⁶There is a tendency to consider groups of municipalities as metropolitan areas, although they do not present enough population nor urban structure. For the Algarve, a region with less than 500 000 resident inhabitants, the “GAMAL” –Great Metropolitan Area of Algarve– was officially created in 2004: the statutes have been published the 29 April on “Diário da República n^o 101– III Série”. In 2008, this denomination changed to “Comunidade Intermunicipal do Algarve” and the statues published the 19 December.