Community of Madrid

The Community of Madrid (Spanish: Comunidad de Madrid [komuniˈðað ðe maˈðɾið] ^ⓘ) is one of the seventeen autonomous communities of Spain. It is located in the centre of the Iberian Peninsula, and of the Central Plateau (Meseta Central). Its capital and largest municipality is the City of Madrid, which is also the capital of the country. The Community of Madrid is bounded to the south and east by Castilla–La Mancha and to the north and west by Castile and León. It was formally created in 1983, in order to address the particular status of the City of Madrid as the national capital city and in urban hierarchy. Its limits are those of the province of Madrid, which was until then conventionally included in the historical region of New Castile (Castilla la Nueva).

The Community of Madrid is the third most populous in Spain with 6,825,005 (2022) inhabitants, roughly a seventh of the national total, mostly concentrated in the metropolitan area of Madrid. It is also the most densely populated autonomous community. Madrid has both the largest nominal GDP, slightly ahead of that of Catalonia, and the highest GDP per capita in the country. Madrid's economy is highly tertiarised, having a leading role in Spain's logistics and transportation.

The Community of Madrid is almost entirely comprised in the Tagus Basin, from the Central System (Sistema Central) reliefs in the north and northwest to the Tagus River bed in the southern border. The climate is generally temperate, ranging from mediterranean to semi-arid, except in the Central System highlands. It contains four World Heritage Sites: the Monastery and Royal Site of El Escorial, the university and historic centre of Alcalá de Henares, the cultural landscape of Aranjuez and the Paseo del Prado and Buen Retiro park in Madrid City. In addition, the Montejo Beech Forest is part of the transnational Ancient and Primeval Beech Forests of the Carpathians and Other Regions of Europe world heritage site.