Palma, also known as Palma de Mallorca (officially between 1983 and 1988, 2006–08, and 2012–16), is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of the Balearic Islands in Spain. It is situated on the south coast of Mallorca on the Bay of Palma. The Cabrera Archipelago, though widely separated from Palma proper, is administratively considered part of the municipality.
Palma was founded as a Roman camp upon the remains of a Talaiotic settlement. The city was subjected to several Vandal raids during the fall of the Western Roman Empire, then reconquered by the Byzantine Empire, then colonised by the Moors (who called it Medina Mayurqa) and, in the 13th century, by James I of Aragon.
Palma is a major city and seaport located in the southwest of Mallorca, a western Mediterranean island belonging to the Balearic Islands archipelago. The land area of the city is about 21.355 square kilometres (8.245 sq mi) with an altitude of 13 metres (43 feet) above sea level.
As of the 2022 census, the population of the city of Palma proper was 415,940,] and the population of the entire urban area was 550,000, making it the twelfth largest urban area of Spain. By the start of 2019, the population of the city had risen to 416,065. Almost half of the total population of Mallorca lives in Palma.
As of 2017 over 60,000 non-Spanish foreigners registered with the town hall lived in Palma; the registered foreign population from 2016 to 2017 declined by 832, the numerically highest decline in the Balearics.[23]