Castres has teamed up with the nearby town of Mazamet ( southeast of Castres) and the independent suburbs and villages in between to create the Greater Castres-Mazamet Council ("Communauté d'agglomération de Castres-Mazamet"), which was established in January 2000 (succeeding a previous district which had been created in 1993 with fewer powers than the current council). The Greater Castres-Mazamet Council groups 16 independent communes (including Castres and Mazamet), with a total population of 79,988 inhabitants (at the 1999 census), 54% of these living in the commune of Castres proper, 13% in the commune of Mazamet, and the rest in the communes in between.