Larger Urban Zones

Eurostat, the European Union's statistical agency, has created the concept of Larger Urban Zone (LUZ) in an effort to harmonise definitions of urbanisation in the European Union and in countries outside the European Union. These definitions were agreed between Eurostat and the National Statistics Offices of the different countries of the European Union at the European Commission's Urban Audit of 2004. LUZs have been criticised for their insufficient harmonisation of data, which are still collected by national governments within local administrative units, making it sometimes difficult to compare LUZs from different countries. In 2006, about a third of the LUZ definitions were changed, significantly improving the comparability of LUZ definitions across different countries. Several cities, such as Marseille, Lille and Nice, are excluded by definition from the list of LUZs on technical, definitional grounds, such as the coincidence of the metropolitan area with the urban zone.

The latest round of the Urban Audit also added cities from candidate countries and EFTA countries.

Eurostat's urban definitions

The list below shows the population sizes of cities in the European Union as well as candidate countries and non-EU EFTA countries. The list is limited to those cities whose Larger Urban Zones (LUZ) have populations of at least 500,000. The LUZ represents an attempt at a harmonised definition of the metropolitan area. Eurostat's objective was to have an area from a significant share of the resident commute into the city, a concept known as the "functional urban region." To ensure a good data availability, Eurostat adjusts the LUZ boundaries to administrative boundaries that approximate the functional urban region.

Ranking methodology

The list below contains the cities in the European Union and associated countries that participated in the third round of the Urban Audit programme. The cities are ranked by the size of the population of the Larger Urban Zone. The figures in the Eurostat database are an attempt at a compromise between harmonised data for all of the European Union, and with availability of statistical data, making comparisons more accurate. The data used is from the 2006 Urban Audit III, which uses information collected for 2004.

List of LUZs by population

Although the latest round of the Urban Audit also added cities from EFTA countries (Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland) and EU candidate countries, the only candidate country for which there is available data is Turkey. Croatia, the Republic of Macedonia and Montenegro are also current candidate countries, and received that status in 2004, 2005 and 2010 respectively.

Rank	City name	Country	LUZ population	LUZ area (km²)	Population Density (per km²)
1	London	United Kingdom	11,905,500	8,920	1336
2	Paris	France	11,532,409	12,079.87	918
3	Istanbul	Turkey	11,044,642
4	Madrid	Spain	5,804,829	8,022	724
5	Ruhr Area	Germany	5,302,179	4,435	1196
6	Berlin	Germany	4,971,331	17,385	286
7	Barcelona	Spain	4,440,629	1,796.64	2356
8	Athens	Greece	4,013,368	3,806.92	1054
9	Ankara	Turkey	3,708,047
10	Rome	Italy	3,457,690	3,666.66	943
11	Hamburg	Germany	3,134,620	7,304	429
12	Milan	Italy	3,076,643	1,348.32	2282
13	Katowice	Poland	2,710,397	2,650.65	1023
14	Stuttgart	Germany	2,663,660	3,654	729
15	Warsaw	Poland	2,660,406	5,198.52	512
16	Munich	Germany	2,531,706	5,504	460
17	Budapest	Hungary	2,524,697	2,538	943
18	Frankfurt	Germany	2,517,561	4,305	585
19	Izmir	Turkey	2,440,902
20	Lisbon	Portugal	2,435,837	1,432.49	1700
21	Birmingham	United Kingdom	2,284,093	1,598	1475
22	Naples	Italy	2,253,964	564.95	3990
23	Manchester	United Kingdom	2,240,230	1,280	1984
24	Vienna	Austria	2,179,769	4,610.93	473
25	Bucharest	Romania	2,140,194	662	3233
26	Prague	Czech Republic	1,964,750	6,977	282
27	Cologne	Germany	1,873,580	1,626	1152
28	Stockholm	Sweden	1,860,872	6,519	285
29	Copenhagen	Denmark	1,806,667	2,759	655
30	Brussels	Belgium	1,800,663	1,613.91	1116
31	Glasgow	United Kingdom	1,747,100	3,346	522
32	Turin	Italy	1,745,221	1,878.97	929
33	Lyon	France	1,717,300	5,997.68	286
34	Valencia	Spain	1,564,145	1,440.58	1086
35	Dublin	Ireland	1,535,446	114.99	4,588
36	Düsseldorf	Germany	1,525,029	1,201	1270
37	Leeds	United Kingdom	1,499,465	5,114	468
38	Bursa Bursa	Turkey	1,458,067
39	Amsterdam	Netherlands	1,443,258	859.28	1680
40	Adana Adana	Turkey	1,384,680
41	Liverpool	United Kingdom	1,365,900	821	1664
42	Bielefeld	Germany	1,297,876	2,921	444
43	Hanover	Germany	1,294,447	2,966	436
44	Nuremberg	Germany	1,288,797	2,934	439
45	Sheffield	United Kingdom	1,277,100	1,846	692
46	Kraków	Poland	1,264,322	2,988.65	423
47	Sofia	Bulgaria	1,263,807	3,424.2	369
48	Seville	Spain	1,249,346	3,081.9	405
49	Bremen	Germany	1,249,291	5,885	213
50	Helsinki	Finland	1,224,107	2,969.94	412
51	Rotterdam	Netherlands	1,186,818	611.75	1940
52	Łódź	Poland	1,163,516	2,857.51	407
53	Ostrava	Czech Republic	1,153,876	3,896	296
54	Zagreb	Croatia	1,110,517	3,719	299
55	Zürich	Switzerland	1,110,478	1,086.14	1022
56	Gdańsk	Poland	1,105,203	3,457.32	320
57	Porto	Portugal	1,099,040	562.32	1954
58	Oslo	Norway	1,090,513	6,920	158
59	Tyne and Wear	United Kingdom	1,055,600	3,385	312
60	Toulouse	France	1,052,497	4,706.93	224
61	Gaziantep !	Turkey	1,042,732
62	Wrocław	Poland	1,031,439	4,582.2	225
63	Poznań	Poland	1,018,511	3,719.2	274
64	Bristol	United Kingdom	1,006,600	1,635	616
65	Riga	Latvia	1,003,949	5,382.5	187
66	Thessaloniki	Greece	995,766	1,455.62
67	Bordeaux	France	981,370
67	The Hague	Netherlands	978,161
69	Bilbao	Spain	939,994
70	Konya	Turkey	919,433
71	Antwerp	Belgium	915,258
72	Bonn	Germany	908,503
73	Leipzig	Germany	904,401
74	Dresden	Germany	902,067
75	Göteborg	Sweden	873,335
76	Saarbrücken	Germany	855,317
77	Palermo	Italy	855,285
78	Vilnius	Lithuania	850,300
79	Cardiff	United Kingdom	841,600
80	Nottingham	United Kingdom	825,600
81	Diyarbakir	Turkey	814,874
82	Antalya	Turkey	814,685
83	Genoa	Italy	800,709
84	Edinburgh	United Kingdom	787,700
85	Córdoba	Spain	779,870	13,771
86	Szczecin	Poland	777,806
87	Leicester	United Kingdom	772,400
88	Nantes	France	751,085
89	Bologna	Italy	743,965
90	Brno	Czech Republic	728,101
91	Karlsruhe	Germany	712,475
92	Málaga	Spain	699,916
93	Florence	Italy	696,767
94	Zaragoza	Spain	685,873
95	Kayseri	Turkey	675,734
96	Badajoz	Spain	663,896	21,766
97	Aarhus	Denmark	653,472
98	Lublin	Poland	652,642	2,883	226
99	Coventry	United Kingdom	651,000
100	Kiel !	Germany	641,905
101	Belfast	United Kingdom	641,638
102	Strasbourg	France	634,275
103	Augsburg	Germany	629,139
104	Liège	Belgium	626,357
105	Las Palmas de Gran Canaria	Spain	625,892
106	Bari	Italy	623,298
107	Freiburg im Breisgau	Germany	618,467
108	Venice	Italy	612,245
109	Padua	Italy	605,709
110	Izmit	Turkey	601,351
111	Bratislava	Slovakia	601,132
112	Palma	Spain	593,386
113	Magdeburg	Germany	588,875
114	Bydgoszcz	Poland	582,927
115	Kingston upon Hull	United Kingdom	573,300
116	Catania	Italy	572,302
117	Utrecht	Netherlands	564,485
118	Verona	Italy	563,952
119	Rennes	France	553,579
120	Malmö	Sweden	550,289
121	Vigo	Spain	548,799
122	Erfurt	Germany	543,226
123	Grenoble	France	541,888
124	Linz	Austria	532,995
125	Bialystok	Poland	523,958
126	Tallinn	Estonia	521,410
127	Rouen	France	519,318
128	Malatya	Turkey	501,849

Urban Audit

Eurostat's Urban Audit is about much more than demographics. In order for it to be useful as a policy tool to the European Commission and other authorities it contains data for over 250 indicators across the following domains:

• Demography
• Social Aspects
• Economic Aspects
• Civic Involvement
• Training and Education
• Environment
• Travel and Transport
• Information Society
• Culture and Recreation

See also

• Largest cities of the European Union by population within city limits
• Largest urban areas of the European Union
• List of metropolitan areas in Europe by population
• Largest metropolitan areas in the Nordic countries
• List of metropolitan areas in Sweden
• World's largest cities

External links

• GMES Urban Atlas: PDF files, ZIP files
• Eurostat: European cities
• Eurostat: Total population in Urban Audit cities, Larger Urban Zone