Catalan Countries

The Catalan countries (in Catalan: Països Catalans, abbreviated PPCC) are a cultural region of south-west Europe where Catalan is the native language and where Catalan culture is autochtonous. They include approximately the following territories:

• Northern Catalonia, that is the department of the Pyrénées-Orientales, in southern France, around Perpignan.
• Andorra, a sovereign state.
• The Western Strip (Franja de Ponent) in the East of the autonomous community of Aragon, in Spain.
• Catalonia, an autonomous community in Eastern Spain, around Barcelona.
• The Valencian Country, an autonomous community in Eastern Spain, around València.
• The Balearic Islands, an autonomous community in Eastern Spain, around Palma.
• The Carche, a little area in the autonomous community of Murcia, in Eastern Spain.
• Alghero, a city and a Catalan linguistic enclave in the island of Sardinia, in Italy.

The exact definition of the Catalan countries varies according to the criteria followed:

• According to strict linguistic criteria, some non-Catalan-speaking areas should not be included the Catalan countries. These are the Occitan area of the Fenouillèdes in the Pyrénées-Orientales, the Occitan area of Aran Valley in Catalonia and the peripherical Spanish-speaking areas of the Valencian Country.
• However, according to administrative criteria, some Catalan activists think that those Occitan- and Spanish-speaking areas should be seen as parts of the Catalan countries, but not the enclave of Alghero which they consider too remote.

Some Catalan activists wish to call the whole of the Catalan countries Catalonia (Catalunya in Catalan).