There are almost 91 thousand territorial authorities in Europe, the vast majority of which are municipalities (89,700), to which must be added provinces and regions. 60% of them are only in France, Italy and Spain. On the average, a European municipality has 5,580 citizens, ranging from 1,680 in the Czech Republic to over 150 thousand in Great Britain. This is what emerged from a joint CCRE-Dexia report, outlining the financial structure of these institutions and providing data on the distribution of EU funds received in the last years. Between 2007 and 2013, the municipalities that obtained and will obtain most part of the financing are in Poland, Spain and Italy. Finally, with regard to the importance of local authorities in the welfare system, the document reveals that they contribute to 40% of the entire European public spending allocated for education and social services.
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