Castellón

Castellón (Catalan: Castelló) may refer to:

Places

People

Sport

Province of Castellón

Castellón (Spanish: [kasteˈʎon]) or Castelló (Valencian: [kasteˈʎo]) is a province in the northern part of the Valencian Community, Spain. It is bordered by the provinces of Valencia to the south, Teruel to the west, Tarragona to the north, and by the Mediterranean Sea to the east. The western side of the province is in the mountainous Sistema Ibérico area.

Castellón's capital is Castellón de la Plana (Catalan: Castelló de la Plana). The province had a population of 501,237 in 2002, 30% of whom were residing in the capital, 60% in its metropolitan area, and 85% along the coastline. As of 2012, the population had since grown to 604,564 people. The province, and in particular its idle large airport, has become a symbol of the wasteful spending and corruption prior to the 2008–13 Spanish financial crisis.

It is a bilingual territory, with many inhabitants speaking both Spanish and the local, co-official language of Valencian. The relation of the latter to the very closely related and mutually understandable Catalan is a source of some controversy.

Castellón (Spanish Congress Electoral District)

Castellón is one of the 52 electoral districts (Spanish: circunscripciones) used for the Spanish Congress of Deputies - the lower chamber of the Spanish Parliament, the Cortes Generales. It was first contested in modern times in the 1977 General Election. It is one of three districts which correspond to the provinces of the autonomous community of Valencia. Castellón de la Plana is the largest town with just over a quarter of the electorate. Villarreal is the only other municipality with an electorate over 30,000. The constituency produced a close result in 2004 although the People's Party (PP) increased their lead over the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) in 2008.

Boundaries and electoral system

Under Article 68 of the Spanish constitution the boundaries must be the same as the province of Castellón and under Article 140 this can only be altered with the approval of congress. Voting is on the basis of universal suffrage in a secret ballot. The electoral system used is closed list proportional representation with seats allocated using the D'Hondt method. Only lists which poll 3% or more of all valid votes cast, including votes "en blanco" i.e. for "none of the above" can be considered for seats. Under article 12 of the constitution, the minimum voting age is 18.