Largest urban areas of the European Union
This is a list of all the urban areas of the European Union which have more than 750,000 inhabitants in 2005.
This list is an attempt to present a consistent list of population figures for urban areas in the European Union. Many of the figures here have been compiled by a research group at the University of Avignon, France, using a uniform definition but a considerable part of the figures have different sources, therefore one has to be careful when using this list to make comparisons between urban areas. The list was designed in 2000, and some of the figures for 2005 presented here have been calculated by grossing up the 2000 figures using the respective 1990-2000 population growth rates and some figures for 2005 come from different sources. It is possible that a few urban areas may have experienced a different growth pattern since 2000, and more importantly that because of urban sprawl some urban areas have become connected since, therefore the "2005 update" of this list should be interpreted with the necessary care.
Contents |
Important notes
- This is a list of urban areas, not a list of metropolitan areas. Urban areas are contiguous built-up areas where houses are not more than 200 metres apart (discounting rivers, parks, roads, industrial fields, etc.). A metropolitan area is an urban area plus the satellite cities around the urban area and the agricultural land in between. Yet, sometimes the metropolitan area of a city may also be smaller than the urban area. The list below contains for instance the urban area of Lille-Kortrijk. Geographically it may be a continuously built-up area, however both cities speak a different language, belong to different countries and have a different culture and hence there is only limited interaction between both cities. Therefore the metropolitan area of Lille will be smaller than the Lille - Kortrijk urban area. For a ranking of the European metropolitan areas, see Largest European metropolitan areas.
- This is a list of urban areas, not a list of cities. The list below contains for instance the urban area of Lille-Kortrijk. Lille and Kortrijk remain two very distinct cities, each belonging to a different country, culture and language area. For a list of the largest cities of the European Union by population, please see Largest cities of the European Union by population within city limits.
- This is not a harmonized list, as the University of Avignon, France, has not calculated each of the urban areas on the list. Unfortunately Eurostat does not calculate the urban areas of the European Union. Yet Eurostat and the European Commission - for the purposes of their urban audits [1] - use the definition of Larger Urban Zone, which defines the area that constitutes the functional city. In addition, Eurostat and the European Commission have defined two further spatial levels, being the City Level and Sub-City District. All National Statistics Offices in the European Union have agreed on these new definitions since 2003. See "Largest cities and metropolitan areas in the European Union (Eurostat)" for a harmonized ranking of cities and metropolitan areas in the European Union using the definitions of Eurostat and the European Commission.
- The study of urban areas is useful to analyze how cities develop, which in turn can be used to define transportation, planning and environmental policies, to adjust administrative boundaries etc. At the same time its limitations have to be acknowledged. It is a purely geographic study and disregards all other factors that contribute to the analyzis of the functional city. For instance, several cities in the European Union such as Brussels and London have introduced green belts which impacts the urban area but not the "perceived city" as these green belts have now become integrated in what people consider to be the functional city. Furthermore the list does not make a difference between cities that have multiple satellites and cities that do not. Therefore two cities with the same demographics for their urban area will have an equal ranking on this list, even if one of the two cities may be much larger as it is the core of a number of satellites.
- Please do not be surprised if you are used to higher figures for the cities listed below. London is frequently listed with 13 million inhabitants, Stuttgart is frequently listed with 2.2 million inhabitants, Munich with 2 million or more, etc. This is because figures here are only for urban areas, which can be smaller than metropolitan areas. Also do not be surprised if you are used to lower figures for some of the cities listed below as the metropolitan area can be smaller than the urban area. Urban areas can be computed by private people or institutions using maps and looking where the built-up area stops. Metropolitan areas, which imply much more complicated definitions (such as the proportion of people in satellite cities working in the core of the metropolitan area), can be accurately computed only by statistical offices, after they have chosen a definition for metropolitan areas.
Urban areas of the European Union above 750,000 inhabitants
| Rank | Urban Area | Population (2005 est.) | Change p.a. (1990s avg.) |
|---|---|---|---|
1  | Paris, France | 10 136 000 | 0.21% |
2  | London, United Kingdom | 8 505 000 | 0.68% |
3  | Madrid, Spain[1] | 5 561 748 | 0.32% |
4  | Ruhr area, Germany | 5.317.565 | – 0.14% |
| 5 | Barcelona, Spain[2] | 5 082 126 | 0.95% |
6  | Milan, Italy | 4 282 000 | 0.00% |
| 7 | Berlin, Germany | 3 675 000 | |
8  | Upper Silesian Metropolitan Area, Poland | 3 487 000 | – 0.95% |
9  | Rotterdam-The Hague, Netherlands | 3 345 000 | 0.50% |
10  | Athens, Greece | 3 247 000 | 0.37% |
| 11 | Naples, Italy | 2 905 000 | 0.00% |
12  | Lisbon, Portugal | 2 760 000 | 0.27% |
| 13 | Rome, Italy | 2 628 000 | – 0.85% |
| 14 | Cologne-Bonn, Germany | 2 475 000 | 0.63% |
| 15 | South Ruhr-Düsseldorf-Wuppertal, Germany | 2 382 000 | 0.14% |
| 16 | Hamburg, Germany | 2 293 000 | 0.54% |
| 17 | Birmingham-Wolverhampton (West Midlands), United Kingdom | 2 275 000 | – 0.10% |
| 18 | Greater Manchester, United Kingdom | 2 237 000 | – 0.09% |
19  | Budapest, Hungary | 2 228 000 | – 0.60% |
20  | Vienna, Austria | 2,165,357 | 0.25% |
| 21 | Warsaw, Poland | 2 069 000 | 0.01% |
22  | Brussels, Belgium | 1 975 000 | 0.52% |
| 23 | Porto, Portugal | 1 801 000 | 0.71% |
| 24 | Glasgow, United Kingdom | 1,749,154 | – 0.26% |
| 25 | Munich, Germany | 1 656 000 | 0.20% |
| 26 | Leeds-Bradford (Leeds-Bradford) (West Yorkshire), United Kingdom | 1 520 000 | 0.35% |
| 27 | Frankfurt, Germany | 1 489 000 | 0.29% |
| 28 | Lyon, France | 1 465 000 | 0.46% |
29  | Copenhagen, Denmark | 1 417 000 | 0.39% |
30  | Sofia, Bulgaria | 1,377,761 | |
| 31 | Marseille, France | 1 374 000 | 0.29% |
32   | Lille-Kortrijk, France & Belgium | 1 368 000 | 0.19% |
| 33 | Valencia, Spain | 1 362 000 | 0.10% |
34  | Stockholm, Sweden | 1 273 000 | 1.08% |
| 35 | Stuttgart, Germany | 1 239 000 | 0.30% |
| 36 | Amsterdam, Netherlands | 1 196 000 | 0.64% |
| 37 | Bielefeld, Germany | 1 184 000 | 0.65% |
| 38 | Turin, Italy | 1 182 000 | – 0.95% |
39  | Prague, Czech Republic | 1 161 000 | – 0.36% |
| 40 | Liverpool-Birkenhead (Merseyside), United Kingdom | 1 119 000 | – 0.34% |
| 41 | Antwerp, Belgium | 1 094 000 | 0.27% |
| 42 | Seville, Spain | 1 072 000 | 0.56% |
43  | Helsinki, Finland | 1 071 000 | 1.46% |
| 44 | Newcastle-Sunderland (Tyne and Wear), United Kingdom | 1 056 000 | – 0.16% |
| 45 | Trójmiasto (Tricity), Gdansk-Sopot-Gdynia, Poland | 1 041 066 | 0.05% |
46  | Dublin, Republic of Ireland | 1 032 000 | 0.89% |
| 47 | Łódź, Poland | 972 000 | – 0.59% |
| 48 | Bilbao, Spain | 919 000 | – 0.35% |
| 49 | Nice, France | 912 000 | 0.42% |
| 50 | Mannheim, Germany | 907 000 | 0.29% |
51  | Riga, Latvia | 893 000 | – 1.36% |
| 52 | Florence, Italy | 874 000 | – 0.54% |
| 53 | Malaga, Spain | 865 000 | |
| 54 | Toulouse, France | 863 000 | 1.47% |
| 55 | Bremen, Germany | 861 000 | 0.27% |
| 56 | Thessaloniki, Greece | 828 000 | 0.67% |
| 57 | Bordeaux, France | 811 000 | 0.63% |
| 58 | Genoa, Italy | 803 000 | – 1.01% |
| 59 | Braga, Portugal | 798 137 | 1.27% |
| 60 | Cracow, Poland | 794 000 | 0.37% |
| 61 | Hannover, Germany | 768 000 | 0.25% |
| 62 | Nuremberg, Germany | 765 000 | 0.24% |
Notes
EFTA countries
Two European Free Trade Association countries have urban areas that would be included in the list if they were EU member states.
| Rank | Urban Area | Population | Annual change (1990s) |
|---|---|---|---|
1 (47)  | Zürich, Switzerland | 1 011 000 | 0.19% |
2 (58)  | Oslo, Norway | 810 000 | 1.09% |
Five fastest growing urban areas of the European Union
| Rank | Urban Area | Annual change (1990s) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Toulouse, France | 1.47% |
| 2 | Helsinki, Finland | 1.46% |
| 3 | Braga, Portugal | 1.27% |
| 4 | Stockholm, Sweden | 1.08% |
| 5 | Dublin, Republic of Ireland | 0.89% |
Five fastest declining urban areas of the European Union
| Rank | Urban Area | Annual change (1990s) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Riga, Latvia | – 1.36% |
| 2 | Genoa, Italy | – 1.01% |
| 3 | Katowice, Poland | – 0.95% |
| 3 | Turin, Italy | – 0.95% |
| 5 | Rome, Italy | – 0.85% |
Sources
- Geopolis research group at the University of Avignon, France for the majority of urban areas in the list
- Population of urban areas provided by UK National Statistics for UK urban areas
- Population Classified by Area provided by the Central Statistics Office of Ireland for Irish urban areas
- Bank of Regional Data of the Polish Central Statistical Office for Polish urban areas
- Latest 2004 population estimates of French cities by INSEE for revised figures for Paris, Lyon, Toulouse, and Bordeaux (the growth pattern in these urban areas during 1999-2004 is significantly higher than during 1990-1999)
- Czech Statistical Office for Czech urban areas
- Citypopulation.de for Latvian urban areas
- [5] for portuguese Statistics National Institute
- Norwegian, Swedish, Danish, Finnish, and Greek statistical offices for urban areas of these countries
References
- ^ "Urban Audit", European Commission, 2006.
See also
- Largest Cities of the European Union by population
- Largest cities and metropolitan areas in the European Union (Eurostat)
- Largest European metropolitan areas
- World Urban Areas All urbanized areas 500,000+ and others: Population & Density
Categories
European Union-related lists