Peninsular Spain
Peninsular Spain refers to that part of Spanish territory located within the Iberian peninsula, thus excluding other parts of Spain: the Canary Islands, the Balearic Islands, Ceuta, Melilla, and a number of islets and crags off the coast of Morocco known collectively as "plazas de soberanía" (places of sovereignty). In Spain it is mostly known simply as "la Península". It has land frontiers with France and Andorra to the north; Portugal to the west; and the British territory of Gibraltar to the south. Many inhabitants of peninsular Spain tend to conflate that region with Spain as a whole , disregarding the other territories mentioned above. Characteristics. Peninsular Spain is 492,175 km² in area - and in population - 43,731,572. It contains 15 of the autonomous communities of Spain. Occupying the central part of Spain, it possesses much greater resources and better interior and exterior communications than other parts of the country. To redress this imbalance, Spanish residents outside the peninsula receive a State subsidy for transport to and from the peninsula. These are the municipalities with the highest population: