| Cuenca | |
| Type: | Province |
| Coordinates: | 40°N -2°W |
| Subdivision Type: | Country |
| Subdivision Name: | Spain |
| Subdivision Type1: | Autonomous community |
| Subdivision Name1: | Castilla-La Mancha |
| Seat Type: | Capital |
| Seat: | Cuenca |
| Leader Party: | PP |
| Leader Title: | President |
| Leader Name: | Benjamín Prieto |
| Area Total Km2: | 17141 |
| Area Rank: | Ranked 5th |
| Blank Name Sec1: | Official language(s) |
| Blank Info Sec1: | Spanish |
| Population Total: | 218,036 |
| Population As Of: | 2012 |
| Population Rank: | Ranked 44th |
| Population Density Km2: | auto |
| Population Demonym: | Spanish; Castilian: Conquense |
| Blank Name Sec2: | Parliament |
| Blank Info Sec2: | Cortes Generales |
| Blank1 Name Sec2: | Congress seats |
| Blank2 Name Sec2: | Senate seats |
| Website: | dipucuenca.es |
Cuenca (pronounced as /es/) is one of the five provinces of the autonomous community of Castilla-La Mancha. It is located in the eastern part of this autonomous community and covers 17,141 square km. It has a population of 203,841 inhabitants – the least populated of the five provinces. Its capital city is also called Cuenca.
The province is bordered by the provinces of Valencia (including its exclave Rincón de Ademuz), Albacete, Ciudad Real, Toledo, Madrid, Guadalajara, and Teruel. The northeastern side of the province is in the mountainous Sistema Ibérico area.
211,375 people (2007) live in the province. Its capital is Cuenca, where nearly a quarter of the population live, some 52,980 people. There are 238 municipalities in Cuenca.
Other populous towns and municipalities include Tarancón, San Clemente, Quintanar del Rey, Huete, Villanueva de la Jara, Motilla del Palancar, Mota del Cuervo, La Almarcha, and Las Pedroñeras.
In 1851, Cuenca lost Requena-Utiel to the neighbouring Valencia Province, with which it was developing commercial ties. Nevertheless, Requena-Utiel remained Spanish-speaking (rather than Catalan), while the loss of its most dynamic region left the province of Cuenca relatively underdeveloped economically.
The historical population is given in the following chart:
ImageSize = width:600 height:auto barincrement:30PlotArea = left:40 bottom:40 top:20 right:20DateFormat = x.yPeriod = from:0 till:350TimeAxis = orientation:horizontalAlignBars = lateScaleMajor = gridcolor:darkgrey increment:50 start:0ScaleMinor = gridcolor:lightgrey increment:10 start:0BackgroundColors = canvas:sfondo
PlotData= color:skyblue width:20 shift:(-50,-5) fontsize:M anchor:till bar:1877 from:0 till:239 text:238,991 bar:1887 from:0 till:246 text:245,699 bar:1900 from:0 till:251 text:250,755 bar:1910 from:0 till:272 text:271,748 bar:1920 from:0 till:288 text:287,507 bar:1930 from:0 till:315 text:314,633 bar:1940 from:0 till:341 text:340,549 bar:1950 from:0 till:344 text:344,033 bar:1960 from:0 till:329 text:328,554 bar:1970 from:0 till:252 text:251,619 bar:1980 from:0 till:216 text:215,975 bar:1990 from:0 till:205 text:205,198 bar:2000 from:0 till:200 text:200,346 bar:2010 from:0 till:215 text:215,165 bar:2020 from:0 till:196 text:196,139TextData= pos:(35,20) fontsize:M text:"Source: Instituto Nacional de Estadística, INE"