Mallorca (in Catalan, Spanish, and English; also called Majorca in English) is one of the Balearic Islands (Catalan: Illes Balears, Spanish: las islas baleares), which are located in the Mediterranean Sea and are part of Spain. Like the other Balearic Islands Ibiza (Catalan: Eivissa), Formentera, and Menorca ("minor island", Catalan: Minorca), the island is a popular tourist destination. In the United Kingdom and Germany, where package tourism to Mallorca has been popular since the 1960s, it has become a synonym for mass tourism and also for birdwatchers. The name derives from Latin insula maior, "major island"; later Maiorica.

Palma de Mallorca is the major city and port in the island of Majorca and capital city of the autonomous community of the Balearic Islands in Spain. It is situated on the south coast of the island on the Bay of Palma. As of the 2005 census, the population of the city of Palma proper was 375,773, and the population of the entire urban area was estimated to be 474,035, ranking as the 12th-largest urban area of Spain. Almost half of the total population of Majorca live in Palma.

The archipelago of Cabrera, though widely separated from Palma proper, is administratively considered part of the municipality.

Its airport, Son Sant Joan, is one of the busiest in Europe.

The Marivent Palace was offered by the city to the then Prince Juan Carlos I of Spain. The royals have since spent their summer holidays in Palma.

Typical dishes of Mallorca are ensaïmada, a pastry made with pork lard (saïm) and sobrassada, sausage with lard and paprika.

Language

The local language is Catalan, with a great deal of dialectal variety when compared to the Catalan of other areas (Catalonia, Valencia) or even the other Balearic Islands. There is also a relatively large amount of variation between Mallorcan localities. In view of the diversity, the local language is often termed "Mallorcan" (mallorquí) or Balearic (balear) rather than the general term Catalan (català).

Despite several differences between Mallorcan and Central Catalan (spoken around Barcelona), islanders generally agree that they are varieties of the same language, whereas Valencians are more likely to deny that their language is Catalan.

Spanish also has the status of an official language, and many Spanish speakers moved from other parts of Spain to the island in the twentieth century. Young Mallorcans are typically bilingual in Catalan and Spanish, with some knowledge of English or German as a foreign language, especially due to the large number of tourists on the island.