Mapping functional areas in Spain using mobile positioning data Molina Belmonte, Jesús Camacho Ballesta, José Antonio Rodríguez Molina, Mercedes Administrative classifications Commuting Functional areas The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: The authors thank the support of the project “Active employment policies and heterogeneity in the labor market: an approximation through Local Labor Markets in Andalucía” [PRY184/19] financed by the Fundación Pública Andaluza Centro de Estudios Andaluces. To be effective, territorial development policies must rely on information collected at a proper spatial scale. This commentary compares functional and administrative geographies. We go beyond metropolitan areas and map functional areas across the entire national territory of Spain. These functional areas are delineated using commuting flows based on mobile positioning data. The results obtained revealed the existence of a substantial number of functional areas that do not belong to one sole region. This indicates that there is a discrepancy between the socioeconomic reality and the administrative areas employed for territorial development policy purposes. Functional areas could be particularly useful to address policy challenges in issues like labor market functioning, transport planning, housing, or public service provision. 2026-02-26T11:17:25Z 2026-02-26T11:17:25Z 2022-01-21 journal article Published version: Rodríguez, M.; Molina, J., & Camacho, J. A. (2022). Mapping functional areas in Spain using mobile positioning data. European Urban and Regional Studies, 29(2), pp. 145-151. https://doi.org/10.1177/09697764211066258 0969-7764 1461-7145 https://hdl.handle.net/10481/111583 10.1177/09697764211066258 eng open access SAGE Publications