Valencian Community

 region, second-level administrative division, draw only border, autonomous community

5.094.675 hab.

The Valencian Community (Valencian and official:Comunitat Valenciana; Spanish: Comunidad Valenciana) is an autonomous community located in central to south-eastern Spain. It is divided in three provinces, from South to North: Alicante, Valencia and Castellón.
It has 518 km of coastline on the Mediterranean and covers 23,259 km² of land with 4.8 million inhabitants (2005). Its borders largely reflect those of the historic Kingdom of Valencia.
According to the Statute of Autonomy, Valencia is recognized as a nationality. The official languages are Spanish and Valencian (as Catalan is known in this territory). The capital of the autonomous community is the city of Valencia.

The official name of the autonomous community, Comunitat Valenciana, has seen a variety of renditions in English, including "Valencian Community", "Land of Valencia", "Region of Valencia" or, most commonly, simply "Valencia". The Spanish name, Comunidad Valenciana, was co-official under the first Valencian Statute of Autonomy|Statute of Autonomy of 1982.
Although "Comunitat Valenciana", out of official consideration, is the most widely used name and the one that became officially enshrined, there were two competing names at the time of the forging of the Valencian Statute of Autonomy. On the one side País Valencià (Valencian) or País Valenciano (Spanish), was first reported in the 18th century. It can be translated as[citation needed] "Valencian Country", "Land of Valencia", or "Region of Valencia". An example of this use is the so-called Consell pre-autonòmic del País Valencià, the forerunner of the modern Generalitat Valenciana in 1978, and it is also referred to in the preamble to the Statutes of Autonomy. On the other side, the historical term Kingdom of Valencia (Valencian: Regne de València, Spanish: Reino de Valencia) which is also referred to in the preamble to the Statutes of Autonomy.[2]
In all cases, the autonomous Valencian Community should be distinguished
on the one hand, from the City of Valencia or the Valencia province; and
on the other hand, from the linguistic community of Valencian speakers.