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List of urban areas in the European Union

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This is a list of all the urban areas of the European Union which have greater than 750,000 inhabitants each in 2010.

This list is an attempt to present a consistent list of population figures for urban areas in the European Union. All the figures here have been compiled by Demographia.

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 typically 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.
  • This is a list of urban areas, not a list of administrative 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.
  • The study of urban areas is useful to analyse 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 analysis 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 sometimes listed with 14 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 are typically smaller than metropolitan areas. 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 over 750,000 inhabitants

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Paris

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London

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Ruhr area (Essen)

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Madrid

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Milan

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Barcelona

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Athens

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Berlin

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Naples

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Rome

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File:Katowice Finanse Center.JPG
Katowice (Upper-Silesian Metropolis)

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Lisbon

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Frankfurt

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Rank Urban Area State Population
(2008 est.) 		Density (per km²) Annual growth rate (%)
1 Paris  France 10,195,000 3,400 0.83
2 London  United Kingdom 8,580,000 5,100 0.07
3 Ruhr area (Ruhrgebiet)  Germany 7,290,000 2,750 0.01
4 Madrid  Spain 5,390,000 5,200 0.27
5 Milan  Italy 4,345,000 1,750 -0.16
6 Barcelona  Spain 4,200,000 4,850 0.12
7 Athens  Greece 3,765,000 5,400 0.29
8 Berlin  Germany 3,700,000 3,750 0.00
9 Naples  Italy 3,020,000 3,850 -0.13
10 Rome  Italy 2,715,000 3,200 -0.16
11 Katowice (Upper-Silesian Metropolis)  Poland 2,500,000 4,400 0.11
12 Lisbon  Portugal 2,385,000 2,550 0.39
13 Frankfurt  Germany 2,295,000 3,350 0.50
14 West Midlands (Greater Birmingham)  United Kingdom 2,290,000 3,800 -0.03
15 Greater Manchester  United Kingdom 2,240,000 4,000 -0.03
16 Rotterdam-The Hague  Netherlands 2,100,000 2,450 0.39
17 Budapest  Hungary 2,055,000 2,350 -0.19
18 Cologne/Bonn  Germany 2,050,000 2,100 0.50
19 Warsaw  Poland 2,035,000 3,700 0.67
20 Bucharest  Romania 1,995,000 7,000 0.10[1]
21 Hamburg  Germany 1,975,000 2,700 0.43[1] 22 Valencia  Spain 1.832.274 4,300 0.29[1]
23 Munich  Germany 1,770,000 3,600 0.72[1]
23 Vienna  Austria 1,665,000 3,400 1.04[1]
24 Brussels  Belgium 1,630,000 2,150 0.02[1]
25 Copenhagen  Denmark 1,535,000 2,350 0.04[1]
26 Leeds-Bradford  United Kingdom 1,535,000 4,050 0.24[1]
27 Lyon  France 1,440,000 1,400 0.50[1]
28 Marseille--Aix-en-Provence  France 1,420,000 (2006) 1,100 0.46[1]
29 Turin  Italy 1,315,000 2,750 -0.16[1]
30 Dublin  Ireland 1,290,000 2,800 1.14[1]
31 Stockholm  Sweden 1,280,000 2,700 0.58[1]
32 Stuttgart  Germany 1,270,000 3,000
33 Helsinki  Finland 1,220,000 (2000) 2,250 0.81[1]
34 Greater Glasgow  United Kingdom 1,195,000 3,250 0.07[1]
35 Prague  Czech Republic 1,195,000 4,200 -0.07[1]
37 Porto  Portugal 1,115,000 2,650 1.05[1]
38 Amsterdam  Netherlands 1,100,000 (2005) 2,650 0.41[1]
39 Lille--Kortrijk  France,  Belgium 1,050,000 (1999) 2,200 0.50[1]
40 Sofia  Bulgaria 1,050,000 (2001) 5,050 0.78[1]
41 Nuremberg  Germany 1,020,000 (2001) 3,050
42 Nice  France 955,000 1,250 0.52[1]
43 Antwerp  Belgium 920,000 1,400 0.05[1]
44 Łódź  Poland 910,000 5,250 -0.67[1]
45 Tyneside  United Kingdom 890,000 4,150 0.16[1]
46 Toulouse  France 875,000 950 0.72[1]
47 Bordeaux  France 820,000 700 0.60[1]
48 Liverpool Urban Area  United Kingdom 815,000 4,400 0.11[1]
49 Thessaloniki  Greece 800,000 (2001) 4,100 0.39[1]
50 Gdańsk  Poland 775,000 (2002) 5,000
51 Palermo  Italy 755,000 5,150 0.12[1]
52 Florence  Italy 750,000 (2001) 2,750
53 Riga  Latvia 750,000 (2005)
54 Seville  Spain 750,000 (2001) 5,550
55 Bilbao  Spain 750,000 (2001) 5,800

Non EU urban areas

EFTA countries

Two European Free Trade Association countries have urban areas that would be included in the list if they were EU member states.

Urban Area State Population Density (per km²) Growth rate (%)
Oslo  Norway 880,000 2,450 0.99[1]
Zürich  Switzerland 850,000 3,650 0.35[1]

Non EFTA Countries

Some very large European urban areas are excluded since they are not part of an EU member state:

Urban Area State Population remarks
Moscow  Russia 13,675,000
Istanbul  Turkey 13,135,000 incl. the Asian part of the city
Saint Petersburg  Russia 4,530,000
Kiev  Ukraine 2,565,000
Minsk  Belarus 1,780,000
Baku  Azerbaijan 1,650,000
Kharkov  Ukraine 1,590,000
Nizhni Novgorod  Russia 1,455,000
Donetsk  Ukraine 1,350,000
Dnepropetrovsk  Ukraine 1,100,000
Samara  Russia 1,075,000
Kazan  Russia 1,065,000

See also

References

Figures without citations are from Demographia: World Urban Areas

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa ab ac ad ae United Nations: World Urbanization Prospects

External links

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