Cármenes is a municipality in the province of León, in the autonomous community of Castile and León, Spain. It is located in the northern part of the country, within the mountainous terrain characteristic of the Leonese portion of the Cantabrian region.
At the 2011 census conducted by Spain's National Statistics Institute (INE), the municipality had a population of 448 inhabitants. The municipality covers a rural area made up of several small settlements rather than a single dense urban centre.
Cármenes is one of many sparsely populated municipalities in the province of León, a region where small administrative units and low population densities are common outside the provincial capital. Its administrative status as a municipality places it under the local governance structures of Castile and León.