The geographic distribution of the Spanish population is highly uneven. The provision of public services by local governments thus poses multifaceted challenges in rural and urban environments. However, the legal regime governing the management of these services does not take these differences into account: services can be provided directly by the local authority, or indirectly through third parties. This chapter contextualizes the provision of local public services in Spain, considering the existing gap between local government in rural and urban areas. To this end, I outline the main features of the current legal regime and use empirical data to identify the forms of public service management preferred in practice by rural and urban municipalities.