in Catalonia (26) are operated and administered by '']'', a Catalan Government entity.
			Since the Middle Ages, Catalonia has been well integrated into international maritime networks. The ] (owned and operated by {{lang|es|]}}, a Spanish Government entity) is an industrial, commercial and tourist port of worldwide importance. With 1,950,000{{nbsp}}] in 2015, it is the first container port in Catalonia, the third in Spain after Valencia and ] in Andalusia, the 9th{{nbsp}}in the Mediterranean Sea, the 14th{{nbsp}}in Europe and the 68th{{nbsp}}in the world. It is sixth largest cruise port in the world, the first in Europe and the Mediterranean with 2,364,292{{nbsp}}passengers in 2014. The ports of ] (owned and operated by Puertos del Estado) in the southwest and ] near Girona at northeast are much more modest. The port of Palamós and the other ports in Catalonia{{nbsp}}(26) are operated and administered by {{lang|ca|{{ill|Ports de la Generalitat|ca|vertical-align=sup}}}}, a Catalan Government entity.
	The development of these infrastructures, resulting from the topography and history of the Catalan territory, responds strongly to the administrative and political organization of this autonomous community.		The development of these infrastructures, resulting from the topography and history of the Catalan territory, responds strongly to the administrative and political organization of this autonomous community.
Line 487:		Line 528:
	==== Roads ====		==== Roads ====
	{{See also|List of primary highways in Catalonia}}		{{See also|List of primary highways in Catalonia}}
	] (''Eix del Llobregat'')]]		] ({{lang|ca|Eix del Llobregat}})]]
	There are {{convert|12000|km}} of roads throughout Catalonia.		There are {{convert|12000|km}} of roads throughout Catalonia.
	The principal highways are {{Identificador carretera española|id = AP-7|colorbg = #039}} ] (''Autopista de la Mediterrània'') and {{Identificador carretera española|id = A-7|colorbg = #039}} (''Autovia de la Mediterrània''). They follow the coast from the ] to ], ] and ]. The main roads generally radiate from Barcelona. The {{Identificador carretera española|id = AP-2|colorbg = #039}} ] (''Autopista del Nord-est'') and {{Identificador carretera española|id = A-2|colorbg = #039}} (''Autovia del Nord-est'') connect inland and onward to Madrid.		The principal highways are <span style="background: #009; color: white">'''{{spaces}}AP-7{{spaces}}'''</span> ({{lang|ca|Autopista de la Mediterrània}}) and <span style="background: #009; color: white">'''{{spaces}}A-7{{spaces}}'''</span> ({{lang|ca|Autovia de la Mediterrània}}). They follow the coast from the ] to ], ] and ]. The main roads generally radiate from Barcelona. The <span style="background: #009; color: white">'''{{spaces}}AP-2{{spaces}}'''</span> ] ({{lang|ca|Autopista del Nord-est}}) and <span style="background: #009; color: white">'''{{spaces}}A-2{{spaces}}'''</span> ({{lang|ca|Autovia del Nord-est}}) connect inland and onward to Madrid.
	Other major roads are:		Other major roads are:
	{| class="wikitable"		{| class="wikitable"
	! ID !! Itinerary		! ID !! Itinerary
	|-		|-
	| {{Identificador carretera española|id = N-II|colorbg = #f00}} || Lleida-]		| {{Identificador carretera española|id = N-II|colorbg = #f00}}|| Lleida-]
	|-		|-
	| {{Identificador carretera española|id = C-12|colorbg = #f00}} || ]-]		| {{Identificador carretera española|id = C-12|colorbg = #f00}}|| ]-]
	|-		|-
	| {{Identificador carretera española|id = C-16|colorbg = #f00}} || Barcelona-]		| {{Identificador carretera española|id = C-16|colorbg = #f00}}|| Barcelona-]
	|-		|-
	| {{Identificador carretera española|id = C-17|colorbg = #f00}} ] || Barcelona-]		| {{Identificador carretera española|id = C-17|colorbg = #f00}} ]|| Barcelona-]
	|-		|-
	| {{Identificador carretera española|id = C-25|colorbg = #f00}} || ]-Girona		| {{Identificador carretera española|id = C-25|colorbg = #f00}}|| ]-Girona
	|-		|-
	| {{Identificador carretera española|id = A-26|colorbg = #039}} || ]-]		| {{Identificador carretera española|id = A-26|colorbg = #039}}|| ]-]
	|-		|-
	| {{Identificador carretera española|id = C-32|colorbg = #f00}} ] || ]-]		| {{Identificador carretera española|id = C-32|colorbg = #f00}} ]|| ]-]
	|-		|-
	| {{Identificador carretera española|id = C-60|colorbg = #f00}} ] || ]-]		| {{Identificador carretera española|id = C-60|colorbg = #f00}} ]|| ]-]
	|}		|}
	Public-own roads in Catalonia are either managed by the autonomous government of Catalonia (e.g., {{Identificador carretera española|id = C-|colorbg = #f00}} roads) or the ] (e.g., {{Identificador carretera española|id = AP-|colorbg = #039}}, {{Identificador carretera española|id = A-|colorbg = #039}}, {{Identificador carretera española|id = N-|colorbg = #f00}} roads).		Public-own roads in Catalonia are either managed by the autonomous government of Catalonia (e.g., <span style="background: red; color: white">'''{{spaces}}C-{{spaces}}'''</span> roads) or the ] (e.g., <span style="background: #009; color: white">'''{{spaces}}AP-{{spaces}}'''</span>, <span style="background: #009; color: white">'''{{spaces}}A-{{spaces}}'''</span>, <span style="background: red; color: white">'''{{spaces}}N-{{spaces}}'''</span> roads).
	==== Railways ====		==== Railways ====
	{{See also|Rail transport in Catalonia}}		{{See also|Rail transport in Catalonia}}
	] at ] ]]		] at ] ]]
	Catalonia saw the first railway construction in the ] in 1848, linking Barcelona with ]. Given the topography most lines radiate from Barcelona. The city has both suburban and inter-city services. The main east coast line runs through the province connecting with the ] (French Railways) at ] on the coast.		Catalonia saw the first railway construction in the ] in 1848, linking Barcelona with ]. Given the topography, most lines radiate from Barcelona. The city has both suburban and inter-city services. The main east coast line runs through the province connecting with the ] (French Railways) at ] on the coast.
	There are two publicly owned railway companies operating in Catalonia: the Catalan ] that operates commuter and regional services, and the Spanish national ] that operates long-distance and high-speed rail services (AVE and Avant) and the main commuter and regional service '']'', administered by the Catalan government since 2010.		There are two publicly owned railway companies operating in Catalonia: the Catalan ] that operates commuter and regional services, and the Spanish national ] that operates long-distance and high-speed rail services (AVE and Avant) and the main commuter and regional service {{lang|ca|]}}, administered by the Catalan government since 2010.
			] (]) services from ] currently reach Barcelona, via Lleida and Tarragona. The official opening between Barcelona and Madrid took place 20{{nbsp}}February{{nbsp}}2008. The journey between Barcelona and Madrid now takes about two-and-a-half hours. A connection to the ] has been completed (called the ]) and the Spanish AVE service began commercial services on the line 9{{nbsp}}January{{nbsp}}2013, later offering services to ] on their high speed network.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.railjournal.com/index.php/europe/spain-opens-iberias-high-speed-rail-link-to-europe.html|title=Spain completes Iberia's high-speed link to Europe|last=Barrow|first=Keith|access-date=24 July 2018|language=en-gb|archive-date=24 September 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924085255/http://www.railjournal.com/index.php/europe/spain-opens-iberias-high-speed-rail-link-to-europe.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name=":0">{{Cite news|url=http://www.railwaygazette.com/news/high-speed/single-view/view/high-speed-launched-between-france-and-spain.html|title=High speed services between France and Spain launched|last=Ltd|first=DVV Media International|work=]|access-date=25 July 2018|language=en|archive-date=31 March 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140331214433/http://www.railwaygazette.com/news/high-speed/single-view/view/high-speed-launched-between-france-and-spain.html|url-status=live}}</ref> This was shortly followed by the commencement of commercial service by the French TGV on 17{{nbsp}}January{{nbsp}}2013, leading to an average travel time on the ] route of 7h{{nbsp}}42m.<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.thetrainline.com/en/train-times/barcelona-to-paris|title=Barcelona to Paris from €35 in 6h29m {{!}} Times, Tickets & Info|website=]|language=en|access-date=25 July 2018|archive-date=25 July 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180725033306/https://www.thetrainline.com/en/train-times/barcelona-to-paris|url-status=live}}</ref> This new line passes through ] and ] with a ] through the Pyrenees.
	] (]) services from ] currently reach Lleida, Tarragona and Barcelona. The official opening between Barcelona and Madrid took place 20 February 2008. The journey between Barcelona and Madrid now takes about two-and-a-half hours. A connection to the French high-speed TGV network has been completed, but is awaiting the completion of stations along the route to begin passenger service in April 2013. This new line (currently the ]) passes through Girona and Figueres with a ] through the Pyrenees. There is a direct train from ] to ] along the older railway tracks.
	{{clear}}		{{clear}}
	== Demographics ==		== Demographics ==
	{{Main article|Catalan people}}		{{Main|Catalan people}}
	{{Largest cities of Catalonia}}		{{Largest cities
			| country = Catalonia
			| kind = municipalities
			| stat_ref = (2020)
			| list_by_pop = Municipalities of Catalonia
			| div_name = Comarca
			| div_link =
			| city_1 = Barcelona
			| div_1 = Barcelonès
			| pop_1 = 1,664,182
			| img_1 = 14-08-05-barcelona-RalfR-001.jpg
			| city_2 = L'Hospitalet de Llobregat
			| div_2 = Barcelonès
			| pop_2 = 269,382
			| img_2 = Hospitalet de Llobregat - Plaza de Europa, Torres Europa, Torres Porta Fira,Torre Inbisa y Torre Werfen.JPG
			| city_3 = Terrassa
			| div_3 = Vallès Occidental
			| pop_3 = 223,627
			| img_3 = Terrassa, Ajuntament, de Lluís Muncunill i altres (a partir de 1900) (14479000031).jpg
			| city_4 = Badalona| div_4 = Barcelonès| pop_4 = 223,166| img_4 = Badalona - La Rambla.jpg
			| city_5 = Sabadell| div_5 = Vallès Occidental| pop_5 = 216,590
			| city_6 = Lleida| div_6 = Segrià| pop_6 = 140,403
			| city_7 = Tarragona| div_7 = Tarragonès| pop_7 = 136,496
			| city_8 = Mataró| div_8 = Maresme| pop_8 = 129,661
			| city_9 = Santa Coloma de Gramenet| div_9 = Barcelonès|pop_9 = 120,443
			| city_10 = Reus| div_10 = Baix Camp| pop_10 = 106,168
			| city_11 = Girona| div_11 = Gironès| pop_11 = 103,369
			| city_12 = Sant Cugat del Vallès| div_12 = Vallès Occidental| pop_12 = 92,977
			| city_13 = Cornellà de Llobregat| div_13 = Baix Llobregat| pop_13 = 89,936
			| city_14 = Sant Boi de Llobregat| div_14 = Baix Llobregat| pop_14 = 84,500
			| city_15 = Rubí, Barcelona| div_15 = Vallès Occidental| pop_15 = 78,591
			| city_16 = Manresa|div_16 = Bages| pop_16 = 78,246
			| city_17 = Vilanova i la Geltrú| div_17 = Garraf| pop_17 = 67,733
			| city_18 = Castelldefels| div_18 = Baix Llobregat| pop_18 = 67,460
			| city_19 = Viladecans| div_19 = Baix Llobregat| pop_19 = 67,197
			| city_20 = El Prat de Llobregat| div_20 = Baix Llobregat| pop_20 = 65,385
			}}
	{{Historical populations		{{Historical populations
	|type =		|type =
Line 547:		Line 623:
	|2000| 6174547		|2000| 6174547
	|2010| 7462044		|2010| 7462044
	|2017| 7441176		|2021| 7749896
			|2024|8067454}}
	}}
	As of 2016, the official population of Catalonia was 7,448,332.<ref name="popcat">{{cite web|url=http://www.idescat.cat/pub/?id=aec&n=245&lang=es=Confirmar|title=Idescat. Anuari estadístic de Catalunya. Població. Províncies|work=idescat.cat}}</ref> About 1,104,782 residents had non-Spanish nationalities representing about 15% of the population.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.idescat.cat/pub/?id=aec&lang=en |title=Statistical Yearbook of Catalonia |publisher=idescat.cat |accessdate=17 June 2017}}</ref>		As of 2024, the official population of Catalonia was 8.067.454.<ref name="popcat">{{cite web |title=Idescat. Anuari estadístic de Catalunya. Població. Províncies |url=https://www.idescat.cat/novetats/?id=5041&lang=es#:~:text=La%20poblaci%C3%B3n%20de%20Catalu%C3%B1a%20a,del%20a%C3%B1o%2C%20seg%C3%BAn%20datos%20provisionales. |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151124074828/http://www.idescat.cat/pub/?id=aec&n=245&lang=es=Confirmar |archive-date=24 November 2015 |access-date=16 October 2015 |work=idescat.cat}}</ref> 1,194,947{{nbsp}}residents did not have Spanish citizenship, accounting for about 16% of the population.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.idescat.cat/pub/?id=aec&n=272&lang=es|title=Extranjeros con certificado de registro o tarjeta de residencia en vigor. Por país de nacionalidad.|publisher=idescat.cat|access-date=26 March 2019|archive-date=27 March 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190327090932/https://www.idescat.cat/pub/?id=aec&n=272&lang=es|url-status=live}}</ref>
	The ] includes 5,217,864 people and covers an area of {{convert|2,268|km2|abbr=on}}. The metropolitan area of the Urban Region includes cities such as ], ], ], ], ] and ].		The ] includes 5,217,864{{nbsp}}people and covers an area of {{convert|2268|km2|abbr=on}}. The metropolitan area of the Urban Region includes cities such as ], ], ], ], ] and ].
	In 1900, the population of Catalonia was 1,966,382 people and in 1970 it was 5,122,567.<ref name="popcat" /> The sizeable increase of the population was due to the demographic boom in Spain during the 60s and early 70s<ref>Wihtol de Wenden, Catherine. Atlas des migrations dans le monde, Réfugiés ou migrants volontaires, Alternatives Economiques, éd. Autrement, Paris, 2009.</ref> as well as in consequence of large-scale internal migration from the rural economically weak regions to its more prospering industrial cities. In Catalonia that wave of internal migration arrived from several regions of Spain, especially from ], ]<ref name="REUTCATPOP"> Reuters, 16 June 2017</ref> and ].<ref>Climent-Ferrando, Vicent. "Immigration in Catalonia: In Search of a Public Philosophy." ''Project ALIAS—Autonomy, Labour and Integration in South Tyrol (Bozen: European Academy of Bolzen/Bolzano)'' (2012).</ref>		In 1900, the population of Catalonia was 1,966,382{{nbsp}}people and in 1970 it was 5,122,567.<ref name="popcat" /> The sizeable increase of the population was due to the demographic boom in Spain during the 1960s and early 1970s<ref>]. ''Atlas des migrations dans le monde, Réfugiés ou migrants volontaires, Alternatives Economiques'', éd. Autrement, Paris, 2009.</ref> as well as in consequence of large-scale internal migration from the rural economically weak regions to its more prospering industrial cities. In Catalonia, that wave of internal migration arrived from several regions of Spain, especially from ], ]<ref name="REUTCATPOP"> {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170617195614/http://www.reuters.com/article/us-spain-catalonia-immigration-idUSKBN19711U|date=17 June 2017}} Reuters, 16 June 2017</ref> and ].<ref>Climent-Ferrando, Vicent. "Immigration in Catalonia: In Search of a Public Philosophy". ''Project ALIAS—Autonomy, Labour and Integration in South Tyrol (Bozen: European Academy of Bolzen/Bolzano)'' (2012).</ref> As of 1999, it was estimated that over 60% of Catalans descended from 20th{{nbsp}}century migrations from other parts of Spain.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Costa Pau|first=Marta|date=1 October 1999|title=Más del 60% de la población de Cataluña es fruto de los flujos inmigratorios de este siglo|language=es|work=El País|url=https://elpais.com/diario/1999/10/02/catalunya/938826452_850215.html|access-date=22 November 2021|issn=1134-6582|archive-date=21 December 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211221112337/https://elpais.com/diario/1999/10/02/catalunya/938826452_850215.html|url-status=live}}</ref>
	Immigrants from other countries settled in Catalonia in the 1990s and 2000s; a large percentage came from ] and ], and smaller numbers from ] and ], often settling in urban centers such as Barcelona and industrial areas.<ref>Kleiner-Liebau, D. "Migration and the Construction of National Identity in Spain (Frankfurt: Vervuert)." (2009).</ref>		Immigrants from other countries settled in Catalonia since the 1990s;<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Jeram|first=Sanjay|date=2017|title=Despite the crisis: The resilience of intercultural nationalism in Catalonia|doi=10.1111/imig.12323|journal=International Migration|volume=55|issue=2|pages=53–67|s2cid=151628467}}</ref> a large percentage comes from ], ] and ], and smaller numbers from ] and ], often settling in urban centers such as Barcelona and industrial areas.<ref>Kleiner-Liebau, D. "Migration and the Construction of National Identity in Spain (Frankfurt: Vervuert)". (2009).</ref> In 2017, Catalonia had 940,497{{nbsp}}foreign residents (11.9%{{nbsp}}of the total population) with non-Spanish ID cards, without including those who acquired Spanish citizenship.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.idescat.cat/pub/?id=aec&n=272&lang=es|title=Idescat. Anuario estadístico de Cataluña. Extranjeros con tarjeta de residencia. Por país de nacionalidad. Provincias|website=www.idescat.cat|access-date=26 March 2019|archive-date=27 March 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190327090932/https://www.idescat.cat/pub/?id=aec&n=272&lang=es|url-status=live}}</ref>
			{|class="table collapsible collapsed" style="float:left;"
			|+'''Foreign{{spaces}}population{{spaces}}by{{spaces}}country{{spaces}}of{{spaces}}citizenship'''{{spaces}}(2018)<ref name=ineextranjeros>{{Cite web|url=https://www.ine.es/jaxi/Tabla.htm?path=/t20/e245/p08/l0/&file=02005.px&L=0|publisher=]|access-date=5 April 2019|title=Población extranjera por Nacionalidad, comunidades, Sexo y Año.|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190426032350/http://www.ine.es/jaxi/Tabla.htm?path=%2Ft20%2Fe245%2Fp08%2Fl0%2F&file=02005.px&L=0|archive-date=26 April 2019|url-status=dead}}</ref>
			! Nationality|| Population
			|-
			|{{flagu|Romania}}|| align="right"| 119,177
			|-
			|{{flagu|Morocco}}|| align="right"| 111,192
			|-
			|{{flagu|China}}|| align = "right"| 59,380
			|-
			|{{flagu|Italy}}|| align = "right"| 55,823
			|-
			|{{flagu|Pakistan}}|| align = "right"| 45,125
			|-
			|{{flagu|Honduras}}|| align = "right"| 33,728
			|-
			|{{flagu|France}}|| align = "right"| 33,184
			|-
			|{{flagu|Bolivia}}|| align = "right"| 30,095
			|-
			|{{flagu|Colombia}}|| align = "right"| 29,853
			|-
			|{{flagu|Ecuador}}|| align = "right"| 25,749
			|-
			|{{flagu|Russia}}|| align = "right"| 24,224
			|-
			|{{flagu|India}}|| align = "right"| 23,103
			|-
			|{{flagu|Ukraine}}|| align = "right"| 22,305
			|-
			|{{flagu|Senegal}}|| align = "right"| 20,828
			|-
			|{{flagu|Peru}}|| align = "right"| 20,127
			|-
			|{{flagu|United Kingdom}}|| align = "right"| 19,445
			|-
			|{{flagu|Argentina}}|| align = "right"| 19,192
			|-
			|{{flagu|Brazil}}|| align = "right"| 18,917
			|-
			|{{flagu|Dominican Republic}}|| align = "right"| 18,620
			|-
			|{{flagu|Germany}}|| align = "right"| 18,002
			|-
			|{{flagu|Venezuela}}|| align = "right"| 16,933
			|-
			|{{flagu|Gambia}}|| align = "right"| 14,209
			|-
			|{{flagu|Paraguay}}|| align = "right"| 13,847
			|-
			|{{flagu|Portugal}}|| align = "right"| 12,491
			|-
			|{{flagu|Bulgaria}}|| align = "right"| 11,288
			|-
			|{{flagu|Algeria}}|| align = "right"| 11,273
			|-
			|{{flagu|Philippines}}|| align = "right"| 11,061
			|-
			|}
			{{clear}}
			{| class="wikitable"
			|'''Foreign Population by Nationality'''<ref>{{Cite web|title=Población extranjera por Nacionalidad, comunidades, Sexo y Año.|url=https://www.ine.es/jaxi/Datos.htm?path=/t20/e245/p08/l0/&file=02005.px|access-date=2023-07-14|website=INE|language=es-ES|archive-date=21 February 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220221082714/https://www.ine.es/jaxi/Datos.htm?path=%2Ft20%2Fe245%2Fp08%2Fl0%2F&file=02005.px|url-status=live}}</ref>
			|Number
			|%
			|-
			|2022
			|
			|
			|-
			|'''TOTAL FOREIGNERS'''
			|'''1,271,810'''
			|
			|-
			|
			|
			|
			|-
			|
			|
			|
			|-
			|EUROPE
			|401,605
			|
			|-
			|EUROPEAN UNION
			|295,896
			|
			|-
			|OTHER EUROPE
			|105,709
			|
			|-
			|AFRICA
			|324,260
			|
			|-
			|SOUTH AMERICA
			|247,821
			|
			|-
			|CENTRAL AMERICA
			|368,461
			|
			|-
			|NORTH AMERICA
			|18,332
			|
			|-
			|ASIA
			|184,846
			|
			|-
			|OCEANIA
			|1,015
			|
			|-
			|Instituto Nacional de Estadística
			|
			|
			|-
			|
			|
			|}
	=== Religion ===		=== Religion ===
	{{Main|Religion in Catalonia}}		{{Main|Religion in Catalonia}}
	{{Pie chart		{{Pie chart
	|thumb = left		|thumb = right
			|caption = Religion in Catalonia (2020):<ref name="Barometer2020"/>
	|caption = Religion in Catalonia (2014)<ref name=Barometer2014>{{cite web|title=Baròmetre sobre la religiositat i sobre la gestió de la seva diversitat|url=http://governacio.gencat.cat/web/.content/afers_religiosos/documents/Mapa_2014/Barometre2014_resultats.pdf|publisher=Institut Opiniòmetre, Generalitat de Catalunya|date=2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170926184822/http://governacio.gencat.cat/web/.content/afers_religiosos/documents/Mapa_2014/Barometre2014_resultats.pdf|archive-date=26 September 2017}} p. 30. .</ref>
	|label1 = ]		|label1 = ]
	|value1 = 52.4		|value1 = 53.0
	|color1 = DarkOrchid		|color1 = DarkOrchid
	|label2 = ]		|label2 = ]
	|value2 = 18.2		|value2 = 7.0
	|color2 = Black		|color2 = DodgerBlue
	|label3 = ]		|label3 = ]
	|value3 = 12		|value3 = 1.3
	|color3 = Honeydew		|color3 = Orchid
	|label4 = ]		|label4 = ]
	|value4 = 7.3		|value4 = 1.0
	|color4 = Green		|color4 = Turquoise
	|label5 = ]		|label5 = ]
	|value5 = 2.5		|value5 = 18.6
	|color5 = DodgerBlue		|color5 = DarkGrey
	|label6 = Other religions		|label6 = ]
	|value6 = 2.3		|value6 = 8.8
	|color6 = Red		|color6 = Honeydew
	|label7 = ]		|label7 = ]
	|value7 = 1.3		|value7 = 4.3
	|color7 = Yellow		|color7 = Green
	|label8 = ]		|label8 = Other Religions
	|value8 = 1.2		|value8 = 3.4
	|color8 = Orchid		|color8 = Red
	|label9 = ]		|label9 = No answer/do not know
	|value9 = 0.4		|value9 = 2.6
	|color9 = Turquoise		|color9 = Black
	|label10 = No answer/do not know
	|value10 = 2.4
	|color10 = Grey
	}}		}}
			Historically, all the Catalan population was ], specifically ], but since the 1980s there has been a trend of decline of Christianity. Nevertheless, according to the most recent study sponsored by the ], as of 2020, 62.3% of the Catalans identify as Christians (up from 61.9% in 2016<ref name="Barometer2016">{{cite web|url=http://premsa.gencat.cat/pres_fsvp/docs/2017/07/03/10/56/eee690bf-45d9-4db2-b84f-2c31bfab72ff.pdf|title=Baròmetre sobre la religiositat i sobre la gestió de la seva diversitat 2016 |date=2016|publisher=Institut Opiniòmetre, Generalitat de Catalunya|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181020120353/http://premsa.gencat.cat/pres_fsvp/docs/2017/07/03/10/56/eee690bf-45d9-4db2-b84f-2c31bfab72ff.pdf|archive-date=20 October 2018}} p. 30. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181020182104/http://es.opinometre.com/2016/11/03/barometre-religiositat-2016/|date=20 October 2018}}.</ref> and 56.5% in 2014<ref name="Barometer20142">{{cite web|url=http://governacio.gencat.cat/web/.content/afers_religiosos/documents/Mapa_2014/Barometre2014_resultats.pdf|title=Baròmetre sobre la religiositat i sobre la gestió de la seva diversitat|date=2014|publisher=Institut Opiniòmetre, Generalitat de Catalunya|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170926184822/http://governacio.gencat.cat/web/.content/afers_religiosos/documents/Mapa_2014/Barometre2014_resultats.pdf|archive-date=26 September 2017}} p. 30. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170927155818/http://web.gencat.cat/es/actualitat/detall/Barometre-sobre-la-religiositat-i-Mapa-religios-de-Catalunya|date=27 September 2017}}</ref>) of whom 53.0%{{nbsp}}Catholics, 7.0%{{nbsp}}] and ], 1.3%{{nbsp}}]s and 1.0%{{nbsp}}]. At the same time, 18.6% of the population identify as ], 8.8%{{nbsp}}as ], 4.3%{{nbsp}}as ], and a further 3.4% as being of other religions.<ref name="Barometer2020">{{Cite web|url=http://justicia.gencat.cat/web/.content/afers-religiosos/05_estudis/barometre/Informe-de-resultats.pdf|title=Baròmetre sobre la religiositat i sobre la gestió de la seva diversitat 2020 |publisher=Institut Opiniòmetre, Generalitat de Catalunya|language=ca|access-date=19 May 2021|archive-date=19 May 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210519141322/http://justicia.gencat.cat/web/.content/afers-religiosos/05_estudis/barometre/Informe-de-resultats.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref>
	Historically, virtually all the Catalan population was ], specifically ], but since the 1980s there has been a trend of decline of Christianity and parallel growth of ] (including stances of ] and ]) and other religions. According to the most recent study sponsored by the government of Catalonia, 56.5% of the Catalans still identify as Christians, of whom 52.4% Catholics, 2.5% ] and ], 1.2% ]s and 0.4% ]. At the same time, 18.2% of the population identify as ], 12% as ], 7.3% as ], 1.3% as ], and a further 2.3% as being of other religions.<ref name=Barometer2014/>
	=== Languages ===		=== Languages ===
	{{Main article|Languages of Catalonia}}		{{Main|Languages of Catalonia}}
	{{See also|Catalan language|Spanish language|Occitan language|Catalan Sign Language}}		{{See also|Catalan language|Spanish language|Aranese dialect|Catalan Sign Language}}
			{| cellpadding="3" cellspacing="0" rules="all" style="width:400px; float:right; margin:1em; background:#fff; border:2px solid #aaa; font-size:100%;"
			|- style="background:#ddd;"
			! colspan="4" style="text-align:center;"|'''First habitual language, 2018 Demographic Survey'''<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.idescat.cat/indicadors/?id=anuals&n=10364|title=Idescat. Demographic Survey. Població de 15 anys i més segons llengua inicial, d'identificació i habitual. Catalunya|website=www.idescat.cat|language=en|access-date=2021-02-21|archive-date=6 April 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240406183820/http://www.idescat.cat/indicadors/?id=anuals&n=10364|url-status=live}}</ref>
			|-
			| colspan="2"|'''Language'''
			|'''Identification language'''
			|'''Habitual language'''
			|-
			| colspan="2"|]
			|2 978 000 (46.6%)
			|3 104 000 (48.6%)
			|-
			| colspan="2"|]
			|2 320 000 (36.3%)
			|2 305 000 (36.1%)
			|-
			| colspan="2"|Both languages
			|440 000 (6.9%)
			|474 000 (7.4%)
			|-
			| colspan="2"|Other languages
			|651 000 (10.2%)
			|504 000 (7.9%)
			|-
			|
			|Arabic
			|114 000 (1.8%)
			|61 000 (0.9%)
			|-
			|
			|Romanian
			|58 000 (0.9%)
			|24 000 (0.4%)
			|-
			|
			|English
			|29 000 (0.5%)
			|26 000 (0.4%)
			|-
			|
			|French
			|26 000 (0.4%)
			|16 000 (0.2%)
			|-
			|
			|Berber
			|25 000 (0.4%)
			|20 000 (0.3%)
			|-
			|
			|Chinese
			|20 000 (0.3%)
			|18 000 (0.3%)
			|-
			|
			|Other languages
			|281 000 (4.4%)
			|153 000 (2.4%)
			|-
			|
			|Other combinations
			|96 000 (1.5%)
			|193 000 (3.0%)
			|-
			| colspan="2"|Total population 15 year old and over
			|6 386 000 (100.0%)
			|6 386 000 (100.0%)
			|}
	]-speaking regions of Europe]]		]-speaking regions of Europe]]
			According to the linguistic census held by the Government of Catalonia in 2013, Spanish is the most spoken language in Catalonia (46.53%{{nbsp}}claim Spanish as "their own language"), followed by ] (37.26%{{nbsp}}claim Catalan as "their own language"). In everyday use, 11.95%{{nbsp}}of the population claim to use both languages equally, whereas 45.92%{{nbsp}}mainly use Spanish and 35.54%{{nbsp}}mainly use Catalan. There is a significant difference between the ] (and, to a lesser extent, the ]), where Spanish is more spoken than Catalan, and the more rural and small town areas, where Catalan clearly prevails over Spanish.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.idescat.cat/dequavi/?TC=444&V0=15&V1=2|title=Idescat. Dades demogràfiques i de qualitat de vida|publisher=Idescat.cat|access-date=25 April 2010|archive-date=4 January 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100104072959/http://www.idescat.cat/dequavi/?TC=444&V0=15&V1=2|url-status=live}}</ref>
			Originating in the historic territory of Catalonia, ] has enjoyed special status since the approval of the ] which declares it to be "Catalonia's own language",<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.gencat.cat/generalitat/eng/estatut/titol_preliminar.htm#a6|title=Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia (Article 6)|publisher=Gencat.cat|access-date=25 April 2010|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080528011550/http://www.gencat.cat/generalitat/eng/estatut/titol_preliminar.htm#a6|archive-date=28 May 2008}}</ref> a term which signifies a language given special legal status within a Spanish territory, or which is historically spoken within a given region. The other languages with official status in Catalonia are Spanish, which has official status throughout Spain, and Aranese Occitan, which is spoken in Val d'Aran.
	According to the linguistic census held by the Government of Catalonia in 2013, Spanish is the most spoken language in Catalonia (46.53% claim Spanish as "their own language"), followed by Catalan (37.26% claim Catalan as "their own language"). In everyday use, 11.95% of the population claim to use both languages equally, whereas 45.92% mainly use Spanish and 35.54% mainly use Catalan. There is a significant difference between the ] (and, to a lesser extent, the ]), where Spanish is more spoken than Catalan, and the more rural Catalonia, where Catalan clearly prevails over Spanish.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.idescat.cat/dequavi/?TC=444&V0=15&V1=2 |title=Idescat. Dades demogràfiques i de qualitat de vida |publisher=Idescat.cat |accessdate=25 April 2010}}</ref>
	Since the ], ] (a dialect of ] ]) has also been official and subject to special protection in Val d'Aran. This small area of 7,000 inhabitants was the only place where a dialect of Occitan has received full official status. Then, on 9 August 2006, when the new Statute came into force, Occitan became official throughout Catalonia. Occitan is the mother tongue of 22.4% of the population of Val d'Aran.<ref>, cap. 8. ''La Val d’Aran''.</ref> ] is also officially recognised.<ref name="estatut_langs"/>		Since the ], ] (a ] dialect of ]) has also been official and subject to special protection in ]. This small area of 7,000{{nbsp}}inhabitants was the only place where a dialect of Occitan had received full official status. Then, on 9{{nbsp}}August{{nbsp}}2006, when the new Statute came into force, Occitan became official throughout Catalonia. Occitan is the mother tongue of 22.4% of the population of Val d'Aran, which has attracted heavy immigration from other Spanish regions to work in the service industry.<ref> {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110709132415/http://www20.gencat.cat/docs/Llengcat/Documents/Dades_territori_poblacio/Altres/Arxius/EULP2008.pdf|date=9 July 2011}}, cap. 8. ''La Val d'Aran''.</ref> ] is also officially recognised.<ref name="estatut_langs" />
			Although not considered an "official language" in the same way as Catalan, Spanish, and Occitan, the ], with about 18,000 users in Catalonia,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=csc|title=Catalan Sign Language|publisher=Ethnologue.com|date=19 February 1999|access-date=1 July 2014|archive-date=3 October 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121003051354/http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=csc|url-status=live}}</ref> is granted official recognition and support: "The public authorities shall guarantee the use of Catalan sign language and conditions of equality for deaf people who choose to use this language, which shall be the subject of education, protection and respect."<ref name="estatut_langs"/>
	Originating in the historic territory of Catalonia, Catalan has enjoyed special status since the approval of the ] which declares it to be "Catalonia's own language",<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.gencat.cat/generalitat/eng/estatut/titol_preliminar.htm#a6 |title=Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia (Article 6) |publisher=Gencat.cat |accessdate=25 April 2010 |deadurl=yes |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20080528011550/http://www.gencat.cat/generalitat/eng/estatut/titol_preliminar.htm#a6 |archivedate=28 May 2008 |df=dmy }}</ref> a term which signifies a language given special legal status within a Spanish territory, or which is historically spoken within a given region. The other languages with official status are Spanish, which has official status throughout Spain, and Aranese Occitan, which enjoys co-official status with Catalan and Spanish in the Val d'Aran.
			As was the case since the ascent of the Bourbon dynasty to the throne of Spain after the ], and with the exception of the short period of the ], under ] Catalan was banned from schools and all other official use, so that for example families were not allowed to officially register children with Catalan names.<ref>{{cite book|author=Joan Miralles i Montserrat|author2=Josep Massot i Muntaner|title=Entorn de la histáoria de la llengua|year=2001|publisher=L'Abadia de Montserrat|isbn=978-84-8415-309-2|page=72}}</ref> Although never completely banned, Catalan language publishing was severely restricted during the early 1940s, with only religious texts and small-run self-published texts being released. Some books were published clandestinely or circumvented the restrictions by showing publishing dates prior to 1936.<ref>{{cite book|author=Pelai Pagès i Blanch|title=Franquisme i repressió: la repressió franquista als països catalans 1939–1975 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OWDyyyaL7dMC&pg=PA182|access-date=6 January 2011|year=2004|publisher=Universitat de València|isbn=978-84-370-5924-2|archive-date=8 April 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220408064809/https://books.google.com/books?id=OWDyyyaL7dMC&pg=PA182|url-status=live}}</ref> This policy was changed in 1946, when restricted publishing in Catalan resumed.<ref>{{cite book|author=Pelai Pagès i Blanch|title=Franquisme i repressió: la repressió franquista als països catalans (1939–1975) |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OWDyyyaL7dMC&pg=PA182|year=2004|publisher=Universitat de València|isbn=978-84-370-5924-2|access-date=9 November 2020|archive-date=8 April 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220408064809/https://books.google.com/books?id=OWDyyyaL7dMC&pg=PA182|url-status=live}}</ref>
	Although not considered an "official language" in the same way as Catalan, Spanish, and Aranese, ], with about 18,000 users in Catalonia,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=csc |title=Catalan Sign Language |publisher=Ethnologue.com |date=19 February 1999 |accessdate=1 July 2014}}</ref> is granted official recognition and support: "The public authorities shall guarantee the use of Catalan sign language and conditions of equality for deaf people who choose to use this language, which shall be the subject of education, protection and respect."<ref name="estatut_langs"/>
			Rural–urban migration originating in other parts of Spain also reduced the social use of Catalan in urban areas and increased the use of Spanish. Lately, a similar ] phenomenon has occurred with foreign immigration. Catalan cultural activity increased in the 1960s and the teaching of Catalan began thanks to the initiative of associations such as ].
	]'' by a century]]
	Under the Franco dictatorship, Catalan was excluded from the public education system and all other official use, so that for example families were not allowed to officially register children with Catalan names.<ref>{{cite book| author = Joan Miralles i Montserrat|author2=Josep Massot i Muntaner| title = Entorn de la histáoria de la llengua| year = 2001| publisher = L'Abadia de Montserrat| isbn = 978-84-8415-309-2| page = 72 }}</ref> Although never completely banned, Catalan language publishing was severely restricted during the early 1940s, with only religious texts and small-run self-published texts being released. Some books were published clandestinely or circumvented the restrictions by showing publishing dates prior to 1936.<ref>{{cite book| author = Pelai Pagès i Blanch| title = Franquisme i repressió: la repressió franquista als països catalans 1939–1975| url = https://books.google.com/?id=OWDyyyaL7dMC&pg=PA182| accessdate = 6 January 2011| year = 2004| publisher = Universitat de València| isbn = 978-84-370-5924-2 }}</ref> This policy was changed in 1946, when unrestricted publishing in Catalan resumed.<ref>{{cite book| author = Pelai Pagès i Blanch| title = Franquisme i repressió: la repressió franquista als països catalans (1939–1975)| url = https://books.google.com/?id=OWDyyyaL7dMC&pg=PA182| year = 2004| publisher = Universitat de València| isbn = 978-84-370-5924-2 }}</ref>
			After the end of Francoist Spain, the newly established self-governing democratic institutions in Catalonia embarked on a long-term ] to recover the use of Catalan<ref>{{cite book|author=Turell, M. Teresa|title=Multilingualism in Spain: Sociolinguistic and Psycholinguistic Aspects of Linguistic Minority Groups|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=li0Fmtfxd6kC&pg=PA64|access-date=25 April 2010|year=2001|publisher=Multilingual Matters|isbn=978-1-85359-491-5|archive-date=7 April 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220407161209/https://books.google.com/books?id=li0Fmtfxd6kC&pg=PA64|url-status=live}}</ref> and has, since 1983, enforced laws which attempt to protect and extend the use of Catalan. This policy, known as the "linguistic normalisation" ({{lang|ca|normalització lingüística}} in Catalan, {{lang|es|normalización lingüística}} in Spanish) has been supported by the vast majority of Catalan political parties through the last thirty years. Some groups consider these efforts a way to discourage the use of Spanish,<ref>{{cite web|author=Parra, Belen|url=http://medios.mugak.eu/noticias/noticia/150764|title=Diario El Mundo, Spanish Only|publisher=Medios.mugak.eu|date=5 June 2008|access-date=25 April 2010|archive-date=20 July 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110720165815/http://medios.mugak.eu/noticias/noticia/150764|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.elimparcial.es/contenido/19605.html|title=Diario El Imparcial, Spanish Only|publisher=Elimparcial.es|date=26 July 2008|access-date=25 April 2010|archive-date=20 July 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090720031837/http://www.elimparcial.es/contenido/19605.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://blogs.periodistadigital.com/ultimahora.php/2006/06/17/llaman_lputo_inmigrante_espanolr_al_padr|title=Diario Periodista Digital, Spanish Only|publisher=Blogs.periodistadigital.com|access-date=25 April 2010|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090717065158/http://blogs.periodistadigital.com/ultimahora.php/2006/06/17/llaman_lputo_inmigrante_espanolr_al_padr|archive-date=17 July 2009}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://blogs.periodistadigital.com/ultimahora.php/2006/02/02/la_justicia_obliga_a_una_escuela_de_bada|title=Diario Periodista Digital, Spanish Only|publisher=Blogs.periodistadigital.com|access-date=25 April 2010|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090717060618/http://blogs.periodistadigital.com/ultimahora.php/2006/02/02/la_justicia_obliga_a_una_escuela_de_bada|archive-date=17 July 2009}}</ref> whereas some others, including the Catalan government<ref> {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080909190343/http://www.parlament.cat/activitat/dspcp/transcripcions/09_Inter_hora_castella.pdf|date=9 September 2008}} (in Calatan)</ref> and the European Union<ref>{{cite web|last1=Spongenberg|first1=Helena|title=Catalan, Basque and Galician get EU language boost|url=https://euobserver.com/political/22007|publisher=]|access-date=11 October 2017|language=en|date=4 July 2006|archive-date=12 October 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171012095005/https://euobserver.com/political/22007|url-status=live}}</ref> consider the policies respectful,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.abcdesevilla.es/hemeroteca/historico-23-11-2006/abc/Nacional/montilla-tiende-la-mano-a-ciu-en-su-investidura-porque-quiere-ser-el-presidente-de-todos_153116223549.html|title=Buscador online de noticias|last=ABCDESEVILA|work=abcdesevilla.es|date=23 November 2006}}{{Dead link|date=August 2019|bot=InternetArchiveBot|fix-attempted=yes}}</ref> or even as an example which "should be disseminated throughout the Union".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/education_culture/publ/pdf/language/highreport_en.pdf|title=High Level Group on Multilingualism – Final Report: from the Commission of the European Communities in which Catalan immersion is taken as an example which "should be disseminated throughout the Union" (p. 18).|access-date=25 April 2010|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090325180133/http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/education_culture/publ/pdf/language/highreport_en.pdf|archive-date=25 March 2009}}</ref>
	Rural–urban migration originating in other parts of Spain also reduced the social use of Catalan in urban areas and increased the use of Spanish. Lately, a similar ] phenomenon has occurred with foreign immigration. Catalan cultural activity increased in the 1960s and Catalan classes began thanks to the initiative of associations such as ].
			]}} by a century]]
	After the end of Franco's dictatorship, the newly established self-governing democratic institutions in Catalonia embarked on a long-term ] to increase the use of Catalan<ref>{{cite book| author = M. Teresa Turell| title = Multilingualism in Spain: Sociolinguistic and Psycholinguistic Aspects of Linguistic Minority Groups| url = https://books.google.com/?id=li0Fmtfxd6kC&pg=PA64| accessdate = 25 April 2010| year = 2001| publisher = Multilingual Matters| isbn = 978-1-85359-491-5 }}</ref> and has, since 1983, enforced laws which attempt to protect and extend the use of Catalan. This policy, known as the "linguistic normalisation" (''normalització lingüística'' in Catalan, ''normalización lingüística'' in Spanish) has been supported by the vast majority of Catalan political parties through the last thirty years. Some groups consider these efforts a way to discourage the use of Spanish,<ref>{{cite web |author=Belen Parra |url=http://medios.mugak.eu/noticias/noticia/150764 |title=Diario El Mundo, Spanish Only |publisher=Medios.mugak.eu |date=5 June 2008 |accessdate=25 April 2010}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.elimparcial.es/contenido/19605.html |title=Diario El Imparcial, Spanish Only |publisher=Elimparcial.es |date=26 July 2008 |accessdate=25 April 2010}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://blogs.periodistadigital.com/ultimahora.php/2006/06/17/llaman_lputo_inmigrante_espanolr_al_padr |title=Diario Periodista Digital, Spanish Only |publisher=Blogs.periodistadigital.com |accessdate=25 April 2010 |deadurl=yes |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20090717065158/http://blogs.periodistadigital.com/ultimahora.php/2006/06/17/llaman_lputo_inmigrante_espanolr_al_padr |archivedate=17 July 2009 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://blogs.periodistadigital.com/ultimahora.php/2006/02/02/la_justicia_obliga_a_una_escuela_de_bada |title=Diario Periodista Digital, Spanish Only |publisher=Blogs.periodistadigital.com |accessdate=25 April 2010 |deadurl=yes |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20090717060618/http://blogs.periodistadigital.com/ultimahora.php/2006/02/02/la_justicia_obliga_a_una_escuela_de_bada |archivedate=17 July 2009 }}</ref> whereas some others, including the Catalan government<ref> (in Calatan)</ref> and the European Union<ref>{{cite web|last1=Spongenberg|first1=Helena|title=Catalan, Basque and Galician get EU language boost|url=https://euobserver.com/political/22007|publisher=]|accessdate=11 October 2017|language=en|date=4 July 2006}}</ref> consider the policies respectful,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.abcdesevilla.es/hemeroteca/historico-23-11-2006/abc/Nacional/montilla-tiende-la-mano-a-ciu-en-su-investidura-porque-quiere-ser-el-presidente-de-todos_153116223549.html|title=Buscador online de noticias |first=|last=ABCDESEVILA|work=abcdesevilla.es}}</ref> or even as an example which "should be disseminated throughout the Union".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/education_culture/publ/pdf/language/highreport_en.pdf |title=High Level Group on Multilingualism – Final Report: from the Commission of the European Communities in which Catalan immersion is taken as an example which "should be disseminated throughout the Union" (p. 18). |format=PDF |accessdate=25 April 2010 |deadurl=yes |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20090325180133/http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/education_culture/publ/pdf/language/highreport_en.pdf |archivedate=25 March 2009 }}</ref>
	Today, Catalan is the main language of the Catalan autonomous government and the other public institutions that fall under its jurisdiction. Basic public education is given in Catalan, except for two hours per week of Spanish medium instruction. Businesses are required to display all information (e.g. menus, posters) in Catalan under penalty of fines. There is no obligation to display this information in either Occitan or Spanish, although there is no restriction on doing so in these or other languages. The use of fines was introduced in a 1997 linguistic law<ref>{{cite web |url=http://llengua.gencat.cat/permalink/78000b57-5382-11e4-8f3f-000c29cdf219 |title=Catalonia's linguistic law |publisher=gencat.cat |accessdate=16 August 2017}}</ref> that aims to increase the public use of Catalan and defend the rights of Catalan speakers.		Today, Catalan is the main language of the Catalan autonomous government and the other public institutions that fall under its jurisdiction. Basic public education is given mainly in Catalan, but also there are some hours per week of Spanish medium instruction. Although businesses are required by law to display all information (e.g. menus, posters) at least in Catalan, this not systematically enforced. There is no obligation to display this information in either Occitan or Spanish, although there is no restriction on doing so in these or other languages. The use of fines was introduced in a 1997 linguistic law<ref>{{cite web|url=http://llengua.gencat.cat/permalink/78000b57-5382-11e4-8f3f-000c29cdf219|title=Catalonia's linguistic law|publisher=gencat.cat|access-date=16 August 2017|archive-date=20 July 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160720133246/http://llengua.gencat.cat/permalink/78000b57-5382-11e4-8f3f-000c29cdf219|url-status=live}}</ref> that aims to increase the public use of Catalan and defend the rights of Catalan speakers. On the other hand, the Spanish Constitution does not recognize equal language rights for national minorities since it enshrined Spanish as the only official language of the state, the knowledge of which being compulsory. Numerous laws regarding for instance the labelling of pharmaceutical products, make in effect Spanish the only language of compulsory use.
	The law ensures that both Catalan and Spanish – being official languages – can be used by the citizens without prejudice in all public and private activities,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://llengua.gencat.cat/permalink/78000b57-5382-11e4-8f3f-000c29cdf219 |title=Second article of Catalonia's linguistic law |publisher=gencat.cat |accessdate=16 August 2017}}</ref> but primary education can only be taken in Catalan language. The Generalitat uses Catalan in its communications and notifications addressed to the general population, but citizens can also receive information from the Generalitat in Spanish if they so desire.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://llengua.gencat.cat/permalink/78000b57-5382-11e4-8f3f-000c29cdf219 |title=Ninth article of Catalonia's Linguistic Law |publisher=gencat.cat |accessdate=16 August 2017}}</ref> Debates in the Catalan Parliament take place almost exclusively in Catalan and the ] broadcasts programs only in Catalan.		The law ensures that both Catalan and Spanish – being official languages – can be used by the citizens without prejudice in all public and private activities.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://llengua.gencat.cat/permalink/78000b57-5382-11e4-8f3f-000c29cdf219|title=Second article of Catalonia's linguistic law|publisher=gencat.cat|access-date=16 August 2017|archive-date=20 July 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160720133246/http://llengua.gencat.cat/permalink/78000b57-5382-11e4-8f3f-000c29cdf219|url-status=live}}</ref> The Generalitat uses Catalan in its communications and notifications addressed to the general population, but citizens can also receive information from the Generalitat in Spanish if they so wish.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://llengua.gencat.cat/permalink/78000b57-5382-11e4-8f3f-000c29cdf219|title=Ninth article of Catalonia's Linguistic Law|publisher=gencat.cat|access-date=16 August 2017|archive-date=20 July 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160720133246/http://llengua.gencat.cat/permalink/78000b57-5382-11e4-8f3f-000c29cdf219|url-status=live}}</ref> Debates in the Catalan Parliament take place almost exclusively in Catalan and the ] broadcasts programs mainly in Catalan.
	Due to the ] which Spain in general and Catalonia in particular experienced in the first decade of the 21st century, many foreign languages are spoken in various cultural communities in Catalonia, of which ]-],<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ub.edu/cusc/revista/lsc/hemeroteca/numero8/articles/comellas.pdf |title=DESCOBRIR LES LLENGÜES DE LA IMMIGRACIÓ |publisher=University of Barcelona |accessdate=6 October 2012}}</ref> ], ]<ref>. ''Institut d'Estadística de Catalunya''. Idescat.cat</ref> and ] are the most common ones.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.europapress.es/cultura/noticia-catalunya-arabe-urdu-aparecen-lenguas-habituales-catalunya-creando-peligro-guetos-20090629150020.html |title=Árabe y urdu aparecen entre las lenguas habituales de Catalunya, creando peligro de guetos. |publisher=Europapress.es |date=29 June 2009 |accessdate=25 April 2010}}</ref>		Due to the ]{{citation needed|date=December 2022}} which Spain in general and Catalonia in particular experienced in the first decade of the 21st century, many foreign languages are spoken in various cultural communities in Catalonia, of which ]-],<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ub.edu/cusc/revista/lsc/hemeroteca/numero8/articles/comellas.pdf|title=DESCOBRIR LES LLENGÜES DE LA IMMIGRACIÓ|publisher=University of Barcelona|access-date=6 October 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121225024155/http://www.ub.edu/cusc/revista/lsc/hemeroteca/numero8/articles/comellas.pdf|archive-date=25 December 2012|url-status=dead}}</ref> ], ]<ref> {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120606142227/http://www.idescat.cat/dequavi/?TC=444&V0=15&V1=2&VA=2008&VOK=Confirmar|date=6 June 2012}}. ''Institut d'Estadística de Catalunya''. Idescat.cat</ref> and ] are the most common ones.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.europapress.es/cultura/noticia-catalunya-arabe-urdu-aparecen-lenguas-habituales-catalunya-creando-peligro-guetos-20090629150020.html|title=Árabe y urdu aparecen entre las lenguas habituales de Catalunya, creando peligro de guetos.|publisher=Europapress.es|date=29 June 2009|access-date=25 April 2010|archive-date=18 January 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120118070643/http://www.europapress.es/cultura/noticia-catalunya-arabe-urdu-aparecen-lenguas-habituales-catalunya-creando-peligro-guetos-20090629150020.html|url-status=live}}</ref>
	Recently, some of these policies have been criticised for trying to promote Catalan by imposing fines on businesses. For example, following the passage of a March 2010 law on Catalan cinema, which establishes that half of the movies shown in Catalan cinemas must be in Catalan, a general strike of 75% of the cinemas took place.<ref>{{cite web |author=Louis @ |url=http://www.cafebabel.co.uk/article/32923/catalan-cinema-dubbing-protest-law.html |title=Cinema law: rude case to not dub and subtitle all films in Catalan |publisher=Cafebabel.co.uk |date=25 March 2010 |accessdate=25 April 2010}}</ref> In Catalonia, on the other hand, there is a high social and political consensus on the language policies favoring Catalan, also among Spanish speakers and speakers of other languages.<ref name="presencia.cat">{{cite web|url=http://www.presencia.cat/noticia/article/2-societat/5-societat/349929-els-nous-catalanoparlants-a-favor-de-la-immersio-lingueistica.html |title=Presència |publisher=Presencia.cat |date=26 January 2014 |accessdate=31 January 2014}}</ref><ref name="presencia.cat"/><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.asabadell.cat/ca/notices/2010/04/els_nous_catalanoparlants_defensen_la_llengua_catalana_8694.php |title=El Blog de Antonio Sabadell - Blog Personal |website=www.asabadell.cat |access-date=13 September 2016 |deadurl=yes |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110706214434/http://www.asabadell.cat/ca/notices/2010/04/els_nous_catalanoparlants_defensen_la_llengua_catalana_8694.php |archivedate=6 July 2011 |df=dmy }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.normalitzacio.cat/noticia/index.php?sec=noticia&n=17756 |title=normalitzacio.cat |publisher=normalitzacio.cat |accessdate=31 January 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |editor=Joan Albert Argenter | title = Debat sobre la normalització lingüística: Ple de l'Institut d'Estudis Catalans (18 d'abril de 1990)| url = https://books.google.com/?id=HFGjJKrayXQC&pg=PA24| year = 1991| publisher = Institut d'Estudis Catalans| isbn = 978-84-7283-168-1| page = 24 }}</ref> The United Nations Human Rights Committee ruled in 1993 against similar policies in ] stating that "A State may choose one or more official languages but it may not exclude outside the spheres of public life, the freedom to express oneself in a certain language".<ref>, ''CBC News Online'', 30 March 2005</ref> The US government, based on its Human Rights Report,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2009/eur/136059.htm|title=Spain|access-date=13 September 2016}}</ref> questions the linguistic law<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.elmundo.es/elmundo/2010/09/23/espana/1285203016.html|title=EEUU cuestiona la política lingüística del País Vasco, Cataluña y Baleares {{!}} España {{!}} elmundo.es|last=Internet|first=Unidad Editorial|website=www.elmundo.es|access-date=13 September 2016}}</ref> and reports irregularities of the rights of the Spanish speakers in Catalonia. On the other hand, such organisations as ] reported different violations of the linguistic rights of the Catalan speakers in Catalonia and the other Catalan-speaking territories in Spain, most of them caused by the institutions of the Spanish government in these territories.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.plataforma-llengua.cat/que-fem/noticies/2252/la-plataforma-per-la-llengua-denuncia-en-un-informe-40-casos-greus-de-discriminacio-linguistica-a-les-administracions-publiques-ocorreguts-els-darrers-anys |title=La Plataforma per la Llengua denuncia en un informe 40 casos greus de discriminació lingüística a les administracions públiques ocorreguts els darrers anys |accessdate=12 June 2013}}</ref>		In Catalonia, there is a high social and political consensus on the language policies favoring Catalan, also among Spanish speakers and speakers of other languages.<ref name="presencia.cat">{{cite web|url=http://www.presencia.cat/noticia/article/2-societat/5-societat/349929-els-nous-catalanoparlants-a-favor-de-la-immersio-lingueistica.html|title=Presència|publisher=Presencia.cat|date=26 January 2014|access-date=31 January 2014|archive-date=6 July 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110706215518/http://www.presencia.cat/noticia/article/2-societat/5-societat/349929-els-nous-catalanoparlants-a-favor-de-la-immersio-lingueistica.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.asabadell.cat/ca/notices/2010/04/els_nous_catalanoparlants_defensen_la_llengua_catalana_8694.php|title=El Blog de Antonio Sabadell – Blog Personal|website=www.asabadell.cat|access-date=13 September 2016|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110706214434/http://www.asabadell.cat/ca/notices/2010/04/els_nous_catalanoparlants_defensen_la_llengua_catalana_8694.php|archive-date=6 July 2011}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.normalitzacio.cat/noticia/index.php?sec=noticia&n=17756|title=normalitzacio.cat|publisher=normalitzacio.cat|access-date=31 January 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140108191848/http://www.normalitzacio.cat/noticia/index.php?sec=noticia&n=17756|archive-date=8 January 2014|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|editor=Joan Albert Argenter|title=Debat sobre la normalització lingüística: Ple de l'Institut d'Estudis Catalans (18 d'abril de 1990) |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HFGjJKrayXQC&pg=PA24|year=1991|publisher=Institut d'Estudis Catalans|isbn=978-84-7283-168-1|page=24|access-date=9 November 2020|archive-date=8 April 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220408060707/https://books.google.com/books?id=HFGjJKrayXQC&pg=PA24|url-status=live}}</ref>{{update inline|date=September 2019}} However, some of these policies have been criticised for trying to promote Catalan by imposing fines on businesses. For example, following the passage of the law on Catalan cinema in March 2010, which established that half of the movies shown in Catalan cinemas had to be in Catalan, a general strike of 75% of the cinemas took place.<ref>{{cite web|author=Louis @|url=http://www.cafebabel.co.uk/article/32923/catalan-cinema-dubbing-protest-law.html|title=Cinema law: rude case to not dub and subtitle all films in Catalan|publisher=Cafebabel.co.uk|date=25 March 2010|access-date=25 April 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100327093159/http://www.cafebabel.co.uk/article/32923/catalan-cinema-dubbing-protest-law.html|archive-date=27 March 2010|url-status=dead}}</ref> The Catalan government gave in and dropped the clause that forced 50% of the movies to be dubbed or subtitled in Catalan before the law came to effect.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.vilaweb.cat/noticia/4204962/20140723/nova-llei-cinema-elimina-quotes-doblatge-catala.html|title=La nova llei del cinema elimina les quotes de doblatge en català|date=23 July 2014|work=VilaWeb|access-date=10 February 2019|language=ca|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190212011620/https://www.vilaweb.cat/noticia/4204962/20140723/nova-llei-cinema-elimina-quotes-doblatge-catala.html|archive-date=12 February 2019|url-status=dead}}</ref> On the other hand, organisations such as ] reported different violations of the linguistic rights of the Catalan speakers in Catalonia and the other Catalan-speaking territories in Spain, most of them caused by the institutions of the Spanish government in these territories.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.plataforma-llengua.cat/que-fem/noticies/2252/la-plataforma-per-la-llengua-denuncia-en-un-informe-40-casos-greus-de-discriminacio-linguistica-a-les-administracions-publiques-ocorreguts-els-darrers-anys|title=La Plataforma per la Llengua denuncia en un informe 40 casos greus de discriminació lingüística a les administracions públiques ocorreguts els darrers anys|date=12 June 2013|access-date=12 June 2013|archive-date=15 October 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151015213911/https://www.plataforma-llengua.cat/que-fem/noticies/2252/la-plataforma-per-la-llengua-denuncia-en-un-informe-40-casos-greus-de-discriminacio-linguistica-a-les-administracions-publiques-ocorreguts-els-darrers-anys|url-status=live}}</ref>
	In Catalonia, the Catalan language policy has been challenged by some Catalan intellectuals like ]. Since 2006, the liberal ], currently the main opposition party, has been one of the most consistent critics of the Catalan language policy within Catalonia. The local Catalan branch of the ] has a more ambiguous position on the issue: on one hand, it demands a bilingual Catalan–Spanish education and a more balanced language policy that would defend Catalan without favoring it over Spanish,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8y3yT9t_IDA |title=Alicia Sánchez-Camacho responde en 'Tengo una pregunta para usted' |publisher=YouTube |date=11 November 2010 |accessdate=31 January 2014}}</ref> whereas on the other hand, a few local PP politicians have supported in their municipalities measures privileging Catalan over Spanish<ref>{{cite web|author=Regió7 |url=http://www.regio7.cat/arreu-catalunya-espanya-mon/2010/10/28/ppc-votar-favor-dun-reglament-sobre-catala/110435.html |title=El PPC va votar a favor d´un reglament sobre el català - Regió7 :: El Diari de la Catalunya Central |publisher=Regio7.cat |accessdate=31 January 2014}}</ref> and it has defended some aspects of the official language policies, sometimes against the positions of its colleagues from other parts of Spain.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.3cat24.cat/noticia/889146/barcelones/Sanchez-Camacho-rebutja-la-postura-inicial-de-Bauza-de-derogar-la-llei-de-Normalitzacio-Linguistica-a-les-Illes-Balears |title=Sánchez-Camacho rebutja la postura inicial de Bauzá de derogar la llei de Normalització Lingüística a les Illes Balears |publisher=3cat24.cat |accessdate=31 January 2014}}</ref>		The Catalan language policy has been challenged by some political parties in the Catalan Parliament. ], currently the main opposition party, has been one of the most consistent critics of the Catalan language policy within Catalonia. The Catalan branch of the ] has a more ambiguous position on the issue: on one hand, it demands a bilingual Catalan–Spanish education and a more balanced language policy that would defend Catalan without favoring it over Spanish,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8y3yT9t_IDA|title=Alicia Sánchez-Camacho responde en 'Tengo una pregunta para usted'|publisher=YouTube|date=11 November 2010|access-date=31 January 2014|archive-date=10 March 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140310054402/http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8y3yT9t_IDA&feature=youtu.be|url-status=live}}</ref> whereas on the other hand, a few local PP politicians have supported in their municipalities measures privileging Catalan over Spanish<ref>{{cite web|author=Regió7|url=http://www.regio7.cat/arreu-catalunya-espanya-mon/2010/10/28/ppc-votar-favor-dun-reglament-sobre-catala/110435.html|title=El PPC va votar a favor d'un reglament sobre el català – Regió7. El Diari de la Catalunya Central|date=28 October 2010|publisher=Regio7.cat|access-date=31 January 2014|archive-date=8 January 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140108192201/http://www.regio7.cat/arreu-catalunya-espanya-mon/2010/10/28/ppc-votar-favor-dun-reglament-sobre-catala/110435.html|url-status=live}}</ref> and it has defended some aspects of the official language policies, sometimes against the positions of its colleagues from other parts of Spain.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.3cat24.cat/noticia/889146/barcelones/Sanchez-Camacho-rebutja-la-postura-inicial-de-Bauza-de-derogar-la-llei-de-Normalitzacio-Linguistica-a-les-Illes-Balears|title=Sánchez-Camacho rebutja la postura inicial de Bauzá de derogar la llei de Normalització Lingüística a les Illes Balears|date=9 October 2010|publisher=3cat24.cat|access-date=31 January 2014}}</ref>
	== Culture ==		== Culture ==
	=== Art and architecture ===		=== Art and architecture ===
	{{Main article|Art of Catalonia|Architecture of Catalonia}}		{{Main|Art of Catalonia}}
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	{{double image|right|Portrait of Joan Miro, Barcelona 1935 June 13.jpg|140|Antoni Gaudi 1878.jpg|130|Left: ]. Right: ]}}
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			Catalonia has given to the world many important figures in the area of the art. Catalan painters internationally known are, among others, ], ] and ]. Closely linked with the Catalan pictorial atmosphere, ] lived in Barcelona during his youth, training them as an artist and creating the movement of ]. Other important artists are ] for the medieval ] that marked the artistic Renaixença, ] for the Romanticism and Catalan Orientalism of the nineteenth century, ] or ], main representatives of the pictorial current of Catalan modernism from the end of the nineteenth century to the beginning of the twentieth century, ] for early 20th-century ], or ] for expressionist or abstract sculpture and painting of the late twentieth century.
			{{multiple image
	Catalonia has given to the world many important figures in the area of the art. Catalan painters internationally known are ], ] and ]. Closely linked with the Catalan pictorial atmosphere, ] lived in Barcelona during his youth, training them as an artist and creating the movement of ]. Other important artists are ], ] and ]. The most important painting museums of Catalonia are the Teatre-Museu Dalí, ], ], ], the ] (MNAC), the ] (MACBA), the ] (CCCB) and the ].
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			| footer = Left: {{Lang|ca|]|italic=no}}, ]. Right: ] Museum, ]
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			The most important painting museums of Catalonia are the ] in Figueres, the ] (MNAC), ], ], ], the ] (MACBA), the ] (CCCB), and the ].
			] (])]]
			In the field of architecture were developed and adapted to Catalonia different artistic styles prevalent in Europe, leaving footprints in many churches, monasteries and cathedrals, of ]<ref>Antoni Pladevall i Font: ''El Romànic català''. A ''El llibre d'or de l'art català''.</ref> (the best examples of which are located in the northern half of the territory) and ]s. The Gothic developed in Barcelona and its area of influence is known as ], with some particular characteristics. The church of ] is an example of this kind of style. During the Middle Ages, many fortified castles were built by feudal nobles to mark their powers.
			There are some examples of ] (such as the Palau de la Generalitat), ] and ]s. In the late nineteenth century ] (]) appeared as the national art. The world-renowned Catalan architects of this style are ], ] and ]. Thanks to the urban expansion of Barcelona during the last decades of the century and the first ones of the next, many buildings of the ] are modernists. In the field of ], which turned especially relevant in Catalonia during the Republican era (1931–1939) highlighting ] and Josep Torres i Clavé, members of the ] and, in contemporany architecture, ] and ].
	{{double image|right|MNAC 2010-08-01.jpg|260|20061227-Figueres Teatre-Museu Dalí MQ.jpg|240|Left: ], ]. Right: ] Museum, ]}}
	In the area of architecture were developed and adapted to Catalonia different artistic styles prevalent in Europe, leaving footprints in many churches, monasteries and cathedrals, of ]<ref>Antoni Pladevall i Font: ''El Romànic català''. A ''El llibre d'or de l'art català''.</ref> (the best examples of which are located in the northern half of the territory) and ]s. During the Middle Ages, many fortified castles were built by feudal nobles to mark their powers. There are some examples of ], ] and ]s. ] (]) in the late nineteenth century appears as the national art. The world-renowned Catalan architects of this style are ], ] and ]. In the field of ], highlighting ] and Torres Clavé and, in contemporany architecture, ].
	==== Monuments and World Heritage Sites ====		==== Monuments and World Heritage Sites ====
			], located at the foothills of the Pyrenees, in the province of Lleida]]
	], Barcelona]]
			], Barcelona]]
	There are several ] ] in Catalonia:		There are several ] ] in Catalonia:
	* Archaeological Ensemble of ], Tarragona		*Archaeological Ensemble of ], Tarragona
	* ], Lleida province		*], Lleida province
	* ], ], Tarragona province		*], ], Tarragona province
	* Works of ]:		*Works of ]:
	** ], Barcelona		**], Barcelona
	** ], Barcelona		**], Barcelona
	* ]:		*]:
	** ], Barcelona		**], Barcelona
	** ], Barcelona		**], Barcelona
	** ], Barcelona		**], Barcelona
	** ] (La Pedrera), Barcelona		**] (La Pedrera), Barcelona
	** ], Barcelona		**], Barcelona
	** ], Barcelona		**], Barcelona
	** The ], ], Barcelona province		**The ], ], Barcelona province
	=== Literature ===		=== Literature ===
	{{Main article|Literature of Catalonia}}		{{Main|Literature of Catalonia}}
			The oldest surviving literary use of the Catalan language is considered to be the religious text known as ], written either in late 11th or early 12th{{nbsp}}century.
	] ]]
			There are two historical moments of splendor of Catalan literature. The first begins with the historiographic chronicles of the 13th{{nbsp}}century (chronicles written between the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries narrating the deeds of the monarchs and leading figures of the Crown of Aragon) and the subsequent Golden Age of the 14th and 15th{{nbsp}}centuries. After that period, between the 16th and 19th{{nbsp}}centuries the Romantic ] defined this era as the {{lang|ca|]}}, considered as the "decadent" period in Catalan literature because of a general falling into disuse of the vernacular language in cultural contexts and lack of patronage among the nobility.
	Literary use of the Catalan language is considered to have started with the religious text known as ], written either in late 11th or early 12th century.
			] ]]
	There are two historical moments of splendor of Catalan literature. The first begins with the historiography chronicles of the 13th century (chronicles written between the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries narrating the deeds of the monarchs and leading figures of the Crown of Aragon) and the subsequent Golden Age of the 14th and 15th centuries. After that period, between the 16th and 19th centuries the Romantic ] defined this era as the '']'', considered as the "decadent" period in Catalan literature because of a general falling into disuse of the vernacular language in cultural contexts and lack of patronage among the nobility.
			The second moment of splendor began in the 19th{{nbsp}}century with the cultural and political {{lang|ca|]}} (Renaissance) represented by writers and poets such as ], ] (pseudonym of ]), ], ] and ]. During the 20th{{nbsp}}century, avant-garde movements developed, initiated by the Generation of '14 (called ] in Catalonia), represented by ], ], ], ], ] and others. During the dictatorship of Primo de Rivera, the Civil War (]) and the Francoist period, Catalan literature was maintained despite the repression against the Catalan language, being often produced in exile.
			] ]]
	The second moment of splendor began in the 19th century with the cultural and political '']'' (Renaissance) represented by writers and poets such as ], ], ] and ]. During the 20th century were developed the avant-garde movements represented by ], ], ] and others. During the Civil War and the Francoist period the most prominent authors were ], ] and ].
			The most outstanding authors of this period are ], ], ] (who are considered mainly responsible for the renewal of Catalan prose), ], Joan Oliver Sallarès or "]", ], ], ], ] or ]. In addition, several foreign writers who fought in the ], or other military units, have since recounted their experiences of fighting in their works, historical or fictional, with for example, ], in '']'' (1938) or ]'s ''Le Palace'' (1962) and ''Les Géorgiques'' (1981).
	After the transition to democracy (1975–1978) and the restoration of the Generalitat (1977), literary life and the editorial market have returned to normality and literary production in Catalan is being bolstered with a number of language policies intended to protect Catalan culture. Besides the aforementioned authors, other relevant 20th-century writers of the Francoist and democracy periods include ], ], ], ] or ].		After the transition to democracy (1975–1978) and the restoration of the Generalitat (1977), literary life and the editorial market have returned to normality and literary production in Catalan is being bolstered with a number of language policies intended to protect Catalan culture. Besides the aforementioned authors, other relevant 20th-century writers of the Francoist and democracy periods include ], ], ], ] or ].
			], ], ] and ] are among the most prominent Catalan writers in the Spanish language since the democratic restoration in Spain.
	=== Festivals and public holidays ===		=== Festivals and public holidays ===
	{{Main article|Traditions of Catalonia}}		{{Main|Traditions of Catalonia}}
	]		]
			])]]
			]s are one of the main manifestations of Catalan popular culture. The activity consists in constructing human towers by competing {{lang|ca|colles castelleres}} (teams). This practice originated in ], on the region of the Camp de Tarragona,<ref>{{Cite web|title=Tarragona, City of Human Towers – Tarragona Turisme|url=https://www.tarragonaturisme.cat/en/tarragona-city-human-towers|access-date=2023-03-29|website=www.tarragonaturisme.cat|archive-date=29 March 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230329184858/https://www.tarragonaturisme.cat/en/tarragona-city-human-towers|url-status=live}}</ref> during the 18th century, and later it was extended to the rest of the territory, especially in the late 20th century. The tradition of ] was declared Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity by ] in 2010.
			In main celebrations, other elements of the Catalan popular culture<ref>-Joan Prat i Jesús Contreras. Conèixer Catalunya. Les Festes Populars. Editorial Dopesa 2. 1979. 159 pp. Idioma català. {{ISBN|84-7235-438-5}}.</ref> are also usually present: parades with {{lang|ca|]}} (giants), bigheads, stick-dancers and musicians, and the {{lang|ca|]}}, where devils and monsters dance and spray showers of sparks using firecrackers. Another traditional celebration in Catalonia is {{lang|ca|]}}, declared a Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity by the ] on 25 November 2005.<ref>. {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090227050231/http://www.bergueda.com/lapatum/festa.asp|date=27 February 2009}}</ref>
	]s are one of the main manifestations of Catalan popular culture. The activity consists in constructing human towers by competing ''colles castelleres'' (teams). This practice originated in ], on the region of the Camp de Tarragona, during the 18th century, and later it was extended along the next two centuries to the rest of the territory. The tradition of ] was declared Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity by ] in 2010.
			]}} during the festa major of ] ]]
			] in Catalonia lasts two days, plus ]. On the 25th, Christmas is celebrated, followed by a similar feast on the 26, called Sant Esteve (Saint Steve's Day). This allows families to visit and dine with different sectors of the extended family or get together with friends on the second day.
	In the greater celebrations other elements of the Catalan popular culture are usually present: the parades of '']'' (giants) and '']s'' of devils and firecrackers. Another traditional celebration in Catalonia is '']'', declared Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity by ] on 25 November 2005.<ref>. {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090227050231/http://www.bergueda.com/lapatum/festa.asp |date=27 February 2009 }}</ref>
	]'' and ''capgrossos'' during the festa major of ] ]]
			One of the most deeply rooted and curious ] is the popular figure of the {{lang|ca|]}}, consisting of an (often hollow) log with a face painted on it and often two little front legs appended, usually wearing a Catalan hat and scarf. The word has nothing to do with the Spanish word ''tío'', meaning uncle. ''Tió'' means log in Catalan. The log is sometimes "found in the woods" (in an event staged for children) and then adopted and taken home, where it is fed and cared for during a month or so. On ] or on ], a game is played where children march around the house singing a song requesting the log to poop, then they hit the log with a stick, to make it poop, and lo and behold, as if through magic, it poops candy, and sometimes other small gifts. Usually, the larger or main gifts are brought by the Three Kings on 6 January, and the tió only brings small things.
	There are some local ]; one of them is the popular figure of the ], consisting in a hollow log which after few days taking care of it, during ] or on ] one orders it to defecate presents and, in order to make this, children beats the tió with sticks, while they singing various traditional songs. Another custom is to make a ''pessebre'' (Nativity scene), and usually includes the '']'', a figurine depicted in the act of defecation.<ref name="BBC News">{{cite web|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-12059969|title=A traditional Nativity scene, Catalan-style|publisher=BBC News |date=23 December 2010|accessdate=23 December 2010}}</ref>
			]
			Another custom is to make a {{lang|ca|pessebre}} (nativity scene) in the home or in shop windows, the latter sometimes competing in originality or sheer size and detail. Churches often host exhibits of numerous dioramas by nativity scene makers, or a single nativity scene they put out, and town halls generally put out a nativity scene in the central square. In Barcelona, every year, the main nativity scene is designed by different artists, and often ends up being an interesting, post-modern or conceptual and strange creation. In the home, the nativity scene often consists of strips of cork bark to represent cliffs or mountains in the background, moss as grass in the foreground, some wood chips or other as dirt, and aluminum foil for rivers and lakes. The traditional figurines often included are the three wise men on camels or horses, which are moved every day or so to go closer to the manger, a star with a long tail in the background to lead people to the spot, the annunciation with shepherds having a meal and an angel appearing (hanging from something), a washer lady washing clothes in the pond, sheep, ducks, people carrying packages on their backs, a donkey driver with a load of twigs, and atrezzo such as a starry sky, miniature towns placed in the distance, either Oriental-styled or local-looking, a bridge over the river, trees, etc.
	In addition to traditional local Catalan culture, traditions from other parts of Spain can be found as a result of migration from other regions, for instance the celebration of the Andalusian ] in Catalonia.
			One of the most astonishing and sui-generis figurines traditionally placed in the nativity scene, to the great glee of children, is the {{lang|ca|]}}, a person depicted in the act of defecating.<ref name="BBC News">{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-12059969|title=A traditional Nativity scene, Catalan-style|work=BBC News|date=23 December 2010|access-date=23 December 2010|archive-date=12 February 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190212182619/https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-12059969|url-status=live}}</ref> This figurine is hidden in some corner of the nativity scene and the game is to detect it. Of course, churches forgo this figurine, and the main nativity scene of Barcelona, for instance, likewise does not feature it. The caganer is so popular it has, together with the tió, long been a major part of the Christmas markets, where they come in the guise of your favorite politicians or other famous people, as well as the traditional figures of a Catalan farmer. People often buy a figurine of a caganer in the guise of a famous person they are actually fond of, contrary to what one would imagine, though sometimes people buy a caganer in the guise of someone they dislike, although this means they have to look at them in the home.
	On 28 July 2010, second only after the ], ]. The ban, which went into effect on 1 January 2012, had originated in a popular petition supported by over 180,000 signatures.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Tremlett|first1=Giles|title=Catalonia votes to ban bullfighting|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/jul/28/bullfighting-ban-spain-catalonia|accessdate=11 October 2017|work=]|date=28 July 2010}}</ref>
			Another (extended) Christmas tradition is the celebration of the Epiphany on 6 January, which is called ''Reis'', meaning Three Kings Day. This is every important in Catalonia and the Catalan-speaking areas, and families go to watch major parades on the eve of the Epiphany, where they can greet the kings and watch them pass by in pomp and circumstance, on floats and preceded and followed by pages, musicians, dancers, etc. They often give the kings letters with their gift requests, which are collected by the pages. On the next day, the children find the gifts the three kings brought for them.
			In addition to traditional local Catalan culture, traditions from other parts of Spain can be found as a result of migration from other regions, for instance the celebration of the Andalusian {{lang|es|]}} in Catalonia.
			On 28 July 2010, second only after the ], ]. The ban, which went into effect on 1 January 2012, had originated in a popular petition supported by over 180,000 signatures.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Tremlett|first1=Giles|title=Catalonia votes to ban bullfighting|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/jul/28/bullfighting-ban-spain-catalonia|access-date=11 October 2017|work=]|date=28 July 2010|archive-date=12 October 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171012045159/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/jul/28/bullfighting-ban-spain-catalonia|url-status=live}}</ref>
	=== Music and dance ===		=== Music and dance ===
	{{Main article|Music of Catalonia}}		{{Main|Music of Catalonia}}
	]]]		]]]
	The ] is considered the most characteristic Catalan popular dance, other groups also practice '']'', ''moixiganga'', ]s or '']'' in the southern part. The '']'' are characteristic in some marine localities of the Costa Brava, especially during the summer months when these songs are sung outdoors accompanied by a ''cremat'' of burned rum. Performances of ], mostly imported from Italy, began in the 18th century, but some native operas were written as well, including the ones by ] and ]. The Barcelona opera house, ] (opened in 1847), remains one of the most important in Spain. Cellist ] is admired as an outstanding player. Some music styles born during the 20th century are ], ], ] and ].		The ] is considered to be the most characteristic Catalan folk dance, interpreted to the rhythm of ], ] and ] (from the oboe family), ], trombó (]), fiscorn (family of bugles) and contrabaix with three strings played by a ], and are danced in a circle dance. Other tunes and dances of the traditional music are the contrapàs (obsolete today), ] (the "dance of sticks"), the moixiganga, the goigs (popular songs), the ]s or the ] in the southern part. The {{lang|ca|]}} are characteristic in some marine localities of the Costa Brava, especially during the summer months when these songs are sung outdoors accompanied by a {{lang|ca|cremat}} of burned rum.
			Art music was first developed, up to the nineteenth century and, as in much of Europe, in a liturgical setting, particularly marked by the Escolania de Montserrat. The main Western musical trends have marked these productions, medieval monodies or polyphonies, with the work of ] in the eleventh century or the compilation ] ("Red Book of Montserrat") from the fourteenth century. Through the Renaissance there were authors such as ], ] or the two ] ("The Old" and "The Young"). Baroque had composers like ]. The Romantic music was represented by composers such as ], ] (father of choir movement in Catalonia and responsible of the music folk reviving) or ].
			Modernisme also expressed in musical terms from the end of the 19th century onwards, mixing folkloric and post-romantic influences, through the works of ] and ]. The avant-garde spirit initiated by the modernists is prolonged throughout the twentieth century, thanks to the activities of the ], a choral society founded in 1891, with its monumental concert hall, the ] in Catalan, built by Lluís Domènech i Montaner from 1905 to 1908, the ] created in 1944 and composers, conductors and musicians engaged against the Francoism like ], ] and ].
			Performances of ], mostly imported from Italy, began in the 18th century, but some native operas were written as well, including the ones by ], ], ], Isaac Albéniz and Enric Granados. The Barcelona main opera house, ] (opened in 1847), remains one of the most important in Spain, hosting one of the most prestigious music schools in Barcelona, the ]. Several lyrical artists trained by this institution gained international renown during the 20th century, such as ], ], ] and ].
			Cellist ] is admired as an outstanding player. Other popular musical styles were born in the second half of the 20th century such as ] from the 1960s with ] and the group ], the ] in the 1960s with ], ] from the late 1970s with ] and ] for Punk Rock, ], ], ] or ] for ] or ] for hard rock, electropop since the 1990s with ] and ] from the 1990s.
	=== Media and cinema ===		=== Media and cinema ===
	{{Main article|Media of Catalonia|Cinema of Catalonia}}		{{Main|Cinema of Catalonia}}
			]
	Catalonia is the autonomous community, along with Madrid, that has the most media (TV, Magazines, Newspapers etc.).
			Catalonia is the autonomous community, along with Madrid, that has the most media (TV, magazines, newspapers etc.). In Catalonia there is a wide variety of local and comarcal media. With the restoration of democracy, many newspapers and magazines, until then in the hands of the Franco government, were recovered in order to convert them into free and democratic media, while local radio and television began broadcasting.
	], which broadcasts entirely in the Catalan language, is the main Catalan public TV. It has five channels: ], ]/], ], ] and ]. TV3 compete in audience with the state televisions that broadcast in Catalonia in Spanish language: ] (with few emissions in Catalan), ], ], ], and ]. Other smaller television channels include; ], Grup Godó, El Punt Avui TV, Barça TV and the local televisions, the greatest exponent of which is Barcelona TV, which also broadcasts in Catalan.		], which broadcasts entirely in the Catalan language, is the main Catalan public network. It has five channels: ], ], ], ], ] and ]. In 2018, TV3 became the first television channel to be the most viewed for nine consecutive years in Catalonia.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.ccma.cat/tv3/any-de-records-a-tv3-lider-daudiencia-per-nove-any-consecutiu-i-millor-resultat-dels-ultims-6-anys/noticia/2895171/|title=TV3 lidera l'audiència per 9è any consecutiu i té el millor resultat dels últims 6 anys|date=1 January 2019|work=CCMA|access-date=1 January 2019|language=ca|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190102002110/https://www.ccma.cat/tv3/any-de-records-a-tv3-lider-daudiencia-per-nove-any-consecutiu-i-millor-resultat-dels-ultims-6-anys/noticia/2895171/|archive-date=2 January 2019|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.ara.cat/media/TV3-estableix-nou-liderat-consecutius_0_2153784649.html|title=TV3 estableix un nou rècord: nou anys de liderat consecutius|last=Gutiérrez|first=Àlex|date=31 December 2018|work=Diari Ara|access-date=1 January 2019|language=ca|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190101002826/https://www.ara.cat/media/TV3-estableix-nou-liderat-consecutius_0_2153784649.html|archive-date=1 January 2019|url-status=dead}}</ref> State television that broadcasts in Catalonia in the Spanish language include {{Lang|es|]|italic=no}} (with few emissions in Catalan), ], ], ], and ]. Other smaller Catalan television channels include local television channels, notably ], owned by the ], and broadcast in Catalan.
	The two main Catalan newspapers of general information are '']'' and '']'', both with editions in Catalan and Spanish. Catalan only published newspapers include, '']'' and '']'' (from the fusion of '']'' and '']'' in 2011), as well as most part of the local press. The Spanish newspapers, such as '']'', '']'' or '']'', can be also acquired.		The two main Catalan newspapers of general information are '']'' and '']'', both with editions in Catalan and Spanish. Catalan only published newspapers include '']'' and '']'' (from the fusion of '']'' and '']'' in 2011), as well as most part of the local press. The Spanish newspapers, such as '']'', '']'' or '']'', can be also acquired.
			Catalonia has a long tradition of use of radio, the first regular radio broadcast in the country was from Ràdio Barcelona in 1924.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://hemeroteca.abc.es/nav/Navigate.exe/hemeroteca/madrid/abc/1974/04/24/049.html|title=ABC (Madrid) – 24/04/1974, p. 49 – ABC.es Hemeroteca |access-date=22 October 2018|website=hemeroteca.abc.es|language=es|archive-date=30 June 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180630025203/http://hemeroteca.abc.es/nav/Navigate.exe/hemeroteca/madrid/abc/1974/04/24/049.html|url-status=live}}</ref> Today, the public ] (owned by ]) and the private ] (belonging to Grup Godó) are the two main radio stations of Catalonia, both in Catalan.
	The public ] and the private ] (belonging to Grup Godó) are the two main radios of Catalonia, both in Catalan.
			] of 2009]]
			Regarding the cinema, after the democratic transition, three styles have dominated since then. First, auteur cinema, in the continuity of the ], emphasizes experimentation and form, while focusing on developing social and political themes. Worn first by ] or ], then by ], ] and ], this genre has achieved some international recognition. Then, the ] became another genre particularly representative of contemporary Catalan cinema, boosted by ] and ]. Later, horror films and thrillers have also emerged as a specialty of the Catalan film industry, thanks in particular to the vitality of the ], created in 1968. Several directors have gained worldwide renown thanks to this genre, starting with Jaume Balagueró and his series '']'' (co-directed with Valencian Paco Plaza), ] and '']'' or ] with '']'', '']'' and '']''.
			Catalan actors have shot for Spanish and international productions, such as ].
			The ] (Museu del Cinema – Col.lecció Tomàs Mallol in Catalan) of Girona is home of important permanent exhibitions of cinema and pre-cinema objects. Other important institutions for the promotion of cinema are the ] (Premis Gaudí in Catalan, which replaced from 2009 Barcelona Film Awards themselves created in 2002), serving as equivalent for Catalonia to the Spanish ] or French ].
	=== Philosophy ===		=== Philosophy ===
	{{Main article|Catalan philosophy}}
	{{See also|Seny}}		{{See also|Seny}}
	''Seny'' is a form of ancestral Catalan wisdom or sensibleness. It involves well-pondered perception of situations, level-headedness, awareness, integrity, and right action. Many Catalans consider seny something unique to their culture, is based on a set of ancestral local customs stemming from the scale of values and social norms of their society.		{{lang|ca|Seny}} is a form of ancestral Catalan wisdom or sensibleness. It involves well-pondered perception of situations, level-headedness, awareness, integrity, and right action. Many Catalans consider seny something unique to their culture, is based on a set of ancestral local customs stemming from the scale of values and social norms of their society.
	=== Sport ===		=== Sport ===
	{{Main article|Sport in Catalonia}}		{{Main|Sport in Catalonia}}
			Sport has had a distinct importance in Catalan life and culture since the beginning of the 20th century; consequently, the region has a well-developed sports infrastructure. The main sports are ], ], ], ], ] and ].
	], in Montjuïc, Barcelona]]
			Despite the fact that the most popular sports are represented at international level by the Spanish national teams, Catalonia plays as itself in some others, such as ], ] or ].<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.seleccions.cat/index.php/seleccions-reconegudes/esports-reconeguts|title=Esports reconeguts|website=www.seleccions.cat|access-date=13 September 2016|archive-date=4 November 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161104200454/http://seleccions.cat/index.php/seleccions-reconegudes/esports-reconeguts|url-status=live}}</ref> Various Catalan Sports Federations have a long tradition and some of them participated in the foundation of international sports federations, as the Catalan Federation of Rugby, that was one of the founder members of the ] (FIRA) in 1934.<ref name="fira-aer-rugby.com">{{Cite web|url=http://www.fira-aer-rugby.com/article_detail.php?article=33|title=FIRA-AER website – History|access-date=19 November 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090216142416/http://www.fira-aer-rugby.com/article_detail.php?article=33|archive-date=16 February 2009|url-status=dead}}</ref> The majority of Catalan sport federations are part of the ] (Catalan: {{lang|ca|Unió de Federacions Esportives de Catalunya}}), founded in 1933. The presence of Catalan. The presence of separate Catalan teams has caused disputes with Spanish sports institutions, as happened to ] in the ] (2004).<ref>{{cite web |last1=(TAS) |first1=Tribunal Arbitrale du Sport |title=SENTENCE ARBITRALE rendue par le TRIBUNAL ARBITRAL DU SPORT |url=http://www.tas-cas.org/fr/pdf/catalans.PDF |website=www.tas-cas.org |access-date=10 September 2024 |archive-date=19 October 2005 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051019233616/http://www.tas-cas.org/fr/pdf/catalans.PDF |url-status=dead }}</ref>
	Sport has an important incidence in Catalan life and culture since the beginning of the 20th century and, as a result, it has a well developed sport infraestructure. The main sports are ], ], ], ], ] and ]. Despite the fact that the most popular sports are represented outside by the Spanish national teams, Catalonia can officially play as itself in some others, like ], ] or ].<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.seleccions.cat/index.php/seleccions-reconegudes/esports-reconeguts|title=Esports reconeguts|website=www.seleccions.cat|access-date=13 September 2016}}</ref>
	], home of ]]]
	The ] also periodically fields a ] against international opposition, organizing friendly matches. In the recent years they have played with Bulgaria, Argentina, Brazil, Basque Country, Colombia, Nigeria, Cape Verde and Tunisia. The biggest football clubs are ] (also known as Barça), who have won five European Cups (]), and ], who have twice been runner-up of the ]. Both play in ].		The ] also periodically fields a ] against international opposition, organizing friendly matches. In the recent years they have played with Bulgaria, Argentina, Brazil, Basque Country, Colombia, Nigeria, Cape Verde and Tunisia. The biggest football clubs are ] (also known as ''Barça''), who have won five European Cups (]), and ], who have twice been runner-up of the ] (now UEFA Europa League). As of December 2024, Barça, Espanyol and ] play in the top Spanish League (]).
	The Catalan ] is one of the main powers of the Iberian Peninsula. The Catalans won triumphs in waterpolo competitions at European and world level by club (the Barcelona was champion of Europe in 1981/82 and the Catalonia in 1994/95) and national team (one gold and one silver in Olympic Games and World Championships). It also has many international ] champions.		The Catalan ] is one of the main powers of the Iberian Peninsula. The Catalans won triumphs in waterpolo competitions at European and world level by club (the Barcelona was champion of Europe in 1981/82 and the Catalonia in 1994/95) and national team (one gold and one silver in Olympic Games and World Championships). It also has many international ] champions.
	Motorsport has a long tradition in Catalonia involving many people, with some world champions and several competitions organized since the beginning of the 20th century. The ], built in 1991, is one of the main motorsport venues, holding the Catalan motorcycle Grand Prix, the Spanish F1 Grand Prix, a DTM race, and several other races.		Motorsport has a long tradition in Catalonia, which involving many people, with some world champions and several competitions organized since the beginning of the 20th century. The ], built in 1991, is one of the main motorsport venues, holding the Catalan motorcycle Grand Prix, the Spanish F1 Grand Prix, a DTM race, and several other races.
	Catalonia hosted many relevant international sport events, such as the ] in Barcelona, and also the ] or the ]. It held annually the fourth-oldest still-existing ] in the world, the ] (Tour of Catalonia).<ref>{{cite web|title=100 Anys d'Historia|url=http://www.voltacatalunya.cat/ca/història/|website=voltacatalunya.cat|accessdate=10 December 2015|language=Catalan}}</ref>		Catalonia hosted many relevant international sport events, such as the ] in Barcelona, as well as the ], the ] or the ]. It held annually the fourth-oldest still-existing ] in the world, the ] (Tour of Catalonia).<ref>{{cite web|title=100 Anys d'Historia|url=http://www.voltacatalunya.cat/ca/història/|website=voltacatalunya.cat|access-date=10 December 2015|language=ca|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170525185019/http://www.voltacatalunya.cat/ca/hist%C3%B2ria/|archive-date=25 May 2017|url-status=dead}}</ref>
			<gallery mode="packed" widths="180px" heights="180px">
			BCN-EstadiOlimpic-4860.jpg|] of ], Barcelona. At the centre, the ]
			Camp Nou - Interior (2005).jpg|], home of ]
			F1 Circuit de Catalunya - Tribuna.jpg|]
			Pep Guardiola 2.1.jpg|], one of the most successful football managers of all time, pictured while managing ]
			</gallery>
	=== Symbols ===		=== Symbols ===
	{{Main article|National symbols of Catalonia}}		{{Main|National symbols of Catalonia}}
	]]]		]]]
	Catalonia has its own representative and distinctive national symbols such as:<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.gencat.net/generalitat/eng/estatut/titol_preliminar.htm#a8 |title=Statute of Catalonia (Article 8) |publisher=Gencat.net |accessdate=25 April 2010 |deadurl=yes |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20090113100832/http://www.gencat.net/generalitat/eng/estatut/titol_preliminar.htm#a8 |archivedate=13 January 2009 |df=dmy-all }}</ref>
	* The flag of Catalonia, called the '']'', is a ] based on the heraldic emblem of ] and the ] of the Crown of Aragon, which consists of four red stripes on a golden background. It has been an official symbol since the Statute of Catalonia of 1932.
	* The ]<ref>{{cite web|url=http://noticias.juridicas.com/base_datos/CCAA/ca-l1-1980.html |title=Law 1/1980 where the Parlamient of Catalonia declares that 11th of September is the National Day of Catalonia |publisher=Noticias.juridicas.com |accessdate=25 April 2010}}</ref> is on 11 September, and it is commonly called ''la Diada''. It commemorates the 1714 ] defeat during the ].
	* The national anthem of Catalonia is '']'' and was written in its present form by Emili Guanyavents in 1899. The song is official by law from 25 February 1993.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://noticias.juridicas.com/base_datos/CCAA/ca-l1-1993.html |title=Law 1/1993 National Anthem of Catalonia |publisher=Noticias.juridicas.com |accessdate=25 April 2010}}</ref><ref> {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070926005145/http://search.boe.es/datos/imagenes/BOE/1993/074/A09308.tif |date=26 September 2007 }}</ref> It is based on the events of 1639 and 1640 during the ].
	* ] (''{{lang|ca|Diada de Sant Jordi}}'') is widely celebrated in all the towns of Catalonia on 23 April, and includes an exchange of books and roses between couples or family members.
			Catalonia has its own representative and distinctive national symbols such as:<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.gencat.net/generalitat/eng/estatut/titol_preliminar.htm#a8|title=Statute of Catalonia (Article 8)|publisher=Gencat.net|access-date=25 April 2010|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090113100832/http://www.gencat.net/generalitat/eng/estatut/titol_preliminar.htm#a8|archive-date=13 January 2009}}</ref>
	=== Cuisine ===
	{{Main article|Catalan cuisine}}
	]}}'' (bread with tomato)]]
			*The flag of Catalonia, called the {{lang|ca|]}}, is a ] based on the heraldic emblem of ] and the ] of the Crown of Aragon, which consists of four red stripes on a golden background. It has been an official symbol since the Statute of Catalonia of 1932.
	Catalan gastronomy has a long culinary tradition. Various local food recipes have been described in documents dating from the fifteenth century. As with all the cuisines of the Mediterranean, Catatonian dishes make abundant use of ], seafood, ], ] and ]. Regional specialties include the '']'' (bread with tomato), which consists of bread (sometimes toasted), and ] seasoned with olive oil and salt. Often the dish is accompanied with any number of sausages (cured ], ], iberic ham, etc.), ham or cheeses. Others dishes include the '']'', '']'', ''suquet de peix'' (fish stew), and a ], ].
			*The ]<ref>{{cite web|url=http://noticias.juridicas.com/base_datos/CCAA/ca-l1-1980.html|title=Law 1/1980 where the Parlamient of Catalonia declares that 11th of September is the National Day of Catalonia |publisher=Noticias.juridicas.com|access-date=25 April 2010|archive-date=9 June 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110609013847/http://noticias.juridicas.com/base_datos/CCAA/ca-l1-1980.html|url-status=live}}</ref> is on 11 September, and it is commonly called {{lang|ca|la Diada}}. It commemorates the 1714 ] defeat during the ].
			*The national anthem of Catalonia is {{lang|ca|]}} and was written in its present form by Emili Guanyavents in 1899. The song is official by law from 25 February 1993.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://noticias.juridicas.com/base_datos/CCAA/ca-l1-1993.html|title=Law 1/1993 National Anthem of Catalonia |publisher=Noticias.juridicas.com|access-date=25 April 2010|archive-date=9 June 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110609014232/http://noticias.juridicas.com/base_datos/CCAA/ca-l1-1993.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref> {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070926005145/http://search.boe.es/datos/imagenes/BOE/1993/074/A09308.tif|date=26 September 2007}}</ref> It is based on the events of 1639 and 1640 during the ].
			*] ({{lang|ca|Diada de Sant Jordi}}) is widely celebrated in all the towns of Catalonia on 23 April, and includes an exchange of books and roses between couples or family members.
			=== Cuisine ===
	Catalan vineyards also have several '']'' wines, such as: ], ], ] and ]. There is also a sparkling wine, the ].<ref></ref>
			{{Main|Catalan cuisine}}
			]}} (bread with tomato)]]
			Catalan gastronomy has a long culinary tradition. Various local food recipes have been described in documents dating from the fifteenth century. As with all the cuisines of the Mediterranean, Catatonian dishes make abundant use of ], seafood, ], ] and ]. Regional specialties include the {{lang|ca|]}} (bread with tomato), which consists of bread (sometimes toasted), and ] seasoned with olive oil and salt. Often the dish is accompanied with any number of sausages (cured ], ], iberic ham, etc.), ham or cheeses. Others dishes include the {{lang|ca|]}}, {{lang|ca|]}}, {{lang|ca|suquet de peix}} (fish stew), and a ], ].
	Catalonia is internationally recognized for its fine dining, including restaurants like ] or ], both of which regularly dominate international rankings of restaurants.<ref> {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140716172102/http://www.marianne.net/Meilleur-restaurant-du-monde-grand-prix-de-la-tourista-internationale_a228545.html |date=16 July 2014 }}, ], marianne.net, 30 avpil 2013</ref>
			Catalan vineyards also have several {{lang|ca|]}} wines, such as: ], ], ] and ]. There is also a sparkling wine, the ].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://cava-and-co.com/|title=Cava & Co !|date=24 October 2011|website=Cava & Co !|access-date=24 July 2021|archive-date=24 July 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210724170448/https://cava-and-co.com/|url-status=live}}</ref>
	== Image gallery ==
			Catalonia is internationally recognized for its fine dining. Three of ] are in Catalonia,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2009-04-21/news/27654601_1_chef-restaurant-magazine-signature-dishes|title=Spain's El Bulli named best restaurant in world|date=21 April 2009|work=]|location=India|access-date=30 April 2012|archive-date=8 December 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151208131151/http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2009-04-21/news/27654601_1_chef-restaurant-magazine-signature-dishes|url-status=dead}}</ref> and four restaurants have three ] stars, including restaurants like ] or ], both of which regularly dominate international rankings of restaurants.<ref> {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140716172102/http://www.marianne.net/Meilleur-restaurant-du-monde-grand-prix-de-la-tourista-internationale_a228545.html|date=16 July 2014}}, ], marianne.net, 30 avpil 2013</ref> The region has been awarded the ] title for the year 2016.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.europeanregionofgastronomy.org/platform/catalonia-2016/|title=Catalonia 2016 |author=<!--Not stated-->|website=europeanregionofgastronomy.org|publisher=International Institute of Gastronomy, Culture, Arts and Tourism|access-date=10 June 2021|quote=|archive-date=10 June 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210610133552/https://www.europeanregionofgastronomy.org/platform/catalonia-2016/|url-status=live}}</ref>
	<div class="center"><gallery caption="Catalonia gallery" mode="packed" heights="160px">
	File:Montseny1.jpg|Forest in the ]
	File:Montrebei4.jpg|], ]
	File:Vall de Ruda.jpg|Val de Ruda, ]
	File:Aigua Blava Bay.jpg|]
	File:Montserrat des del Bages.jpg|]
	File:Records de la Setmana Medieval (8726343574).jpg||] during the Medieval Week
	File:Tortosa (town view).jpg|]
	File:Park Güell 02.jpg|], Barcelona
	File:Spain PobletMonastry FrontView.jpg|]
	File:Besalú - Pont Vell 10.JPG|Old Bridge of ]
	</gallery></div>
	== Twinning and covenants ==		== Twinning and covenants ==
	* {{flagicon|MEX}} {{flagicon|Nuevo León}} ], ]<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.info7.com.mx/a/noticia/56275 |title=Firman acuerdo de colaboración gobierno de NL y Cataluña, España &#124; Info7 &#124; Nuevo León |publisher=Info7 |accessdate=13 September 2013}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://info7.mx/a/noticia/56329 |title=Firman NL y Cataluña intercambio estratégico &#124; Info7 &#124; Nuevo León |publisher=Info7.mx |accessdate=13 September 2013}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|author=José Lebeña Acebo |url=http://www.publimetro.com.mx/noticias/video-nuevo-leon-y-cataluna-tierras-hermanas/mler!BroAapUDlwndo/ |title=VIDEO: Nuevo León y Cataluña, ¿tierras hermanas? – Publimetro |publisher=Publimetro.com.mx |accessdate=13 September 2013}}</ref>		*]<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.info7.com.mx/a/noticia/56275|title=Firman acuerdo de colaboración gobierno de NL y Cataluña, España &#124; Info7 &#124; Nuevo León|publisher=Info7|access-date=13 September 2013|archive-date=8 April 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140408182625/http://www.info7.com.mx/a/noticia/56275|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://info7.mx/a/noticia/56329|title=Firman NL y Cataluña intercambio estratégico &#124; Info7 &#124; Nuevo León|publisher=Info7.mx|access-date=13 September 2013|archive-date=22 October 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131022033111/http://info7.mx/a/noticia/56329|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|author=José Lebeña Acebo|url=http://www.publimetro.com.mx/noticias/video-nuevo-leon-y-cataluna-tierras-hermanas/mler!BroAapUDlwndo/|title=VIDEO: Nuevo León y Cataluña, ¿tierras hermanas? – Publimetro|publisher=Publimetro.com.mx|access-date=13 September 2013|archive-date=26 October 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131026093843/http://www.publimetro.com.mx/noticias/video-nuevo-leon-y-cataluna-tierras-hermanas/mler!BroAapUDlwndo/|url-status=dead}}</ref>
	* {{flagicon|USA}} {{flagicon|California}} ], United States<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://soir.senate.ca.gov/scr71|title=Senate Concurrent Resolution No. 71 {{!}} Senate Office of International Relations|website=soir.senate.ca.gov|access-date=13 September 2016}}</ref>		*{{flagicon|California}} ]<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://soir.senate.ca.gov/scr71|title=Senate Concurrent Resolution No. 71 {{!}} Senate Office of International Relations|website=soir.senate.ca.gov|access-date=13 September 2016|archive-date=17 October 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161017145954/http://soir.senate.ca.gov/scr71|url-status=live}}</ref>
			*{{flagicon|Quebec}} ]<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.mrif.gouv.qc.ca/en/relations-du-quebec/europe/espagne/catalogne#introduction|title=Catalonia|website=MRIF – Ministère des Relations internationales et de la Francophonie|access-date=21 September 2018|archive-date=21 September 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180921153231/http://www.mrif.gouv.qc.ca/en/relations-du-quebec/europe/espagne/catalogne#introduction|url-status=dead}}</ref>
	* {{flagicon|CAN}} {{flagicon|Quebec}} ], ]
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	{{Portal|European Union|Spain|Catalan-speaking countries}}		{{Portal|Spain|European Union}}
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Autonomous community and nationality in Spain This article is about the Spanish autonomous community. For the historic political entity, see Principality of Catalonia. For other uses, see Catalonia (disambiguation) and Catalunya (disambiguation). Not to be confused with Cataonia or Catatonia.

Autonomous community in Spain

Catalonia Native names: Catalunya (Catalan) Cataluña (Spanish) Catalonha (Occitan)
Autonomous community
FlagCoat of arms
Anthem: Els Segadors (Catalan) ("The Reapers")
Location of Catalonia (red) in SpainCatalonia (dark green) in Spain and EuropeMap of Spain with Catalonia highlighted
Coordinates: 41°51′N 1°34′E / 41.850°N 1.567°E / 41.850; 1.567
Country	Spain
Formation	801 (County of Barcelona) 1137 (Dynastic union with Aragon) 1173 (Legal definition of Catalonia) 1516 (Dynastic union with Castile under Charles I) 1716 (Nueva Planta)
Statute(s) of Autonomy	1932 (First Statute) 1979 (Second Statute) 2006 (Third Statute – in force)
Capital (and largest city)	Barcelona
Province(s)	Barcelona Girona Lleida Tarragona
Government
• Type	Devolved government in a constitutional monarchy
• Body	Generalitat of Catalonia
• President	Salvador Illa (PSC)
Legislature	Parliament of Catalonia
General representation	Parliament of Spain
Congress seats	48 of 350 (13.7%)
Senate seats	24 of 265 (9.1%)
Area
• Total	32,113.86 km (12,399.23 sq mi)
• Rank	6th
	6.3% of Spain
Population
• Estimate	8,067,454
• Rank	2nd
Demonyms	Catalan or Catalonian  • català, -ana (ca)  • catalan, -a (oc)  • catalán, -ana (es)
Official language(s)	Catalan Spanish Occitan (Aranese) Catalan Sign language
GDP
• Rank	2nd
• Total (2022)	€255.154 billion
• Per capita	€32,550 (4th)
HDI
• HDI (2021)	0.916 (very high · 4th)
Time zone	CET (UTC+1)
• Summer (DST)	CEST (UTC+2)
Postal code prefixes	08XXX (B) 17XXX (GI) 25XXX (L) 43XXX (T)
ISO 3166 code	ES-CT
Telephone code(s)	+34 93 (Barcelona area) +34 97 (rest of Catalonia)
Currency	Euro (€)
Official holiday	September 11
Patron saint(s)	Saint George Virgin of Montserrat
Website	gencat.cat

Catalonia (/ˌkætəˈloʊniə/; Catalan: Catalunya [kətəˈluɲə] ; Spanish: Cataluña [kataˈluɲa] ; Occitan: Catalonha [kataˈluɲa]) is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a nationality by its Statute of Autonomy. Most of its territory (except the Val d'Aran) is situated on the northeast of the Iberian Peninsula, to the south of the Pyrenees mountain range. Catalonia is administratively divided into four provinces or eight vegueries (regions), which are in turn divided into 42 comarques. The capital and largest city, Barcelona, is the second-most populous municipality in Spain and the fifth-most populous urban area in the European Union.

Modern-day Catalonia comprises most of the medieval and early modern Principality of Catalonia (with the remainder northern area now part of France's Pyrénées-Orientales). It is bordered by France (Occitanie) and Andorra to the north, the Mediterranean Sea to the east, and the Spanish autonomous communities of Aragon to the west and Valencia to the south. In addition to about 580 km of coastline, Catalonia also has major high landforms such as the Pyrenees and the Pre-Pyrenees, the Transversal Range (Serralada Transversal) or the Central Depression. The official languages are Catalan, Spanish and the Aranese dialect of Occitan.

In the late 8th century, various counties across the eastern Pyrenees were established by the Frankish kingdom as a defensive barrier against Muslim invasions. In the 10th century, the County of Barcelona became progressively independent. In 1137, Barcelona and the Kingdom of Aragon were united by marriage, resulting in a composite monarchy known as the Crown of Aragon. Within the Crown, the Catalan counties merged in to a polity, the Principality of Catalonia, developing its own institutional system, such as Catalan Courts, Generalitat and constitutions, becoming the base and promoter for the Crown's Mediterranean trade and expansionism. In the later Middle Ages, Catalan literature flourished. In 1469, the monarchs of the crowns of Aragon and Castile were married and ruled their realms together, retaining all of their distinct institutions and legislation.

During the Franco-Spanish War (1635–1659), the Principality of Catalonia revolted (1640–1652) against a burdensome presence of the royal army, being briefly established as a republic under French protection. By the Treaty of the Pyrenees (1659), the northern parts of Catalonia, mostly the Roussillon, were ceded to France. During the War of the Spanish Succession (1701–1714), the Crown of Aragon sided against the Bourbon Philip V of Spain, but after the Peace of Utrecht (1713) the Catalans were defeated with the capitulation of Barcelona on 11 September 1714. Philip V subsequently imposed a unifying administration across Spain, enacting the Nueva Planta decrees which, like in the other realms of the Crown of Aragon, suppressed Catalan institutions and legislation. As a consequence, Catalan as a language of government and literature was eclipsed by Spanish.

In the 19th century, Catalonia was severely affected by the Napoleonic and Carlist Wars. In the second third of the century, it experienced industrialisation. As wealth from the industrial expansion grew, it saw a cultural renaissance coupled with incipient nationalism while several workers' movements appeared. The establishment of the Second Spanish Republic (1931–1939) granted self-governance to Catalonia, being restored the Generalitat as the autonomous government. After the Spanish Civil War, the Francoist dictatorship enacted repressive measures, abolishing Catalan self-government and banning the official use of the Catalan language. After a period of autarky, from the late 1950s through to the 1970s Catalonia saw rapid economic growth, drawing many workers from across Spain, making Barcelona one of Europe's largest industrial metropolitan areas and turning Catalonia into a major tourist destination. During the Spanish transition to democracy (1975–1982), the Generalitat was reestablished and Catalonia regained self-government, remaining one of the most economically dynamic communities in Spain.

In the 2010s, there was growing support for Catalan independence. On 27 October 2017, the Catalan Parliament unilaterally declared independence following a referendum that was deemed unconstitutional by the Spanish state. The Spanish Senate voted in favour of enforcing direct rule by removing the Catalan government and calling a snap regional election. The Spanish Supreme Court imprisoned seven former ministers of the Catalan government on charges of rebellion and misuse of public funds, while several others—including then-President Carles Puigdemont—fled to other European countries. Those in prison were pardoned by the Spanish government in 2021.

Etymology and pronunciation

The name "Catalonia" (Medieval Latin: Cathalaunia), spelled Cathalonia, began to be used for the homeland of the Catalans (Cathalanenses) in the late 11th century and was probably used before as a territorial reference to the group of counties that comprised part of the March of Gothia and the March of Hispania under the control of the Count of Barcelona and his relatives. The origin of the name Catalunya is subject to diverse interpretations because of a lack of evidence.

One theory suggests that Catalunya derives from the name Gothia (or Gauthia) Launia ("Land of the Goths"), since the origins of the Catalan counts, lords and people were found in the March of Gothia, known as Gothia, whence Gothland > Gothlandia > Gothalania > Cathalaunia > Catalonia theoretically derived. During the Middle Ages, Byzantine chroniclers claimed that Catalania derives from the local medley of Goths with Alans, initially constituting a Goth-Alania.

Other theories suggest:

• Catalunya derives from the term "land of castles", having evolved from the term castlà or castlan, the medieval term for a castellan (a ruler of a castle). This theory therefore suggests that the names Catalunya and Castile have a common root.
• The source is the Celtic catalauni, meaning "chiefs of battle", similar to the Celtic given name *Katuwalos; although the area is not known to have been occupied by the Celtiberians, a Celtic culture was present within the interior of the Iberian Peninsula in pre-Roman times.
• The Lacetani, an Iberian tribe that lived in the area and whose name, due to the Roman influence, could have evolved by metathesis to Katelans and then Catalans.
• Miguel Vidal, finding serious shortcomings with earlier proposals (such as that an original -t- would have, by normal sound laws in the local Romance languages, developed into -d-), suggested an Arabic etymology: qattāl (‏قتال‎, pl. qattālūn قتالون) – meaning "killer" – could have been applied by Muslims to groups of raiders and bandits on the southern border of the Marca Hispanica. The name, originally derogatory, could have been reappropriated by Christians as an autonym. This is comparable to attested development of the term Almogavar in nearby areas. In this model, the name Catalunya derives from the plural qattālūn while the adjective and language name català derives from the singular qattāl, both with the addition of common Romance suffixes.

In English, Catalonia is pronounced /kætəˈloʊniə/. The native name, Catalunya, is pronounced [kətəˈluɲə] in Central Catalan, the most widely spoken variety, and [kataˈluɲa] in North-Western Catalan. The Spanish name is Cataluña ([kataˈluɲa]), and the Aranese name is Catalonha ([kataˈluɲa]).

History

Main article: History of Catalonia For a chronological guide, see Timeline of Catalan history.

Prehistory

The first known human settlements in what is now Catalonia were at the beginning of the Middle Paleolithic. The oldest known trace of human occupation is a mandible found in Banyoles, described by some sources as pre-Neanderthal, that is, some 200,000 years old; other sources suggest it to be only about one third that old. From the next prehistoric era, the Epipalaeolithic or Mesolithic, important remains survive, the greater part dated between 8000 and 5000 BC, such as those of Sant Gregori (Falset) and el Filador (Margalef de Montsant). The most important sites from these eras, all excavated in the region of Moianès, are the Balma del Gai (Epipaleolithic) and the Balma de l'Espluga (late Epipaleolithic and Early Neolithic).

The Neolithic era began in Catalonia around 5000 BC, although the population was slower to develop fixed settlements than in other places, thanks to the abundance of woods, which allowed the continuation of a fundamentally hunter-gatherer culture. An example of such settlements would be La Draga at Banyoles, an "early Neolithic village which dates from the end of the 6th millennium BC."

The Chalcolithic period developed in Catalonia between 2500 and 1800 BC, with the beginning of the construction of copper objects. The Bronze Age occurred between 1800 and 700 BC. There are few remnants of this era, but there were some known settlements in the low Segre zone. The Bronze Age coincided with the arrival of the Indo-Europeans through the Urnfield Culture, whose successive waves of migration began around 1200 BC, and they were responsible for the creation of the first proto-urban settlements. Around the middle of the 7th century BC, the Iron Age arrived in Catalonia.

Pre-Roman and Roman period

In pre-Roman times, the area that is now called Catalonia in the north-east of Iberian Peninsula – like the rest of the Mediterranean side of the peninsula – was populated by the Iberians. The Iberians of this area – the Ilergetes, Indigetes and Lacetani (Cerretains) – also maintained relations with the peoples of the Mediterranean. Some urban agglomerations became relevant, including Ilerda (Lleida) inland, Hibera (perhaps Amposta or Tortosa) or Indika (Ullastret). Coastal trading colonies were established by the ancient Greeks, who settled around the Gulf of Roses, in Emporion (Empúries) and Roses in the 8th century BC. The Carthaginians briefly ruled the territory in the course of the Second Punic War and traded with the surrounding Iberian population.

After the Carthaginian defeat by the Roman Republic, the north-east of Iberia became the first to come under Roman rule and became part of Hispania, the westernmost part of the Roman Empire. Tarraco (modern Tarragona) was one of the most important Roman cities in Hispania and the capital of the province of Tarraconensis. Other important cities of the Roman period are Ilerda (Lleida), Dertosa (Tortosa), Gerunda (Girona) as well as the ports of Empuriæ (former Emporion) and Barcino (Barcelona). As for the rest of Hispania, Latin law was granted to all cities under the reign of Vespasian (69–79 AD), while Roman citizenship was granted to all free men of the empire by the Edict of Caracalla in 212 AD (Tarraco, the capital, was already a colony of Roman law since 45 BC). It was a rich agricultural province (olive oil, wine, wheat), and the first centuries of the Empire saw the construction of roads (the most important being the Via Augusta, parallel to Mediterranean coastline) and infrastructure like aqueducts.

Conversion to Christianity, attested in the 3rd century, was completed in urban areas in the 4th century. Although Hispania remained under Roman rule and did not fall under the rule of Vandals, Suebi and Alans in the 5th century, the main cities suffered frequent sacking and some deurbanization.

Middle Ages

After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, the area was conquered by the Visigoths and was ruled as part of the Visigothic Kingdom for almost two and a half centuries. In 718, it came under Muslim control and became part of Al-Andalus, a province of the Umayyad Caliphate. From the conquest of Roussillon in 760, to the conquest of Barcelona in 801, the Frankish empire took control of the area between Septimania and the Llobregat river from the Muslims and created heavily militarised, self-governing counties. These counties formed part of the historiographically known as the Gothic and Hispanic Marches, a buffer zone in the south of the Frankish Empire in the former province of Septimania and in the northeast of the Iberian Peninsula, to act as a defensive barrier for the Frankish Empire against further Muslim invasions from Al-Andalus.

These counties came under the rule of the counts of Barcelona, who were Frankish vassals nominated by the emperor of the Franks, to whom they were feudatories (801–988). The earliest known use of the name "Catalonia" for these counties dates to 1117. At the end of the 9th century, the Count of Barcelona Wilfred the Hairy (878–897) made his titles hereditaries and thus founded the dynasty of the House of Barcelona, which reigned in Catalonia until 1410.

In 988 Borrell II, Count of Barcelona, did not recognise the new French king Hugh Capet as his king, evidencing the loss of dependency from Frankish rule and confirming his successors (from Ramon Borrell I onwards) as independent of the Capetian crown whom they regarded as usurpers of the Carolingian Frankish realm. At the beginning of eleventh century the Catalan counties experienced an important process of feudalisation, however, the efforts of church's sponsored Peace and Truce Assemblies and the intervention of Ramon Berenguer I, count of Barcelona (1035–1076) in the negotiations with the rebel nobility resulted in the partial restoration of the comital authority under the new feudal order. To fulfill that purpose, Ramon Berenguer began the modification of the legislation in the written Usages of Barcelona, being one of the first European compilations of feudal law.

In 1137, Ramon Berenguer IV, Count of Barcelona decided to accept King Ramiro II of Aragon's proposal to receive the Kingdom of Aragon and to marry his daughter Petronila, establishing the dynastic union of the County of Barcelona with Aragon, creating a composite monarchy later known as the Crown of Aragon and making the Catalan counties that were vassalized or merged with the County of Barcelona into a principality of the Aragonese Crown. During the reign of his son Alphons, in 1173, Catalonia was regarded as a legal entity for the first time, while the Usages of Barcelona were compiled in the process to turn them into the law and custom of Catalonia (Consuetudinem Cathalonie), being considered one of the "milestones of Catalan political identity".

In 1258, by means of the Treaty of Corbeil, James I of Aragon King of Aragon and Count of Barcelona, king of Mallorca and of Valencia, renounced his family rights and dominions in Occitania, while the king of France, Louis IX, formally relinquished to any historical claim of feudal lordship he might have over the Catalan counties, except the County of Foix, despite the opposition of king James. This treaty confirmed, from French point of view, the independence of the Catalan counties established and exercised during the previous three centuries, but also meant the irremediable separation between the geographical areas of Catalonia and Languedoc.

As a coastal territory, Catalonia became the base of the Aragonese Crown's maritime forces, which spread the power of the Crown in the Mediterranean, turning Barcelona into a powerful and wealthy city. In the period of 1164–1410, new territories, the Kingdom of Valencia, the Kingdom of Majorca, the Kingdom of Sardinia, the Kingdom of Sicily, and, briefly, the Duchies of Athens and Neopatras, were incorporated into the dynastic domains of the House of Aragon. The expansion was accompanied by a great development of the Catalan trade, creating an extensive trade network across the Mediterranean which competed with those of the maritime republics of Genoa and Venice.

At the same time, the Principality of Catalonia developed a complex institutional and political system based in the concept of a pact between the estates of the realm and the king. The legislation of Catalonia had to be passed the Catalan Courts (Corts Catalanes), one of the first parliamentary bodies of Europe that, since 1283, obtained the power to legislate with the monarch. The Courts were composed of the three Estates organized into "arms" (braços), were presided over by the monarch, and approved the Catalan constitutions, which established a compilation of rights for the inhabitants of the Principality. In order to collect general taxes, the Catalan Courts of 1359 established a permanent representative body, known as the "Deputation of the General" or Generalitat, which gained considerable political power over the next centuries.

The domains of the Aragonese Crown were severely affected by the Black Death pandemic and by later outbreaks of the plague. Between 1347 and 1497 Catalonia lost 37 percent of its population. In 1410, the last reigning monarch of the House of Barcelona, King Martin I died without surviving descendants. Under the Compromise of Caspe (1412), the representatives of the kingdoms of Aragon, Valencia and the Principality of Catalonia appointed Ferdinand from the Castilian House of Trastámara as King of the Crown of Aragon. During the reign of his son, John II, the persistent economic crisis and social and political tensions in the Principality led to the Catalan Civil War (1462–1472) and the War of the Remences (1462–1486) that left Catalonia exhausted. The Sentencia Arbitral de Guadalupe (1486) liberated the remença peasants from the feudal evil customs.

In the later Middle Ages, Catalan literature flourished in Catalonia proper and in the kingdoms of Majorca and Valencia, with such remarkable authors as the philosopher Ramon Llull, the Valencian poet Ausiàs March, and Joanot Martorell, author of the novel Tirant lo Blanch, published in 1490.

Modern era

Ferdinand II of Aragon, the grandson of Ferdinand I, and Queen Isabella I of Castile were married in 1469, later taking the title the Catholic Monarchs; subsequently, this event was seen by historiographers as the dawn of a unified Spain. At this time, though united by marriage, the Crowns of Castile and Aragon maintained distinct territories, each keeping its own traditional institutions, parliaments, laws and currency. Castile commissioned expeditions to the Americas and benefited from the riches acquired in the Spanish colonisation of the Americas, but, in time, also carried the main burden of military expenses of the united Spanish kingdoms. After Isabella's death, Ferdinand II personally ruled both crowns.

By virtue of descent from his maternal grandparents, Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile, in 1516 Charles I of Spain became the first king to rule the Crowns of Castile and Aragon simultaneously by his own right. Following the death of his paternal (House of Habsburg) grandfather, Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor, he was also elected Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, in 1519.

Over the next few centuries, the Principality of Catalonia was generally on the losing side of a series of wars that led steadily to an increased centralization of power in Spain. Despite this fact, between the 16th and 18th centuries, the participation of the political community in the local and the general Catalan government grew (thus consolidating its constitutional system), while the kings remained absent, represented by a viceroy. Tensions between Catalan institutions and the monarchy began to arise. The large and burdensome presence of the Spanish royal army in the Principality due to the Franco-Spanish War led to an uprising of peasants, provoking the Reapers' War (1640–1652), which saw Catalonia rebel (briefly as a republic led by the president of the Generalitat, Pau Claris) with French help against the Spanish Crown for overstepping Catalonia's rights during the Thirty Years' War. Within a brief period France took full control of Catalonia. Most of Catalonia was reconquered by the Spanish monarchy but Catalan rights were mostly recognised. Roussillon and half of Cerdanya was lost to France by the Treaty of the Pyrenees (1659).

The most significant conflict concerning the governing monarchy was the War of the Spanish Succession (1701–1715), which began when the childless Charles II of Spain, the last Spanish Habsburg, died without an heir in 1700. Charles II had chosen Philip V of Spain from the French House of Bourbon. Catalonia, like other territories that formed the Crown of Aragon, rose up in support of the Austrian Habsburg pretender Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor, in his claim for the Spanish throne as Charles III of Spain. The fight between the houses of Bourbon and Habsburg for the Spanish Crown split Spain and Europe.

The fall of Barcelona on 11 September 1714 to the Bourbon king Philip V militarily ended the Habsburg claim to the Spanish Crown, which became legal fact in the Treaty of Utrecht. Philip felt that he had been betrayed by the Catalan Courts, as it had initially sworn its loyalty to him when he had presided over it in 1701. In retaliation for the betrayal, and inspired by the French model, the first Bourbon king enacted the Nueva Planta decrees of 1707, 1715 and 1716, incorporating the realms of the Crown of Aragon, including the Principality of Catalonia in 1716, as provinces of the Crown of Castile, terminating their status as separate states along with their parliaments, institutions and public and administrative laws, as well as their pactist politics, within a French-style centralized and absolutist kingdom of Spain. In the second half of the 17th century and the 18th century (excluding the parentesis of the Succession War and the post-war inestability) Catalonia carried out a successful process of economic growth and proto-industrialization, reinforced in the late quarter of the century when Castile's trade monopoly with American colonies ended.

The beginning of the Spanish nation state

After the War of the Spanish Succession, the assimilation of the Crown of Aragon by the Castilian Crown through the Nueva Planta Decrees was the first step in the creation of the Spanish nation state. These nationalist policies, sometimes very aggressive, and still in force, have been and are the seed of repeated territorial conflicts within the state.

Late modern history

At the beginning of the nineteenth century, Catalonia was severely affected by the Napoleonic Wars. In 1808, it was occupied by French troops under general Guillaume Philibert Duhesme after he conquered Barcelona; the resistance against the occupation eventually developed into the Peninsular War. The rejection of French dominion was institutionalized with the creation of "juntas" (councils) who, remaining loyal to the Bourbons, exercised the sovereignty and representation of the territory due to the disappearance of the old institutions. Napoleon took direct control of Catalonia to reestablish order, creating the Government of Catalonia under the rule of Marshall Augereau, and making Catalan briefly an official language again. Between 1812 and 1814, Catalonia was annexed to France and organized as four departments. The French troops evacuated Catalan territory at the end of 1814. After the Bourbon restoration in Spain and the death of the absolutist king Ferdinand VII (1833), Carlist Wars erupted against the newly established liberal state of Isabella II. Catalonia was divided, with the coastal and most industrialized areas supporting liberalism, while most of the countryside were in the hands of the Carlist faction; the latter proposed to reestablish the institutional systems suppressed by the Nueva Planta decrees in the ancient realms of the Crown of Aragon. The consolidation of the liberal state saw a new provincial division of Spain, including Catalonia, which was divided into four provinces (Barcelona, Girona, Lleida and Tarragona).

In the second third of the 19th century, Catalonia became an important industrial center, particularly focused on textiles. This process was a consequence of the conditions of proto-industrialisation of textile production in the prior two centuries, growing capital from wine and brandy export, and was later boosted by the government support for domestic manufacturing. In 1832, the Bonaplata Factory in Barcelona became the first factory in the country to make use of the steam engine. The first railway on the Iberian Peninsula was built between Barcelona and Mataró in 1848. A policy to encourage company towns also saw the textile industry flourish in the countryside in the 1860s and 1870s. Although the policy of Spanish governments oscillated between free trade and protectionism, protectionist laws become more common. To this day Catalonia remains one of the most industrialised areas of Spain.

In the same period, Barcelona was the focus of industrial conflict and revolutionary uprisings known as "bullangues". In Catalonia, a republican current began to develop among the progressives, attrackting many Catalans who favored the federalisation of Spain. Meanwhile, the Catalan language saw a Romantic cultural renaissance from the second third of the century onwards, the Renaixença, among both the working class and the bourgeoisie. Right after the fall of the First Spanish Republic (1873–1874) and the subsequent restoration of the Bourbon dynasty (1874), Catalan nationalism began to be organized politically under the leadership of the republican federalist Valentí Almirall.

The anarchist movement had been active throughout the last quarter of the 19th century and the early 20th century, founding the CNT trade union in 1910 and achieving one of the first eight-hour workdays in Europe in 1919. Growing resentment of conscription and of the military culminated in the Tragic Week (Catalan: Setmana Tràgica) in Barcelona in 1909. Under the hegemony of the Regionalist League, Catalonia gained a degree of administrative unity for the first time in the Modern era. In 1914, the four Catalan provinces were authorized to create a commonwealth (Catalan: Mancomunitat de Catalunya), lacking any legislative power or specific political autonomy, which carried out an ambitious program of modernization, but it was disbanded in 1925 by the dictatorship of Primo de Rivera (1923–1930). During the final stage of the Dictatorship, with Spain beginning to suffer an economic crisis, Barcelona hosted the 1929 International Exposition.

After the fall of the dictatorship and a brief proclamation of the Catalan Republic, during the events of the proclamation of the Second Spanish Republic (14–17 April 1931), Catalonia received, in 1932, its first Statute of Autonomy from the Spanish Republic's Parliament, granting it a considerable degree of self-government, establishing an autonomous body, the Generalitat of Catalonia, which included a parliament, an executive and a court of cassation. The left-wing pro-independence leader Francesc Macià was appointed its first president. Under the Statute, Catalan became an official language. The governments of the Republican Generalitat, led by the Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC) leaders Francesc Macià (1931–1933) and Lluís Companys (1933–1940), sought to implement a modernizing and progressive social agenda, despite the internal difficulties. This period was marked by political unrest, the effects of the economic crisis and their social repercussions. The Statute of Autonomy was suspended in 1934, due to the Events of 6 October in Barcelona, as a response to the accession of right-wing Spanish nationalist party CEDA to the government of the Republic, considered close to fascism. After the electoral victory of the left wing Popular Front in February 1936, the Government of Catalonia was pardoned and the self-government was restored.

Spanish Civil War (1936–1939) and Franco's rule (1939–1975)

Main articles: Revolutionary Catalonia and Francoist Catalonia Left: Spanish Revolution of 1936. Right: Bombing of Barcelona (1938)

The defeat of the military rebellion against the Republican government in Barcelona placed Catalonia firmly in the Republican side of the Spanish Civil War. During the war, there were two rival powers in Catalonia: the de jure power of the Generalitat and the de facto power of the armed popular militias. Violent confrontations between the workers' parties (CNT-FAI and POUM against the PSUC) culminated in the defeat of the first ones in 1937. The situation resolved itself progressively in favor of the Generalitat, but at the same time the Generalitat lost most of its autonomous powers within Republican Spain. In 1938 Franco's troops broke the Republican territory in two, isolating Catalonia from the rest of the Republican territory. The defeat of the Republican army in the Battle of the Ebro led in 1938 and 1939 to the occupation of Catalonia by Franco's forces.

The defeat of the Spanish Republic in the Spanish Civil War brought to power the dictatorship of Francisco Franco, whose first ten-year rule was particularly violent, autocratic, and repressive both in a political, cultural, social, and economical sense. In Catalonia, any kind of public activities associated with Catalan nationalism, republicanism, anarchism, socialism, liberalism, democracy or communism, including the publication of books on those subjects or simply discussion of them in open meetings, was banned.

Franco's regime banned the use of Catalan in government-run institutions and during public events, and the Catalan institutions of self-government were abolished. The pro-Republic of Spain president of Catalonia, Lluís Companys, was taken to Spain from his exile in the German-occupied France and was tortured and executed in the Montjuïc Castle of Barcelona for the crime of 'military rebellion'.

During later stages of Francoist Spain, certain folkloric and religious celebrations in Catalan resumed and were tolerated. Use of Catalan in the mass media had been forbidden but was permitted from the early 1950s in the theatre. Despite the ban during the first years and the difficulties of the next period, publishing in Catalan continued throughout his rule.

The years after the war were extremely hard. Catalonia, like many other parts of Spain, had been devastated by the war. Recovery from the war damage was slow and made more difficult by the international trade embargo and the autarkic politics of Franco's regime. By the late 1950s, the region had recovered its pre-war economic levels and in the 1960s was the second-fastest growing economy in the world in what became known as the Spanish miracle. During this period there was a spectacular growth of industry and tourism in Catalonia that drew large numbers of workers to the region from across Spain and made the area around Barcelona one of Europe's largest industrial metropolitan areas.

Transition and democratic period (1975–present)

After Franco's death in 1975, Catalonia voted for the adoption of a democratic Spanish Constitution in 1978, in which Catalonia recovered political and cultural autonomy, restoring the Generalitat (exiled since the end of the Civil War in 1939) in 1977 and adopting a new Statute of Autonomy in 1979, which defined Catalonia as a "nationality". The first elections to the Parliament of Catalonia under this Statute gave the Catalan presidency to Jordi Pujol, leader of Convergència i Unió (CiU), a center-right Catalan nationalist electoral coalition, with Pujol re-elected until 2003. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, the institutions of Catalan autonomy were deployed, among them an autonomous police force, the Mossos d'Esquadra, in 1983, and the broadcasting network Televisió de Catalunya and its first channel TV3, created in 1983. An extensive program of normalization of Catalan language was carried out. Today, Catalonia remains one of the most economically dynamic communities of Spain. The Catalan capital and largest city, Barcelona, is a major international cultural centre and a major tourist destination. In 1992, Barcelona hosted the Summer Olympic Games.

Independence movement

Main articles: Catalan independence movement and 2017–18 Spanish constitutional crisis

In November 2003, elections to the Parliament of Catalonia gave the government to a left-wing Catalanist coalition formed by the Socialists' Party of Catalonia (PSC-PSOE), Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC) and Initiative for Catalonia Greens (ICV), and the socialist Pasqual Maragall was appointed president. The new government redacted a new version of the Statute of Autonomy, with the aim of consolidate and expand certain aspects of self-government.

The new Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia, approved after a referendum in 2006, was contested by important sectors of the Spanish society, especially by the conservative People's Party, which sent the law to the Constitutional Court of Spain. In 2010, the Court declared non-valid some of the articles that established an autonomous Catalan system of Justice, improved aspects of the financing, a new territorial division, the status of Catalan language or the symbolical declaration of Catalonia as a nation. This decision was severely contested by large sectors of Catalan society, which increased the demands of independence.

A controversial independence referendum was held in Catalonia on 1 October 2017, using a disputed voting process. It was declared illegal and suspended by the Constitutional Court of Spain, because it breached the 1978 Constitution. Subsequent developments saw, on 27 October 2017, a symbolic declaration of independence by the Parliament of Catalonia, the enforcement of direct rule by the Spanish government through the use of Article 155 of the Constitution, the dismissal of the Executive Council and the dissolution of the Parliament, with a snap regional election called for 21 December 2017, which ended with a victory of pro-independence parties. Former President Carles Puigdemont and five former cabinet ministers fled Spain and took refuge in other European countries (such as Belgium, in Puigdemont's case), whereas nine other cabinet members, including vice-president Oriol Junqueras, were sentenced to prison under various charges of rebellion, sedition, and misuse of public funds. Quim Torra became the 131st President of the Government of Catalonia on 17 May 2018, after the Spanish courts blocked three other candidates.

In 2018, the Assemblea Nacional Catalana joined the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization (UNPO) on behalf of Catalonia.

On 14 October 2019, the Spanish Supreme court sentenced several Catalan political leaders, involved in organizing a referendum on Catalonia's independence from Spain, and convicted them on charges ranging from sedition to misuse of public funds, with sentences ranging from 9 to 13 years in prison. This decision sparked demonstrations around Catalonia. They were later pardoned by the Spanish government and left prison in June 2021.

In the early-to-mid 2020s support for independence declined.

Geography

Climate

The climate of Catalonia is diverse. The populated areas lying by the coast in Tarragona, Barcelona and Girona provinces feature a Hot-summer Mediterranean climate (Köppen Csa). The inland part (including the Lleida province and the inner part of Barcelona province) show a mostly Mediterranean climate (Köppen Csa). The Pyrenean peaks have a continental (Köppen D) or even Alpine climate (Köppen ET) at the highest summits, while the valleys have a maritime or oceanic climate sub-type (Köppen Cfb).

In the Mediterranean area, summers are dry and hot with sea breezes, and the maximum temperature is around 26–31 °C (79–88 °F). Winter is cool or slightly cold depending on the location. It snows frequently in the Pyrenees, and it occasionally snows at lower altitudes, even by the coastline. Spring and autumn are typically the rainiest seasons, except for the Pyrenean valleys, where summer is typically stormy.

The inland part of Catalonia is hotter and drier in summer. Temperature may reach 35 °C (95 °F), some days even 40 °C (104 °F). Nights are cooler there than at the coast, with the temperature of around 14–17 °C (57–63 °F). Fog is not uncommon in valleys and plains; it can be especially persistent, with freezing drizzle episodes and subzero temperatures during winter, mainly along the Ebro and Segre valleys and in Plain of Vic.

Topography

See also: List of mountains in Catalonia

Catalonia has a marked geographical diversity, considering the relatively small size of its territory. The geography is conditioned by the Mediterranean coast, with 580 kilometres (360 miles) of coastline, and the towering Pyrenees along the long northern border. Catalonia is divided into three main geomorphological units:

• The Pyrenees: mountainous formation that connects the Iberian Peninsula with the European continental territory (see passage above);
• The Catalan Coastal mountain ranges or the Catalan Mediterranean System: an alternating delevacions and planes parallel to the Mediterranean coast;
• The Catalan Central Depression: structural unit which forms the eastern sector of the Valley of the Ebro.

The Catalan Pyrenees represent almost half in length of the Pyrenees, as it extends more than 200 kilometres (120 miles). Traditionally differentiated the Axial Pyrenees (the main part) and the Pre-Pyrenees (southern from the Axial) which are mountainous formations parallel to the main mountain ranges but with lower altitudes, less steep and a different geological formation. The highest mountain of Catalonia, located north of the comarca of Pallars Sobirà is the Pica d'Estats (3,143 m), followed by the Puigpedrós (2,914 m). The Serra del Cadí comprises the highest peaks in the Pre-Pyrenees and forms the southern boundary of the Cerdanya valley.

The Central Catalan Depression is a plain located between the Pyrenees and Pre-Coastal Mountains. Elevation ranges from 200 to 600 metres (660 to 1,970 feet). The plains and the water that descend from the Pyrenees have made it fertile territory for agriculture and numerous irrigation canals have been built. Another major plain is the Empordà, located in the northeast.

The Catalan Mediterranean system is based on two ranges running roughly parallel to the coast (southwest–northeast), called the Coastal and the Pre-Coastal Ranges. The Coastal Range is both the shorter and the lower of the two, while the Pre-Coastal is greater in both length and elevation. Areas within the Pre-Coastal Range include Montserrat, Montseny and the Ports de Tortosa-Beseit. Lowlands alternate with the Coastal and Pre-Coastal Ranges. The Coastal Lowland is located to the East of the Coastal Range between it and the coast, while the Pre-Coastal Lowlands are located inland, between the Coastal and Pre-Coastal Ranges, and includes the Vallès and Penedès plains.

Flora and fauna

Catalonia is a showcase of European landscapes on a small scale. Just over 30,000 square kilometres (12,000 square miles) hosting a variety of substrates, soils, climates, directions, altitudes and distances to the sea. The area is of great ecological diversity and a remarkable wealth of landscapes, habitats and species.

The fauna of Catalonia comprises a minority of animals endemic to the region and a majority of non-endemic animals. Much of Catalonia enjoys a Mediterranean climate (except mountain areas), which makes many of the animals that live there adapted to Mediterranean ecosystems. Of mammals, there are plentiful wild boar, red foxes, as well as roe deer and in the Pyrenees, the Pyrenean chamois. Other large species such as the bear have been recently reintroduced.

The waters of the Balearic Sea are rich in biodiversity, and even the megafaunas of the oceans; various types of whales (such as fin, sperm, and pilot) and dolphins can be found in the area.

Hydrography

See also: List of rivers of Catalonia

Most of Catalonia belongs to the Mediterranean Basin. The Catalan hydrographic network consists of two important basins, the one of the Ebro and the one that comprises the internal basins of Catalonia (respectively covering 46.84% and 51.43% of the territory), all of them flow to the Mediterranean. Furthermore, there is the Garona river basin that flows to the Atlantic Ocean, but it only covers 1.73% of the Catalan territory.

The hydrographic network can be divided in two sectors, an occidental slope or Ebro river slope and one oriental slope constituted by minor rivers that flow to the Mediterranean along the Catalan coast. The first slope provides an average of 18,700 cubic hectometres (4.5 cubic miles) per year, while the second only provides an average of 2,020 hm (0.48 cu mi)/year. The difference is due to the big contribution of the Ebro river, from which the Segre is an important tributary. Moreover, in Catalonia there is a relative wealth of groundwaters, although there is inequality between comarques, given the complex geological structure of the territory. In the Pyrenees there are many small lakes, remnants of the ice age. The biggest are the lake of Banyoles and the recently recovered lake of Ivars.

The Catalan coast is almost rectilinear, with a length of 580 kilometres (360 mi) and few landforms—the most relevant are the Cap de Creus and the Gulf of Roses to the north and the Ebro Delta to the south. The Catalan Coastal Range hugs the coastline, and it is split into two segments, one between L'Estartit and the town of Blanes (the Costa Brava), and the other at the south, at the Costes del Garraf.

The principal rivers in Catalonia are the Ter, Llobregat, and the Ebro (Catalan: Ebre), all of which run into the Mediterranean.

Anthropic pressure and protection of nature

The majority of Catalan population is concentrated in 30% of the territory, mainly in the coastal plains. Intensive agriculture, livestock farming and industrial activities have been accompanied by a massive tourist influx (more than 20 million annual visitors), a rate of urbanization and even of major metropolisation which has led to a strong urban sprawl: two thirds of Catalans live in the urban area of Barcelona, while the proportion of urban land increased from 4.2% in 1993 to 6.2% in 2009, a growth of 48.6% in sixteen years, complemented with a dense network of transport infrastructure. This is accompanied by a certain agricultural abandonment (decrease of 15% of all areas cultivated in Catalonia between 1993 and 2009) and a global threat to natural environment. Human activities have also put some animal species at risk, or even led to their disappearance from the territory, like the gray wolf and probably the brown bear of the Pyrenees. The pressure created by this model of life means that the country's ecological footprint exceeds its administrative area.

Faced with these problems, Catalan authorities initiated several measures whose purpose is to protect natural ecosystems. Thus, in 1990, the Catalan government created the Nature Conservation Council (Catalan: Consell de Protecció de la Natura), an advisory body with the aim to study, protect and manage the natural environments and landscapes of Catalonia. In addition, the Generalitat has carried out the Plan of Spaces of Natural Interest (Pla d'Espais d'Interès Natural or PEIN) in 1992 while eighteen Natural Spaces of Special Protection (Espais Naturals de Protecció Especial or ENPE) have been instituted.

There's a National Park, Aigüestortes i Estany de Sant Maurici; fourteen Natural Parks, Alt Pirineu, Aiguamolls de l'Empordà, Cadí-Moixeró, Cap de Creus, Sources of Ter and Freser, Collserola, Ebro Delta, Ports, Montgrí, Medes Islands and Baix Ter, Montseny, Montserrat, Sant Llorenç del Munt and l'Obac, Serra de Montsant, and the Garrotxa Volcanic Zone; as well as three Natural Places of National Interest (Paratge Natural d'Interes Nacional or PNIN), the Pedraforca, the Poblet Forest and the Albères.

Politics

Politics of Catalonia
Statute and lawsStatute of Autonomy 1932 1979 2006 Constitutions (13-18th c.) Civil Code
GeneralitatPresident (list) Salvador Illa (PSC)
ExecutiveExecutive Council President (list): Salvador Illa (PSC) Cabinet International relations
LegislatureParliament (15th) President: Josep Rull (Junts)
JudiciaryHigh Court of Justice President: Jesús María Barrientos Council of Statutarian Pledges Ombudsman Syndicate of Accounts Audiovisual Council
Public order Ministry of Justice (list) Ministry of Home Affairs (list) Police of Catalonia
Political partiesParliamentary parties PSC Junts ERC PPC Vox Comuns CUP AC
ElectionsParliamentary elections 1932 1980 1984 1988 1992 1995 1999 2003 2006 2010 2012 2015 2017 2021 2024 Referendums 1931 1979 2006 2009–11 2014 2017
SubdivisionsRegional Vegueries Unique territorial entity (Val d'Aran) Counties Provinces Local Metropolitan area Terçons Municipalities
Other countries
v t e

Main articles: Politics of Catalonia, Politics of Spain, and Catalan independence

After Franco's death in 1975 and the adoption of a democratic constitution in Spain in 1978, Catalonia recovered and extended the powers that it had gained in the Statute of Autonomy of 1932 but lost with the fall of the Second Spanish Republic at the end of the Spanish Civil War in 1939.

This autonomous community has gradually achieved more autonomy since the approval of the Spanish Constitution of 1978. The Generalitat holds exclusive jurisdiction in education, health, culture, environment, communications, transportation, commerce, public safety and local government, and only shares jurisdiction with the Spanish government in justice. In all, some analysts argue that formally the current system grants Catalonia with "more self-government than almost any other corner in Europe".

The support for Catalan nationalism ranges from a demand for further autonomy and the federalisation of Spain to the desire for independence from the rest of Spain, expressed by Catalan independentists. The first survey following the Constitutional Court ruling that cut back elements of the 2006 Statute of Autonomy, published by La Vanguardia on 18 July 2010, found that 46% of the voters would support independence in a referendum. In February of the same year, a poll by the Open University of Catalonia gave more or less the same results. Other polls have shown lower support for independence, ranging from 40 to 49%. Although it is established in the whole of the territory, support for independence is significantly higher in the hinterland and the northeast, away from the more populous coastal areas such as Barcelona.

Since 2011 when the question started to be regularly surveyed by the governmental Center for Public Opinion Studies (CEO), support for Catalan independence has been on the rise. According to the CEO opinion poll from July 2016, 47.7% of Catalans would vote for independence and 42.4% against it while, about the question of preferences, according to the CEO opinion poll from March 2016, a 57.2 claim to be "absolutely" or "fairly" in favour of independence. Other polls have shown lower support for independence, ranging from 40 to 49%. Other polls show more variable results, according with the Spanish CIS, as of December 2016, 47% of Catalans rejected independence and 45% supported it.

In hundreds of non-binding local referendums on independence, organised across Catalonia from 13 September 2009, a large majority voted for independence, although critics argued that the polls were mostly held in pro-independence areas. In December 2009, 94% of those voting backed independence from Spain, on a turn-out of 25%. The final local referendum was held in Barcelona, in April 2011. On 11 September 2012, a pro-independence march pulled in a crowd of between 600,000 (according to the Spanish Government), 1.5 million (according to the Guàrdia Urbana de Barcelona), and 2 million (according to its promoters); whereas poll results revealed that half the population of Catalonia supported secession from Spain.

Prominent Catalan politicians in Spain.Juan Prim (Spanish prime minister under regent don Francisco Serrano)Estanislao Figueras (president of the First Spanish Republic)Francesc Pi i Margall
(president of the First Spanish Republic)

Two major factors were Spain's Constitutional Court's 2010 decision to declare part of the 2006 Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia unconstitutional, as well as the fact that Catalonia contributes 19.49% of the central government's tax revenue, but only receives 14.03% of central government's spending.

Parties that consider themselves either Catalan nationalist or independentist have been present in all Catalan governments since 1980. The largest Catalan nationalist party, Convergence and Union, ruled Catalonia from 1980 to 2003, and returned to power in the 2010 election. Between 2003 and 2010, a leftist coalition, composed by the Catalan Socialists' Party, the pro-independence Republican Left of Catalonia and the leftist-environmentalist Initiative for Catalonia-Greens, implemented policies that widened Catalan autonomy.

In the 25 November 2012 Catalan parliamentary election, sovereigntist parties supporting a secession referendum gathered 59.01% of the votes and held 87 of the 135 seats in the Catalan Parliament. Parties supporting independence from the rest of Spain obtained 49.12% of the votes and a majority of 74 seats.

Artur Mas, then the president of Catalonia, organised early elections that took place on 27 September 2015. In these elections, Convergència and Esquerra Republicana decided to join, and they presented themselves under the coalition named Junts pel Sí (in Catalan, Together for Yes). Junts pel Sí won 62 seats and was the most voted party, and CUP (Candidatura d'Unitat Popular, a far-left and independentist party) won another 10, so the sum of all the independentist forces/parties was 72 seats, reaching an absolute majority, but not in number of individual votes, comprising 47,74% of the total.

Statute of Autonomy

Main article: Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia See also: Autonomous communities of Spain and Nationalities and regions of Spain

The Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia is the fundamental organic law, second only to the Spanish Constitution from which the Statute originates.

In the Spanish Constitution of 1978 Catalonia, along with the Basque Country and Galicia, was defined as a "nationality". The same constitution gave Catalonia the automatic right to autonomy, which resulted in the Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia of 1979.

Both the 1979 Statute of Autonomy and the current one, approved in 2006, state that "Catalonia, as a nationality, exercises its self-government constituted as an Autonomous Community in accordance with the Constitution and with the Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia, which is its basic institutional law, always under the law in Spain".

The Preamble of the 2006 Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia states that the Parliament of Catalonia has defined Catalonia as a nation, but that "the Spanish Constitution recognizes Catalonia's national reality as a nationality". While the Statute was approved by and sanctioned by both the Catalan and Spanish parliaments, and later by referendum in Catalonia, it has been subject to a legal challenge by the surrounding autonomous communities of Aragon, Balearic Islands and Valencia, as well as by the conservative People's Party. The objections are based on various issues such as disputed cultural heritage but, especially, on the Statute's alleged breaches of the principle of "solidarity between regions" in fiscal and educational matters enshrined by the Constitution.

Spain's Constitutional Court assessed the disputed articles and on 28 June 2010, issued its judgment on the principal allegation of unconstitutionality presented by the People's Party in 2006. The judgment granted clear passage to 182 articles of the 223 that make up the fundamental text. The court approved 73 of the 114 articles that the People's Party had contested, while declaring 14 articles unconstitutional in whole or in part and imposing a restrictive interpretation on 27 others. The court accepted the specific provision that described Catalonia as a "nation", however ruled that it was a historical and cultural term with no legal weight, and that Spain remained the only nation recognised by the constitution.

Government and law

Main article: Generalitat of Catalonia Palace of the Parliament of Catalonia, located in Ciutadella park, BarcelonaPalau de la Generalitat de Catalunya, Barcelona, headquarters of the President and the Government of Catalonia

The Catalan Statute of Autonomy establishes that Catalonia, as an autonomous community, is organised politically through the Generalitat of Catalonia (Catalan: Generalitat de Catalunya), confirmed by the Parliament, the Presidency of the Generalitat, the Government or Executive Council and the other institutions established by the Parliament, among them the Ombudsman (Síndic de Greuges), the Office of Auditors (Sindicatura de Comptes) the Council for Statutory Guarantees (Consell de Garanties Estatutàries) or the Audiovisual Council of Catalonia (Consell de l'Audiovisual de Catalunya).

The Parliament of Catalonia (Catalan: Parlament de Catalunya) is the unicameral legislative body of the Generalitat and represents the people of Catalonia. Its 135 members (diputats) are elected by universal suffrage to serve for a four-year period. According to the Statute of Autonomy, it has powers to legislate over devolved matters such as education, health, culture, internal institutional and territorial organization, nomination of the President of the Generalitat and control the Government, budget and other affairs. The last Catalan election was held on 12 May 2024, and its current speaker (president) is Josep Rull, incumbent since 10 June 2024.

The President of the Generalitat of Catalonia (Catalan: president de la Generalitat de Catalunya) is the highest representative of Catalonia, and is also responsible of leading the government's action, presiding the Executive Council. Since the restoration of the Generalitat on the return of democracy in Spain, the Presidents of Catalonia have been Josep Tarradellas (1977–1980, president in exile since 1954), Jordi Pujol (1980–2003), Pasqual Maragall (2003–2006), José Montilla (2006–2010), Artur Mas (2010–2016), Carles Puigdemont (2016–2017) and, after the imposition of direct rule from Madrid, Quim Torra (2018–2020), Pere Aragonès (2021–2024) and Salvador Illa (2024–).

The Executive Council (Catalan: Consell Executiu) or Government (Govern), is the body responsible of the government of the Generalitat, it holds executive and regulatory power, being accountable to the Catalan Parliament. It comprises the President of the Generalitat, the First Minister (conseller primer) or the Vice President, and the ministers (consellers) appointed by the president. Its seat is the Palau de la Generalitat, Barcelona. In 2021 the government was a coalition of two parties, the Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC) and Together for Catalonia (Junts) and is made up of 14 ministers, including the vice President, alongside to the president and a secretary of government, but in October 2022 Together for Catalonia (Junts) left the coalition and the government.

Security forces and Justice

Main article: Mossos d'Esquadra

Catalonia has its own police force, the Mossos d'Esquadra (officially called Mossos d'Esquadra-Policia de la Generalitat de Catalunya), whose origins date back to the 18th century. Since 1980 they have been under the command of the Generalitat, and since 1994 they have expanded in number in order to replace the national Civil Guard and National Police Corps, which report directly to the Homeland Department of Spain. The national bodies retain personnel within Catalonia to exercise functions of national scope such as overseeing ports, airports, coasts, international borders, custom offices, the identification of documents and arms control, immigration control, terrorism prevention, arms trafficking prevention, amongst others.

Most of the justice system is administered by national judicial institutions, the highest body and last judicial instance in the Catalan jurisdiction, integrating the Spanish judiciary, is the High Court of Justice of Catalonia. The criminal justice system is uniform throughout Spain, while civil law is administered separately within Catalonia. The civil laws that are subject to autonomous legislation have been codified in the Civil Code of Catalonia (Codi civil de Catalunya) since 2002.

Catalonia, together with Navarre and the Basque Country, are the Spanish communities with the highest degree of autonomy in terms of law enforcement.

Administrative divisions

Main article: Subdivisions of Catalonia See also: Political divisions of Spain and Local government in Spain

Catalonia is organised territorially into provinces or regions, further subdivided into comarques and municipalities. The 2006 Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia establishes the administrative organisation of the later three.

Provinces

Further information: Provinces of Spain

Much like the rest of Spain, Catalonia is divided administratively into four provinces, the governing body of which is the Provincial Deputation (Catalan: Diputació Provincial, Occitan: Deputacion Provinciau, Spanish: Diputación Provincial). As of 2010, the four provinces and their populations were:

• Province of Barcelona: 5,701,708 population
• Province of Girona: 777,258 population
• Province of Lleida: 437,939 population
• Province of Tarragona: 830,804 population

Unlike vegueries, provinces do not follow the limitations of the subdivisional counties, notably Baixa Cerdanya, which is split in half between the demarcations of Lleida and Girona. This situation has led some isolated municipalities to request province changes from the Spanish government.

Vegueries

Main article: Vegueries of Catalonia

Besides provinces, Catalonia is internally divided into eight regions or vegueries, based on the feudal administrative territorial jurisdiction of the Principality of Catalonia. Established in 2006, vegueries are used by the Generalitat de Catalunya with the aim to more effectively divide Catalonia administratively. In addition, vegueries are intended to become Catalonia's first-level administrative division and a full replacement for the four deputations of the Catalan provinces, creating a council for each vegueria, but this has not been realised as changes to the statewide provinces system are unconstitutional without a constitutional amendment.

The territorial plan of Catalonia (Pla territorial general de Catalunya) provided six general functional areas, but was amended by Law 24/2001, of 31 December, recognizing Alt Pirineu and Aran as a new functional area differentiated of Ponent. After some opposition from some territories, it was made possible for the Aran Valley to retain its government (the vegueria is renamed to Alt Pirineu, although the name Alt Pirineu and Aran is still used by the regional plan) and in 2016, the Catalan Parliament approved the eighth vegueria, Penedès, split from the Barcelona region.

As of 2022, the eight regions and their populations were:

• Alt Pirineu (capital La Seu d'Urgell): 63,892 population
• Barcelona (capital Barcelona): 4,916,847 population
• Camp de Tarragona (capital Tarragona): 536,453 population
• Central Catalonia (capital Manresa): 413,349 population
• Girona (capital Girona): 761,690 population
• Ponent (capital Lleida): 365,289 population
• Penedès (capital Vilanova i la Geltrú): 497,764 population
• Terres de l'Ebre (capital Tortosa): 182,231 population
• Aran Valley (capital Vielha e Mijaran): 10,194 population

Comarques

Main article: Comarques of Catalonia

Comarques (often known as counties in English, but different from the historical Catalan counties) are entities composed of municipalities to internally manage their responsibilities and services. The current regional division has its roots in a decree of the Generalitat de Catalunya of 1936, in effect until 1939, when it was suppressed by Franco. In 1987 the Catalan Government reestablished the comarcal division and in 1988 three new comarques were added (Alta Ribagorça, Pla d'Urgell and Pla de l'Estany). Some further revisions have been realised since then, such as the additions of Moianès and Lluçanès counties, in 2015 and 2023 respectively. Except for Barcelonès, every comarca is administered by a comarcal council (consell comarcal).

As of 2024, Catalonia is divided in 42 counties plus the Aran Valley. The latter, although previously (and still informally) considered a comarca, obtained in 1990 a particular status within Catalonia due to its differences in culture and language, being administered by a body known as the Conselh Generau d'Aran (General Council of Aran), and in 2015 it was defined as a "unique territorial entity" instead of a county.

Municipalities

Further information: Municipalities of Catalonia

There are at present 947 municipalities (municipis) in Catalonia. Each municipality is run by a council (ajuntament) elected every four years by the residents in local elections. The council consists of a number of members (regidors) depending on population, who elect the mayor (alcalde or batlle). Its seat is the town hall (ajuntament, casa de la ciutat or casa de la vila).

• Catalan regional capitals
• An aerial view of Barcelona
• La Seu d'Urgell from the Solsona tower
• The city of Tarragona
• The city of Manresa from the Balconada viewpoint
• The city of Girona
• The city of Lleida by the Segre river
• Vilanova i la Geltrú from the city's port
• The city of Tortosa
• Vielha e Mijaran from the Vielha viewpoint

Economy

Main article: Economy of Spain

A highly industrialized region, the nominal GDP of Catalonia in 2018 was €228 billion (second after the community of Madrid, €230 billion) and the per capita GDP was €30,426 ($32,888), behind Madrid (€35,041), the Basque Country (€33,223), and Navarre (€31,389). That year, the GDP growth was 2.3%.

Catalonia's long-term credit rating is BB (Non-Investment Grade) according to Standard & Poor's, Ba2 (Non-Investment Grade) according to Moody's, and BBB- (Low Investment Grade) according to Fitch Ratings. Catalonia's rating is tied for worst with between 1 and 5 other autonomous communities of Spain, depending on the rating agency.

The city of Barcelona occupies the eighth position as one of the world's best cities to live, work, research and visit in 2021, according to the report "The World's Best Cities 2021", prepared by Resonance Consultancy.

According to a 2020 study by Eu-Starts-Up, the Catalan capital is one of the European bases of "reference for start-ups" and the fifth city in the world to establish one of these companies, behind London, Berlin, Paris and Amsterdam. Barcelona is behind London, New York, Paris, Moscow, Tokyo, Dubai and Singapore and ahead of Los Angeles and Madrid.

In the context of the financial crisis of 2007–2008, Catalonia was expected to suffer a recession amounting to almost a 2% contraction of its regional GDP in 2009. Catalonia's debt in 2012 was the highest of all Spain's autonomous communities, reaching €13,476 million, i.e. 38% of the total debt of the 17 autonomous communities, but in recent years its economy recovered a positive evolution and the GDP grew a 3.3% in 2015.

Catalonia is amongst the List of country subdivisions by GDP over 100 billion US dollars and is a member of the Four Motors for Europe organisation.

The distribution of sectors is as follows:

• Primary sector: 3%. The amount of land devoted to agricultural use is 33%.
• Secondary sector: 37% (compared to Spain's 29%)
• Tertiary sector: 60% (compared to Spain's 67%)

The main tourist destinations in Catalonia are the city of Barcelona, the beaches of the Costa Brava in Girona, the beaches of the Costa del Maresme and Costa del Garraf from Malgrat de Mar to Vilanova i la Geltrú and the Costa Daurada in Tarragona. In the High Pyrenees there are several ski resorts, near Lleida. On 1 November 2012, Catalonia started charging a tourist tax. The revenue is used to promote tourism, and to maintain and upgrade tourism-related infrastructure.

Many of Spain's leading savings banks were based in Catalonia before the independence referendum of 2017. However, in the aftermath of the referendum, many of them moved their registered office to other parts of Spain. That includes the two biggest Catalan banks at that moment, La Caixa, which moved its office to Palma de Mallorca, and Banc Sabadell, ranked fourth among all Spanish private banks and which moved its office to Alicante. That happened after the Spanish government passed a law allowing companies to move their registered office without requiring the approval of the company's general meeting of shareholders. Overall, there was a negative net relocation rate of companies based in Catalonia moving to other autonomous communities of Spain. From the 2017 independence referendum until the end of 2018, for example, Catalonia lost 5454 companies to other parts of Spain (mainly Madrid), 2359 only in 2018, gaining 467 new ones from the rest of the country during 2018. It has been reported that the Spanish government and the Spanish King Felipe VI pressured some of the big Catalan companies to move their headquarters outside of the region.

The stock market of Barcelona, which in 2016 had a volume of around €152 billion, is the second largest of Spain after Madrid, and Fira de Barcelona organizes international exhibitions and congresses to do with different sectors of the economy.

The main economic cost for Catalan families is the purchase of a home. According to data from the Society of Appraisal on 31 December 2005 Catalonia is, after Madrid, the second most expensive region in Spain for housing: 3,397 €/m on average (see Spanish property bubble).

Unemployment

The unemployment rate stood at 10.5% in 2019 and was lower than the national average.

Unemployment rate (December data) (%)

2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019
6.6%	6.5%	11.8%	16.9%	17.9%	20.4%	23.8%	21.9%	19.9%	17.7%	14.9%	12.6%	11.8%	10.5%

Transport

Airports

See also: List of airports in Catalonia

Airports in Catalonia are owned and operated by Aena (a Spanish Government entity) except two airports in Lleida which are operated by Aeroports de Catalunya (an entity belonging to the Government of Catalonia).

• Barcelona El Prat Airport (Aena)
• Girona-Costa Brava Airport (Aena)
• Reus Airport (Aena)
• Lleida-Alguaire Airport (Aeroports de Catalunya)
• Sabadell Airport (Aena)
• La Seu d'Urgell Airport (Aeroports de Catalunya)

Ports

See also: List of ports in Spain

Since the Middle Ages, Catalonia has been well integrated into international maritime networks. The port of Barcelona (owned and operated by Puertos del Estado, a Spanish Government entity) is an industrial, commercial and tourist port of worldwide importance. With 1,950,000 TEUs in 2015, it is the first container port in Catalonia, the third in Spain after Valencia and Algeciras in Andalusia, the 9th in the Mediterranean Sea, the 14th in Europe and the 68th in the world. It is sixth largest cruise port in the world, the first in Europe and the Mediterranean with 2,364,292 passengers in 2014. The ports of Tarragona (owned and operated by Puertos del Estado) in the southwest and Palamós near Girona at northeast are much more modest. The port of Palamós and the other ports in Catalonia (26) are operated and administered by Ports de la Generalitat, a Catalan Government entity.

The development of these infrastructures, resulting from the topography and history of the Catalan territory, responds strongly to the administrative and political organization of this autonomous community.

Roads

See also: List of primary highways in Catalonia

There are 12,000 kilometres (7,500 mi) of roads throughout Catalonia.

The principal highways are  AP-7  (Autopista de la Mediterrània) and  A-7  (Autovia de la Mediterrània). They follow the coast from the French border to Valencia, Murcia and Andalusia. The main roads generally radiate from Barcelona. The  AP-2  (Autopista del Nord-est) and  A-2  (Autovia del Nord-est) connect inland and onward to Madrid.

Other major roads are:

ID	Itinerary
N-II	Lleida-La Jonquera
C-12	Amposta-Àger
C-16	Barcelona-Puigcerdà
C-17	Barcelona-Ripoll
C-25	Cervera-Girona
A-26	Llançà-Olot
C-32	El Vendrell-Tordera
C-60	Argentona-La Roca del Vallès

Public-own roads in Catalonia are either managed by the autonomous government of Catalonia (e.g.,  C-  roads) or the Spanish government (e.g.,  AP- ,  A- ,  N-  roads).

Railways

See also: Rail transport in Catalonia

Catalonia saw the first railway construction in the Iberian Peninsula in 1848, linking Barcelona with Mataró. Given the topography, most lines radiate from Barcelona. The city has both suburban and inter-city services. The main east coast line runs through the province connecting with the SNCF (French Railways) at Portbou on the coast.

There are two publicly owned railway companies operating in Catalonia: the Catalan FGC that operates commuter and regional services, and the Spanish national Renfe that operates long-distance and high-speed rail services (AVE and Avant) and the main commuter and regional service Rodalies de Catalunya, administered by the Catalan government since 2010.

High-speed rail (AVE) services from Madrid currently reach Barcelona, via Lleida and Tarragona. The official opening between Barcelona and Madrid took place 20 February 2008. The journey between Barcelona and Madrid now takes about two-and-a-half hours. A connection to the French high-speed TGV network has been completed (called the Perpignan–Barcelona high-speed rail line) and the Spanish AVE service began commercial services on the line 9 January 2013, later offering services to Marseille on their high speed network. This was shortly followed by the commencement of commercial service by the French TGV on 17 January 2013, leading to an average travel time on the Paris-Barcelona TGV route of 7h 42m. This new line passes through Girona and Figueres with a tunnel through the Pyrenees.

Demographics

Main article: Catalan people

Largest municipalities in Catalonia Institut d'Estadística de Catalunya (2020)
	Rank		Comarca	Pop.	Rank		Comarca	Pop.
Barcelona L'Hospitalet de Llobregat	1	Barcelona	Barcelonès	1,664,182	11	Girona	Gironès	103,369	Terrassa Badalona
	2	L'Hospitalet de Llobregat	Barcelonès	269,382	12	Sant Cugat del Vallès	Vallès Occidental	92,977
	3	Terrassa	Vallès Occidental	223,627	13	Cornellà de Llobregat	Baix Llobregat	89,936
	4	Badalona	Barcelonès	223,166	14	Sant Boi de Llobregat	Baix Llobregat	84,500
	5	Sabadell	Vallès Occidental	216,590	15	Rubí, Barcelona	Vallès Occidental	78,591
	6	Lleida	Segrià	140,403	16	Manresa	Bages	78,246
	7	Tarragona	Tarragonès	136,496	17	Vilanova i la Geltrú	Garraf	67,733
	8	Mataró	Maresme	129,661	18	Castelldefels	Baix Llobregat	67,460
	9	Santa Coloma de Gramenet	Barcelonès	120,443	19	Viladecans	Baix Llobregat	67,197
	10	Reus	Baix Camp	106,168	20	El Prat de Llobregat	Baix Llobregat	65,385

Historical population

Year	Pop.	±%
1900	1,966,382	—
1910	2,084,868	+6.0%
1920	2,344,719	+12.5%
1930	2,791,292	+19.0%
1940	2,890,974	+3.6%
1950	3,240,313	+12.1%
1960	3,925,779	+21.2%
1970	5,122,567	+30.5%
1981	5,949,829	+16.1%
1990	6,062,273	+1.9%
2000	6,174,547	+1.9%
2010	7,462,044	+20.9%
2021	7,749,896	+3.9%
2024	8,067,454	+4.1%
Source: INE

As of 2024, the official population of Catalonia was 8.067.454. 1,194,947 residents did not have Spanish citizenship, accounting for about 16% of the population.

The Urban Region of Barcelona includes 5,217,864 people and covers an area of 2,268 km (876 sq mi). The metropolitan area of the Urban Region includes cities such as L'Hospitalet de Llobregat, Sabadell, Terrassa, Badalona, Santa Coloma de Gramenet and Cornellà de Llobregat.

In 1900, the population of Catalonia was 1,966,382 people and in 1970 it was 5,122,567. The sizeable increase of the population was due to the demographic boom in Spain during the 1960s and early 1970s as well as in consequence of large-scale internal migration from the rural economically weak regions to its more prospering industrial cities. In Catalonia, that wave of internal migration arrived from several regions of Spain, especially from Andalusia, Murcia and Extremadura. As of 1999, it was estimated that over 60% of Catalans descended from 20th century migrations from other parts of Spain.

Immigrants from other countries settled in Catalonia since the 1990s; a large percentage comes from Africa, Latin America and Eastern Europe, and smaller numbers from Asia and Southern Europe, often settling in urban centers such as Barcelona and industrial areas. In 2017, Catalonia had 940,497 foreign residents (11.9% of the total population) with non-Spanish ID cards, without including those who acquired Spanish citizenship.

Foreign population by country of citizenship (2018)

Nationality	Population
Romania	119,177
Morocco	111,192
China	59,380
Italy	55,823
Pakistan	45,125
Honduras	33,728
France	33,184
Bolivia	30,095
Colombia	29,853
Ecuador	25,749
Russia	24,224
India	23,103
Ukraine	22,305
Senegal	20,828
Peru	20,127
United Kingdom	19,445
Argentina	19,192
Brazil	18,917
Dominican Republic	18,620
Germany	18,002
Venezuela	16,933
Gambia	14,209
Paraguay	13,847
Portugal	12,491
Bulgaria	11,288
Algeria	11,273
Philippines	11,061

Foreign Population by Nationality	Number	%
2022
TOTAL FOREIGNERS	1,271,810
EUROPE	401,605
EUROPEAN UNION	295,896
OTHER EUROPE	105,709
AFRICA	324,260
SOUTH AMERICA	247,821
CENTRAL AMERICA	368,461
NORTH AMERICA	18,332
ASIA	184,846
OCEANIA	1,015
Instituto Nacional de Estadística

Religion

Main article: Religion in Catalonia

Religion in Catalonia (2020):

  Roman Catholicism (53.0%)  Protestantism (7.0%)  Eastern Orthodoxy (1.3%)  Jehovah's Witnesses (1.0%)  Atheism (18.6%)  Agnosticism (8.8%)  Islam (4.3%)  Other Religions (3.4%)  No answer/do not know (2.6%)

Historically, all the Catalan population was Christian, specifically Catholic, but since the 1980s there has been a trend of decline of Christianity. Nevertheless, according to the most recent study sponsored by the Government of Catalonia, as of 2020, 62.3% of the Catalans identify as Christians (up from 61.9% in 2016 and 56.5% in 2014) of whom 53.0% Catholics, 7.0% Protestants and Evangelicals, 1.3% Orthodox Christians and 1.0% Jehovah's Witnesses. At the same time, 18.6% of the population identify as atheists, 8.8% as agnostics, 4.3% as Muslims, and a further 3.4% as being of other religions.

Languages

Main article: Languages of Catalonia See also: Catalan language, Spanish language, Aranese dialect, and Catalan Sign Language

First habitual language, 2018 Demographic Survey
Language		Identification language	Habitual language
Spanish		2 978 000 (46.6%)	3 104 000 (48.6%)
Catalan		2 320 000 (36.3%)	2 305 000 (36.1%)
Both languages		440 000 (6.9%)	474 000 (7.4%)
Other languages		651 000 (10.2%)	504 000 (7.9%)
	Arabic	114 000 (1.8%)	61 000 (0.9%)
	Romanian	58 000 (0.9%)	24 000 (0.4%)
	English	29 000 (0.5%)	26 000 (0.4%)
	French	26 000 (0.4%)	16 000 (0.2%)
	Berber	25 000 (0.4%)	20 000 (0.3%)
	Chinese	20 000 (0.3%)	18 000 (0.3%)
	Other languages	281 000 (4.4%)	153 000 (2.4%)
	Other combinations	96 000 (1.5%)	193 000 (3.0%)
Total population 15 year old and over		6 386 000 (100.0%)	6 386 000 (100.0%)

According to the linguistic census held by the Government of Catalonia in 2013, Spanish is the most spoken language in Catalonia (46.53% claim Spanish as "their own language"), followed by Catalan (37.26% claim Catalan as "their own language"). In everyday use, 11.95% of the population claim to use both languages equally, whereas 45.92% mainly use Spanish and 35.54% mainly use Catalan. There is a significant difference between the Barcelona metropolitan area (and, to a lesser extent, the Tarragona area), where Spanish is more spoken than Catalan, and the more rural and small town areas, where Catalan clearly prevails over Spanish.

Originating in the historic territory of Catalonia, Catalan has enjoyed special status since the approval of the Statute of Autonomy of 1979 which declares it to be "Catalonia's own language", a term which signifies a language given special legal status within a Spanish territory, or which is historically spoken within a given region. The other languages with official status in Catalonia are Spanish, which has official status throughout Spain, and Aranese Occitan, which is spoken in Val d'Aran.

Since the Statute of Autonomy of 1979, Aranese (a Gascon dialect of Occitan) has also been official and subject to special protection in Val d'Aran. This small area of 7,000 inhabitants was the only place where a dialect of Occitan had received full official status. Then, on 9 August 2006, when the new Statute came into force, Occitan became official throughout Catalonia. Occitan is the mother tongue of 22.4% of the population of Val d'Aran, which has attracted heavy immigration from other Spanish regions to work in the service industry. Catalan Sign Language is also officially recognised.

Although not considered an "official language" in the same way as Catalan, Spanish, and Occitan, the Catalan Sign Language, with about 18,000 users in Catalonia, is granted official recognition and support: "The public authorities shall guarantee the use of Catalan sign language and conditions of equality for deaf people who choose to use this language, which shall be the subject of education, protection and respect."

As was the case since the ascent of the Bourbon dynasty to the throne of Spain after the War of the Spanish Succession, and with the exception of the short period of the Second Spanish Republic, under Francoist Spain Catalan was banned from schools and all other official use, so that for example families were not allowed to officially register children with Catalan names. Although never completely banned, Catalan language publishing was severely restricted during the early 1940s, with only religious texts and small-run self-published texts being released. Some books were published clandestinely or circumvented the restrictions by showing publishing dates prior to 1936. This policy was changed in 1946, when restricted publishing in Catalan resumed.

Rural–urban migration originating in other parts of Spain also reduced the social use of Catalan in urban areas and increased the use of Spanish. Lately, a similar sociolinguistic phenomenon has occurred with foreign immigration. Catalan cultural activity increased in the 1960s and the teaching of Catalan began thanks to the initiative of associations such as Òmnium Cultural.

After the end of Francoist Spain, the newly established self-governing democratic institutions in Catalonia embarked on a long-term language policy to recover the use of Catalan and has, since 1983, enforced laws which attempt to protect and extend the use of Catalan. This policy, known as the "linguistic normalisation" (normalització lingüística in Catalan, normalización lingüística in Spanish) has been supported by the vast majority of Catalan political parties through the last thirty years. Some groups consider these efforts a way to discourage the use of Spanish, whereas some others, including the Catalan government and the European Union consider the policies respectful, or even as an example which "should be disseminated throughout the Union".

Today, Catalan is the main language of the Catalan autonomous government and the other public institutions that fall under its jurisdiction. Basic public education is given mainly in Catalan, but also there are some hours per week of Spanish medium instruction. Although businesses are required by law to display all information (e.g. menus, posters) at least in Catalan, this not systematically enforced. There is no obligation to display this information in either Occitan or Spanish, although there is no restriction on doing so in these or other languages. The use of fines was introduced in a 1997 linguistic law that aims to increase the public use of Catalan and defend the rights of Catalan speakers. On the other hand, the Spanish Constitution does not recognize equal language rights for national minorities since it enshrined Spanish as the only official language of the state, the knowledge of which being compulsory. Numerous laws regarding for instance the labelling of pharmaceutical products, make in effect Spanish the only language of compulsory use.

The law ensures that both Catalan and Spanish – being official languages – can be used by the citizens without prejudice in all public and private activities. The Generalitat uses Catalan in its communications and notifications addressed to the general population, but citizens can also receive information from the Generalitat in Spanish if they so wish. Debates in the Catalan Parliament take place almost exclusively in Catalan and the Catalan public television broadcasts programs mainly in Catalan.

Due to the intense immigration which Spain in general and Catalonia in particular experienced in the first decade of the 21st century, many foreign languages are spoken in various cultural communities in Catalonia, of which Rif-Berber, Moroccan Arabic, Romanian and Urdu are the most common ones.

In Catalonia, there is a high social and political consensus on the language policies favoring Catalan, also among Spanish speakers and speakers of other languages. However, some of these policies have been criticised for trying to promote Catalan by imposing fines on businesses. For example, following the passage of the law on Catalan cinema in March 2010, which established that half of the movies shown in Catalan cinemas had to be in Catalan, a general strike of 75% of the cinemas took place. The Catalan government gave in and dropped the clause that forced 50% of the movies to be dubbed or subtitled in Catalan before the law came to effect. On the other hand, organisations such as Plataforma per la Llengua reported different violations of the linguistic rights of the Catalan speakers in Catalonia and the other Catalan-speaking territories in Spain, most of them caused by the institutions of the Spanish government in these territories.

The Catalan language policy has been challenged by some political parties in the Catalan Parliament. Citizens, currently the main opposition party, has been one of the most consistent critics of the Catalan language policy within Catalonia. The Catalan branch of the People's Party has a more ambiguous position on the issue: on one hand, it demands a bilingual Catalan–Spanish education and a more balanced language policy that would defend Catalan without favoring it over Spanish, whereas on the other hand, a few local PP politicians have supported in their municipalities measures privileging Catalan over Spanish and it has defended some aspects of the official language policies, sometimes against the positions of its colleagues from other parts of Spain.

Culture

Art and architecture

Main article: Art of Catalonia Left: Joan Miró. Right: Antoni Gaudí

Catalonia has given to the world many important figures in the area of the art. Catalan painters internationally known are, among others, Salvador Dalí, Joan Miró and Antoni Tàpies. Closely linked with the Catalan pictorial atmosphere, Pablo Picasso lived in Barcelona during his youth, training them as an artist and creating the movement of cubism. Other important artists are Claudi Lorenzale for the medieval Romanticism that marked the artistic Renaixença, Marià Fortuny for the Romanticism and Catalan Orientalism of the nineteenth century, Ramon Casas or Santiago Rusiñol, main representatives of the pictorial current of Catalan modernism from the end of the nineteenth century to the beginning of the twentieth century, Josep Maria Sert for early 20th-century Noucentisme, or Josep Maria Subirachs for expressionist or abstract sculpture and painting of the late twentieth century.

Left: Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya, Barcelona. Right: Dalí Museum, Figueres

The most important painting museums of Catalonia are the Teatre-Museu Dalí in Figueres, the National Art Museum of Catalonia (MNAC), Picasso Museum, Fundació Antoni Tàpies, Joan Miró Foundation, the Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art (MACBA), the Centre of Contemporary Culture of Barcelona (CCCB), and the CaixaForum.

In the field of architecture were developed and adapted to Catalonia different artistic styles prevalent in Europe, leaving footprints in many churches, monasteries and cathedrals, of Romanesque (the best examples of which are located in the northern half of the territory) and Gothic styles. The Gothic developed in Barcelona and its area of influence is known as Catalan Gothic, with some particular characteristics. The church of Santa Maria del Mar is an example of this kind of style. During the Middle Ages, many fortified castles were built by feudal nobles to mark their powers.

There are some examples of Renaissance (such as the Palau de la Generalitat), Baroque and Neoclassical architectures. In the late nineteenth century Modernism (Art Nouveau) appeared as the national art. The world-renowned Catalan architects of this style are Antoni Gaudí, Lluís Domènech i Montaner and Josep Puig i Cadafalch. Thanks to the urban expansion of Barcelona during the last decades of the century and the first ones of the next, many buildings of the Eixample are modernists. In the field of architectural rationalism, which turned especially relevant in Catalonia during the Republican era (1931–1939) highlighting Josep Lluís Sert and Josep Torres i Clavé, members of the GATCPAC and, in contemporany architecture, Ricardo Bofill and Enric Miralles.

Monuments and World Heritage Sites

There are several UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Catalonia:

• Archaeological Ensemble of Tarraco, Tarragona
• Catalan Romanesque Churches of the Vall de Boí, Lleida province
• Poblet Monastery, Poblet, Tarragona province
• Works of Lluís Domènech i Montaner:
  • Palau de la Música Catalana, Barcelona
  • Hospital de Sant Pau, Barcelona
• Works of Antoni Gaudí:
  • Sagrada Família, Barcelona
  • Parc Güell, Barcelona
  • Palau Güell, Barcelona
  • Casa Milà (La Pedrera), Barcelona
  • Casa Vicens, Barcelona
  • Casa Batlló, Barcelona
  • The Church of Colònia Güell, Santa Coloma de Cervelló, Barcelona province

Literature

Main article: Literature of Catalonia

The oldest surviving literary use of the Catalan language is considered to be the religious text known as Homilies d'Organyà, written either in late 11th or early 12th century.

There are two historical moments of splendor of Catalan literature. The first begins with the historiographic chronicles of the 13th century (chronicles written between the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries narrating the deeds of the monarchs and leading figures of the Crown of Aragon) and the subsequent Golden Age of the 14th and 15th centuries. After that period, between the 16th and 19th centuries the Romantic historiography defined this era as the Decadència, considered as the "decadent" period in Catalan literature because of a general falling into disuse of the vernacular language in cultural contexts and lack of patronage among the nobility.

The second moment of splendor began in the 19th century with the cultural and political Renaixença (Renaissance) represented by writers and poets such as Jacint Verdaguer, Víctor Català (pseudonym of Caterina Albert i Paradís), Narcís Oller, Joan Maragall and Àngel Guimerà. During the 20th century, avant-garde movements developed, initiated by the Generation of '14 (called Noucentisme in Catalonia), represented by Eugenio d'Ors, Joan Salvat-Papasseit, Josep Carner, Carles Riba, J.V. Foix and others. During the dictatorship of Primo de Rivera, the Civil War (Generation of '36) and the Francoist period, Catalan literature was maintained despite the repression against the Catalan language, being often produced in exile.

The most outstanding authors of this period are Salvador Espriu, Josep Pla, Josep Maria de Sagarra (who are considered mainly responsible for the renewal of Catalan prose), Mercè Rodoreda, Joan Oliver Sallarès or "Pere Quart", Pere Calders, Gabriel Ferrater, Manuel de Pedrolo, Agustí Bartra or Miquel Martí i Pol. In addition, several foreign writers who fought in the International Brigades, or other military units, have since recounted their experiences of fighting in their works, historical or fictional, with for example, George Orwell, in Homage to Catalonia (1938) or Claude Simon's Le Palace (1962) and Les Géorgiques (1981).

After the transition to democracy (1975–1978) and the restoration of the Generalitat (1977), literary life and the editorial market have returned to normality and literary production in Catalan is being bolstered with a number of language policies intended to protect Catalan culture. Besides the aforementioned authors, other relevant 20th-century writers of the Francoist and democracy periods include Joan Brossa, Agustí Bartra, Manuel de Pedrolo, Pere Calders or Quim Monzó.

Ana María Matute, Jaime Gil de Biedma, Manuel Vázquez Montalbán and Juan Goytisolo are among the most prominent Catalan writers in the Spanish language since the democratic restoration in Spain.

Festivals and public holidays

Main article: Traditions of Catalonia

Castells are one of the main manifestations of Catalan popular culture. The activity consists in constructing human towers by competing colles castelleres (teams). This practice originated in Valls, on the region of the Camp de Tarragona, during the 18th century, and later it was extended to the rest of the territory, especially in the late 20th century. The tradition of els Castells i els Castellers was declared Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO in 2010.

In main celebrations, other elements of the Catalan popular culture are also usually present: parades with gegants (giants), bigheads, stick-dancers and musicians, and the correfoc, where devils and monsters dance and spray showers of sparks using firecrackers. Another traditional celebration in Catalonia is La Patum de Berga, declared a Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity by the UNESCO on 25 November 2005.

Christmas in Catalonia lasts two days, plus Christmas Eve. On the 25th, Christmas is celebrated, followed by a similar feast on the 26, called Sant Esteve (Saint Steve's Day). This allows families to visit and dine with different sectors of the extended family or get together with friends on the second day.

One of the most deeply rooted and curious Christmas traditions is the popular figure of the Tió de Nadal, consisting of an (often hollow) log with a face painted on it and often two little front legs appended, usually wearing a Catalan hat and scarf. The word has nothing to do with the Spanish word tío, meaning uncle. Tió means log in Catalan. The log is sometimes "found in the woods" (in an event staged for children) and then adopted and taken home, where it is fed and cared for during a month or so. On Christmas Day or on Christmas Eve, a game is played where children march around the house singing a song requesting the log to poop, then they hit the log with a stick, to make it poop, and lo and behold, as if through magic, it poops candy, and sometimes other small gifts. Usually, the larger or main gifts are brought by the Three Kings on 6 January, and the tió only brings small things.

Another custom is to make a pessebre (nativity scene) in the home or in shop windows, the latter sometimes competing in originality or sheer size and detail. Churches often host exhibits of numerous dioramas by nativity scene makers, or a single nativity scene they put out, and town halls generally put out a nativity scene in the central square. In Barcelona, every year, the main nativity scene is designed by different artists, and often ends up being an interesting, post-modern or conceptual and strange creation. In the home, the nativity scene often consists of strips of cork bark to represent cliffs or mountains in the background, moss as grass in the foreground, some wood chips or other as dirt, and aluminum foil for rivers and lakes. The traditional figurines often included are the three wise men on camels or horses, which are moved every day or so to go closer to the manger, a star with a long tail in the background to lead people to the spot, the annunciation with shepherds having a meal and an angel appearing (hanging from something), a washer lady washing clothes in the pond, sheep, ducks, people carrying packages on their backs, a donkey driver with a load of twigs, and atrezzo such as a starry sky, miniature towns placed in the distance, either Oriental-styled or local-looking, a bridge over the river, trees, etc.

One of the most astonishing and sui-generis figurines traditionally placed in the nativity scene, to the great glee of children, is the caganer, a person depicted in the act of defecating. This figurine is hidden in some corner of the nativity scene and the game is to detect it. Of course, churches forgo this figurine, and the main nativity scene of Barcelona, for instance, likewise does not feature it. The caganer is so popular it has, together with the tió, long been a major part of the Christmas markets, where they come in the guise of your favorite politicians or other famous people, as well as the traditional figures of a Catalan farmer. People often buy a figurine of a caganer in the guise of a famous person they are actually fond of, contrary to what one would imagine, though sometimes people buy a caganer in the guise of someone they dislike, although this means they have to look at them in the home.

Another (extended) Christmas tradition is the celebration of the Epiphany on 6 January, which is called Reis, meaning Three Kings Day. This is every important in Catalonia and the Catalan-speaking areas, and families go to watch major parades on the eve of the Epiphany, where they can greet the kings and watch them pass by in pomp and circumstance, on floats and preceded and followed by pages, musicians, dancers, etc. They often give the kings letters with their gift requests, which are collected by the pages. On the next day, the children find the gifts the three kings brought for them.

In addition to traditional local Catalan culture, traditions from other parts of Spain can be found as a result of migration from other regions, for instance the celebration of the Andalusian Feria de Abril in Catalonia.

On 28 July 2010, second only after the Canary Islands, Catalonia became another Spanish territory to forbid bullfighting. The ban, which went into effect on 1 January 2012, had originated in a popular petition supported by over 180,000 signatures.

Music and dance

Main article: Music of Catalonia

The sardana is considered to be the most characteristic Catalan folk dance, interpreted to the rhythm of tamborí, tible and tenora (from the oboe family), trumpet, trombó (trombone), fiscorn (family of bugles) and contrabaix with three strings played by a cobla, and are danced in a circle dance. Other tunes and dances of the traditional music are the contrapàs (obsolete today), ball de bastons (the "dance of sticks"), the moixiganga, the goigs (popular songs), the galops or the jota in the southern part. The havaneres are characteristic in some marine localities of the Costa Brava, especially during the summer months when these songs are sung outdoors accompanied by a cremat of burned rum.

Art music was first developed, up to the nineteenth century and, as in much of Europe, in a liturgical setting, particularly marked by the Escolania de Montserrat. The main Western musical trends have marked these productions, medieval monodies or polyphonies, with the work of Abbot Oliba in the eleventh century or the compilation Llibre Vermell de Montserrat ("Red Book of Montserrat") from the fourteenth century. Through the Renaissance there were authors such as Pere Albert Vila, Joan Brudieu or the two Mateu Fletxa ("The Old" and "The Young"). Baroque had composers like Joan Cererols. The Romantic music was represented by composers such as Fernando Sor, Josep Anselm Clavé (father of choir movement in Catalonia and responsible of the music folk reviving) or Felip Pedrell.

Modernisme also expressed in musical terms from the end of the 19th century onwards, mixing folkloric and post-romantic influences, through the works of Isaac Albéniz and Enric Granados. The avant-garde spirit initiated by the modernists is prolonged throughout the twentieth century, thanks to the activities of the Orfeó Català, a choral society founded in 1891, with its monumental concert hall, the Palau de la Música Catalana in Catalan, built by Lluís Domènech i Montaner from 1905 to 1908, the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra created in 1944 and composers, conductors and musicians engaged against the Francoism like Robert Gerhard, Eduard Toldrà and Pau Casals.

Performances of opera, mostly imported from Italy, began in the 18th century, but some native operas were written as well, including the ones by Domènec Terradellas, Carles Baguer, Ramon Carles, Isaac Albéniz and Enric Granados. The Barcelona main opera house, Gran Teatre del Liceu (opened in 1847), remains one of the most important in Spain, hosting one of the most prestigious music schools in Barcelona, the Conservatori Superior de Música del Liceu. Several lyrical artists trained by this institution gained international renown during the 20th century, such as Victoria de los Ángeles, Montserrat Caballé, Giacomo Aragall and Josep Carreras.

Cellist Pau Casals is admired as an outstanding player. Other popular musical styles were born in the second half of the 20th century such as Nova Cançó from the 1960s with Lluís Llach and the group Els Setze Jutges, the Catalan rumba in the 1960s with Peret, Catalan Rock from the late 1970s with La Banda Trapera del Río and Decibelios for Punk Rock, Sau, Els Pets, Sopa de Cabra or Lax'n'Busto for pop rock or Sangtraït for hard rock, electropop since the 1990s with OBK and indie pop from the 1990s.

Media and cinema

Main article: Cinema of Catalonia

Catalonia is the autonomous community, along with Madrid, that has the most media (TV, magazines, newspapers etc.). In Catalonia there is a wide variety of local and comarcal media. With the restoration of democracy, many newspapers and magazines, until then in the hands of the Franco government, were recovered in order to convert them into free and democratic media, while local radio and television began broadcasting.

Televisió de Catalunya, which broadcasts entirely in the Catalan language, is the main Catalan public network. It has five channels: TV3, El 33, Super3, 3/24, Esport3 and TV3CAT. In 2018, TV3 became the first television channel to be the most viewed for nine consecutive years in Catalonia. State television that broadcasts in Catalonia in the Spanish language include Televisión Española (with few emissions in Catalan), Antena 3, Cuatro, Telecinco, and La Sexta. Other smaller Catalan television channels include local television channels, notably betevé, owned by the City Council of Barcelona, and broadcast in Catalan.

The two main Catalan newspapers of general information are El Periódico de Catalunya and La Vanguardia, both with editions in Catalan and Spanish. Catalan only published newspapers include Ara and El Punt Avui (from the fusion of El Punt and Avui in 2011), as well as most part of the local press. The Spanish newspapers, such as El País, El Mundo or La Razón, can be also acquired.

Catalonia has a long tradition of use of radio, the first regular radio broadcast in the country was from Ràdio Barcelona in 1924. Today, the public Catalunya Ràdio (owned by Catalan Media Corporation) and the private RAC 1 (belonging to Grup Godó) are the two main radio stations of Catalonia, both in Catalan.

Regarding the cinema, after the democratic transition, three styles have dominated since then. First, auteur cinema, in the continuity of the Barcelona School, emphasizes experimentation and form, while focusing on developing social and political themes. Worn first by Josep Maria Forn or Bigas Luna, then by Marc Recha, Jaime Rosales and Albert Serra, this genre has achieved some international recognition. Then, the documentary became another genre particularly representative of contemporary Catalan cinema, boosted by Joaquim Jordà i Català and José Luis Guerín. Later, horror films and thrillers have also emerged as a specialty of the Catalan film industry, thanks in particular to the vitality of the Sitges Film Festival, created in 1968. Several directors have gained worldwide renown thanks to this genre, starting with Jaume Balagueró and his series REC (co-directed with Valencian Paco Plaza), Juan Antonio Bayona and El Orfanato or Jaume Collet-Serra with Orphan, Unknown and Non-Stop.

Catalan actors have shot for Spanish and international productions, such as Sergi López.

The Museum of Cinema - Tomàs Mallol Collection (Museu del Cinema – Col.lecció Tomàs Mallol in Catalan) of Girona is home of important permanent exhibitions of cinema and pre-cinema objects. Other important institutions for the promotion of cinema are the Gaudí Awards (Premis Gaudí in Catalan, which replaced from 2009 Barcelona Film Awards themselves created in 2002), serving as equivalent for Catalonia to the Spanish Goya or French César.

Philosophy

See also: Seny

Seny is a form of ancestral Catalan wisdom or sensibleness. It involves well-pondered perception of situations, level-headedness, awareness, integrity, and right action. Many Catalans consider seny something unique to their culture, is based on a set of ancestral local customs stemming from the scale of values and social norms of their society.

Sport

Main article: Sport in Catalonia

Sport has had a distinct importance in Catalan life and culture since the beginning of the 20th century; consequently, the region has a well-developed sports infrastructure. The main sports are football, basketball, handball, rink hockey, tennis and motorsport.

Despite the fact that the most popular sports are represented at international level by the Spanish national teams, Catalonia plays as itself in some others, such as korfball, futsal or rugby league. Various Catalan Sports Federations have a long tradition and some of them participated in the foundation of international sports federations, as the Catalan Federation of Rugby, that was one of the founder members of the Fédération Internationale de Rugby Amateur (FIRA) in 1934. The majority of Catalan sport federations are part of the Sports Federation Union of Catalonia (Catalan: Unió de Federacions Esportives de Catalunya), founded in 1933. The presence of Catalan. The presence of separate Catalan teams has caused disputes with Spanish sports institutions, as happened to roller hockey in the Fresno Case (2004).

The Catalan Football Federation also periodically fields a national team against international opposition, organizing friendly matches. In the recent years they have played with Bulgaria, Argentina, Brazil, Basque Country, Colombia, Nigeria, Cape Verde and Tunisia. The biggest football clubs are Barcelona (also known as Barça), who have won five European Cups (UEFA Champions League), and Espanyol, who have twice been runner-up of the UEFA Cup (now UEFA Europa League). As of December 2024, Barça, Espanyol and Girona FC play in the top Spanish League (La Liga).

The Catalan waterpolo is one of the main powers of the Iberian Peninsula. The Catalans won triumphs in waterpolo competitions at European and world level by club (the Barcelona was champion of Europe in 1981/82 and the Catalonia in 1994/95) and national team (one gold and one silver in Olympic Games and World Championships). It also has many international synchronized swimming champions.

Motorsport has a long tradition in Catalonia, which involving many people, with some world champions and several competitions organized since the beginning of the 20th century. The Circuit de Catalunya, built in 1991, is one of the main motorsport venues, holding the Catalan motorcycle Grand Prix, the Spanish F1 Grand Prix, a DTM race, and several other races.

Catalonia hosted many relevant international sport events, such as the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, as well as the 1955 Mediterranean Games, the 2013 World Aquatics Championships or the 2018 Mediterranean Games. It held annually the fourth-oldest still-existing cycling stage race in the world, the Volta a Catalunya (Tour of Catalonia).

• Olympic Park of Montjuïc, Barcelona. At the centre, the Olympic Stadium Lluís Companys
• Camp Nou, home of FC Barcelona
• Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya
• Pep Guardiola, one of the most successful football managers of all time, pictured while managing Barcelona

Symbols

Main article: National symbols of Catalonia

Catalonia has its own representative and distinctive national symbols such as:

• The flag of Catalonia, called the Senyera, is a vexillological symbol based on the heraldic emblem of Counts of Barcelona and the coat of arms of the Crown of Aragon, which consists of four red stripes on a golden background. It has been an official symbol since the Statute of Catalonia of 1932.
• The National Day of Catalonia is on 11 September, and it is commonly called la Diada. It commemorates the 1714 siege of Barcelona defeat during the War of the Spanish Succession.
• The national anthem of Catalonia is Els Segadors and was written in its present form by Emili Guanyavents in 1899. The song is official by law from 25 February 1993. It is based on the events of 1639 and 1640 during the Catalan Revolt.
• St George's Day (Diada de Sant Jordi) is widely celebrated in all the towns of Catalonia on 23 April, and includes an exchange of books and roses between couples or family members.

Cuisine

Main article: Catalan cuisine

Catalan gastronomy has a long culinary tradition. Various local food recipes have been described in documents dating from the fifteenth century. As with all the cuisines of the Mediterranean, Catatonian dishes make abundant use of fish, seafood, olive oil, bread and vegetables. Regional specialties include the pa amb tomàquet (bread with tomato), which consists of bread (sometimes toasted), and tomato seasoned with olive oil and salt. Often the dish is accompanied with any number of sausages (cured botifarres, fuet, iberic ham, etc.), ham or cheeses. Others dishes include the calçotada, escudella i carn d'olla, suquet de peix (fish stew), and a dessert, Catalan cream.

Catalan vineyards also have several Denominacions d'Origen wines, such as: Priorat, Montsant, Penedès and Empordà. There is also a sparkling wine, the cava.

Catalonia is internationally recognized for its fine dining. Three of the World's 50 Best Restaurants are in Catalonia, and four restaurants have three Michelin stars, including restaurants like El Bulli or El Celler de Can Roca, both of which regularly dominate international rankings of restaurants. The region has been awarded the European Region of Gastronomy title for the year 2016.

Twinning and covenants

• Nuevo León
• California
• Quebec

See also

• Catalan Company
• Catalan Countries
• Date and time notation in Catalonia
• List of European regions by GDP
• List of people from Catalonia
• Northern Catalonia
• Outline of Catalonia

Notes

1. As "the official language of the State", according with the Spanish Constitution.
2. Catalan and Occitan (Aranese in Aran) are the languages of Catalonia and Aran (respectively) and official languages of the autonomous community of Catalonia according with its Statute of Autonomy.
3. LSC was officially recognized as one of Catalonia's official languages on 3 June 2010 when Law 17/2010 of the Catalan Sign Language (LSC) was approved by the government.
4. In addition to the legal definition as a nationality, Catalonia is also defined as a nation in the preamble of its 2006 Statute of Autonomy, although it was rejected by the Constitutional Court of Spain in 2010, which declared this definition without legal force. However, the definition was not modified nor suppressed, thus remaining in the text.
5. Puigdemont is still wanted by the government in Madrid.

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 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Catalonia". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.

External links

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• Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia

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v t e Elections and referendums in Catalonia Regional elections 1932 1980 1984 1988 1992 1995 1999 2003 2006 2010 2012 2015 2017 2021 2024 Next General elections 1977 1979 1982 1986 1989 1993 1996 2000 2004 2008 2011 2015 2016 2019 (Apr) 2019 (Nov) 2023 European Parliament elections 1987 1989 1994 1999 2004 2009 2014 2019 2024 Local elections 1931 1934 1979 1983 1987 1991 1995 1999 2003 2007 2011 2015 2019 2023 Referendums 1931 1979 2006 2009–11 2014 2017 v t e Catalan nationalism and independence movement Events ¡Cu-Cut! incident 1918-1919 autonomy campaign Plot of Prats de Molló Catalan Republic (1931) Events of 6 October Operation Garzón Fresno Case 2009–2011 independence referendums support 2010 autonomy protest 2012 independence demonstration 2013 Catalan Way 2014 Catalan Way 2014 self-determination referendum 2015 Free Way 2016 We are ready 2017–2018 Spanish constitutional crisis 2017 National Day for Yes 2017 Yes Campaign 2017 Operation Anubis 2017 independence referendum reactions 2017 Catalan general strike 2017 Wake Up Europe! 2017 Catalan regional election 2019 trial of independence leaders 2019–2020 protests 2019 Catalan general strike Concepts Catalan Countries Principality of Catalonia Republican Generalitat Anti-Catalan sentiment Federalism Documents Bases de Manresa (1892) Draft Constitution of the Catalan Republic (1928) Declaration of Sovereignty (23 Jan 2013) White Paper on the National Transition of Catalonia (Sep 2014) Initiation of the Process of Independence (9 Nov 2015) Let Catalans Vote (May 2017) Law on the Referendum on Self-determination (6 Sep 2017) Law of juridical transition (8 Sep 2017) Catalan declaration of independence (10/27 Oct 2017) People Valentí Almirall Enric Prat de la Riba Josep Puig i Cadafalch Francesc Macià Lluís Companys Joan Comorera Josep Irla Josep Tarradellas Jordi Pujol Guillem Agulló Josep-Lluís Carod-Rovira Artur Mas Oriol Junqueras Muriel Casals Carme Forcadell Jordi Sànchez Jordi Cuixart Carles Puigdemont Roger Torrent Anna Gabriel Quim Torra Elisenda Paluzie Pere Aragonès Lluís Llach Organisations Pro-independence Association of Municipalities for Independence Assemblea Nacional Catalana Òmnium Cultural Committees for the Defense of the Republic Estat Català Socialist Party of National Liberation† Catalan European Democratic Party† Republican Left of Catalonia Sobiranistes Junts per Catalunya DC MES Popular Unity Candidacy Endavant Poble Lliure Més per Mallorca PSM Més per Menorca PSMe Catalan Solidarity for Independence Reagrupament Republican Left of the Valencian Country Democratic Tsunami Catalan Alliance Autonomist and federalist Assembly of Catalonia† Unified Socialist Party of Catalonia† Democratic Convergence of Catalonia† Catalonia in Common Proposta per les Illes Youth Young Republican Left of Catalonia Nationalist Youth of Catalonia Arran La Forja Maulets† Sign † marks defunct organisations. v t e Autonomous communities of Spain Autonomous communities  Andalusia  Aragon  Asturias  Balearic Islands  Basque Country  Canary Islands  Cantabria  Castilla–La Mancha  Castile and León  Catalonia  Extremadura  Galicia  La Rioja  Community of Madrid  Murcia  Navarre  Valencian Community Autonomous cities  Ceuta  Melilla Plazas de soberanía Alhucemas Chafarinas Vélez de la Gomera v t e Comarques of Catalonia Official comarques on the Spanish side Alt Camp Alt Empordà Alt Penedès Alt Urgell Alta Ribagorça Anoia Bages Baix Camp Baix Ebre Baix Empordà Baix Llobregat Baix Penedès Barcelonès Berguedà Cerdanya Conca de Barberà Garraf Garrigues Garrotxa Gironès Lluçanès Maresme Moianès Montsià Noguera Osona Pallars Jussà Pallars Sobirà Pla de l'Estany Pla d'Urgell Priorat Ribera d'Ebre Ripollès Segarra Segrià Selva Solsonès Tarragonès Terra Alta Urgell Vallès Occidental Vallès Oriental Subcomarques Alt Gaià [ca] Alt Maresme [ca] Alta Garrotxa [ca] Alta Segarra [ca] Baix Llobregat Nord [ca] Baix Maresme [ca] Baix Priorat [ca] Baix Segre [ca] Baixa Segarra [ca] Batllia [ca] Baridà [ca] Bisaura [ca] Collsacabra [ca] Comarca d'Olot [ca] Conca d'Òdena [ca] Guilleries Montserratí [ca] Segre Mitjà [ca] Pla de Girona [ca] Pla de Lleida [ca] Plana de Vic Ribera del Sió [ca] Selva Marítima [ca] Urgellet Vall d'Àneu [ca] Vall de Camprodon [ca] Vall de Cardós [ca] Vall de Llémena [ca] Vall de Lord [ca] Vall de Ribes Historical comarques on the French side (Northern Catalonia) Alta Cerdanya Capcir Conflent Rosselló Vallespir Subcomarques Albera [ca] Alt Conflent [ca] Alt Vallespir [ca] Aspres [ca] Baix Vallespir [ca] Corberes [ca] Baix Conflent [ca] Conflent Mitjà [ca] Garrotxes [ca] Plana del Rosselló [ca] Riberal de la Tet [ca] Salanca [ca] Vallespir Mitjà [ca] v t e Provinces of Catalonia Barcelona Girona Lleida Tarragona

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• Catalonia
• Autonomous communities of Spain
• Catalan Countries
• NUTS 2 statistical regions of the European Union
• Regions of Europe with multiple official languages
• States and territories established in 1932
• States and territories established in 1979