In Spain, a comarca is either a traditional territorial division without any formal basis, or a group of municipalities, legally defined by an autonomous community for the purpose of providing common local government services. In English, a comarca is equivalent to a district, county, area or zone.

In Andalusia, comarcas have no defined administrative powers; many municipalities have gathered together to form mancomunidades in order to provide basic services, but those do not always coincide with the traditional comarcas. The current (2007) Statute of Autonomy of Andalusia, unlike its 1981 predecessor, allows for the establishment and regulation of official comarcas under its Title III, Article 97, which defines the significance of comarcas and sets the basis for future legislation in this area.