The SCG is one of the affiliated institutions of the Institut d'Estudis Catalans - IEC, a historical academic consortium for the development of scientific knowledge and the promotion of Catalan culture created in 1907 by Enric Prat de la Riba.

The SCG was founded in 1935 as a branch of the IEC and annexed to its Department of Sciences. It first president was Pau Vila that proudly represented the two traditional sides of the interest in geography of Catalan Civil society: the excursionist associations and the school teacher's interest.

In 1901 the Sociedad Geográfica de Madrid, created in 1876, was granted by King Alfonso XIII the rank of royal society.

Like many other 19th-century European geographical societies, it was born in close relation to the political power. In fact, many other members were well-known politicians, among them several Prime Ministers as well as all kind of public men and scientists (geographers, cartographers, engineers, historians, geologists, etc.) engineers or army officers. At present, with around 400 members, the Real Sociedad Geográfica (R.S.G.) keeps sharing with the historic one a similar composition of their members and an extensive idea of the geographic knowledge.