Villanueva de la Cañada is a municipality in the west of the Comunidad de Madrid (España), north-west of the city of Madrid. It borders Valdemorillo and Villanueva del Pardillo to the North, Majadahonda, Boadilla del Monte and Villaviciosa de Odón to the East, Brunete to the South and borders Quijorna to the West.
It has a resident population of 18,425 (INE 2012), which increases to almost 30,000 due to the Universidad Alfonso X el Sabio.
It covers an area of 34.92 km², 30 km from the capital. Geographically, it sits on a large plain, in which there are several promontories of rare height, on one of which is found the castle of Aulencia o de Villafranca, its principal monument.
There are numerous populated areas surrounding the edge of the urban centre, due to a strong push towards urbanisation of the municipality. Guadamonte, La Raya del Palancar, Villanueva del Pardillo...
Villafranca del Castillo is a luxury urbanisation that belong to the municipality. It covers over 173 hectares and has around 643 plots with a minimum area of 1500 m2 and a big meadow of 200000 m2 that cross the urbanisation from north to south. It has also within the urbanisation a shopping centre called Mocha Chica.
Villanueva de la Cañada is watered by the rivers Guadarrama and Aulencia, as well as various streams. The latter joins eventually the Guadarrama, which flows in turn into the Tajo.
Geologically, its limits form part of the depression of the Tajo and it is defined by the existence of many alluvial fields, with an average elevation of 652 metres.
The municipal limits of Villanueva de la Cañada are crossed by the following major roads:
Villanueva de la Cañada is connected by several coach lines: