List of urban areas in the European Union

This is a list of urban areas in the European Union with over 500,000 inhabitants as of 2022. The data comes from Demographia and the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs.[1][2] Demographia provides figures for urban areas (including conurbations),[1] while the UN DESA figures are for agglomerations only.[2] For comparison, Function Urban Area (FUA) population figures by Eurostat are also provided,[3] however, these measure the wider metropolitan areas.

Important notes edit

  • 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 m apart, not including rivers, parks, roads, industrial fields, etc. A metropolitan area is an urban area plus any satellite cities around it and any agricultural land in between. For instance Paris is sometimes listed with 12 million inhabitants, Stuttgart is frequently listed with 2.2 million inhabitants, Munich with 2 million or more, etc., indicating the wider metropolitan area of those places. 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, whereas urban areas can be computed by any institution or person with the study of maps, satellite imagery and other geographical data in order to determine the outer limits of a continuous built-up area with one or more neighbouring cities. 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.
  • This is a list of urban areas, not a list of administrative cities. For example, the list of conurbations contains 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, see List of cities in 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, have reserved green belts in the outskirts which impacts the size of urban areas but not the "perceived city" as these green belts have now become integrated in what people consider to be the functional city.

Urban areas over 500,000 inhabitants (2015–2022) edit

Rank Urban area Image State Population (2022) (urban areas; Demographia)[1] ESPON Population (Functional Urban Area)[4] Population (agglomerations; UN WUP)[2] FUA population (metropolitan areas; Eurostat)[3] Density
(per km2;
Demographia)
Annual growth
rate (%;

Demographia)
1 Paris     France 14,800,000[5][6] 12,998,583 13,855,362 13,114,718 (2019) 3,877 1.83[7]
2 Ruhr
(multiple anchor cities)
    Germany 6,237,000 5,376,000 N/A N/A 2,325
3 Madrid     Spain 6,211,000 5,263,000 6,729,254 6,982,656 (2022) 4,551
4 Milan     Italy 5,488,000 7,636,000 3,098,974 4,934,205 (2022) 2,467
5 Barcelona     Spain 4,800,000 4,082,000 5,658,319 5,093,585 (2022) 4,477
6 Berlin     Germany 4,012,000 4,016,000 3,863,194 5,342,877 (2020) 2,934
7 Naples     Italy 3,636,000 3,714,000 2,201,789 3,303,711 (2022) 3,527
8 Athens     Greece 3,450,000 3,761,000 3,051,899 3,745,000 5,290
9 Rome     Italy 3,214,000 5,190,000 3,717,956 4,291,581 (2022) 2,808
10 Lisbon     Portugal 2,899,670[8] 2,591,000 2,884,297 3,030,125 (2022) 2,869
11 RotterdamThe Hague  
 
  Netherlands 2,881,000 1,904,000 N/A 3,035,679 (2022) 2,838
12 Budapest     Hungary 2,443,000 2,523,000 1,713,903 3,001,643 (2022) 2,450
13 Brussels     Belgium 2,203,000 2,639,000 2,044,993 3,350,969 (2022) 2,532 0.02[9]
14 Cologne–Bonn  
 
  Germany 2,161,000 3,070,000 N/A n/a 2,772
15 Dublin     Ireland 2,123,000 1,477,000 1,169,371 n/a 3,009 1.14[9]
16 Stockholm     Sweden 2,121,000 2,171,000 1,485,680 2,308,143 (2018) 2,504 0.58[9]
17 Munich     Germany 2,038,000 2,665,000 1,437,900 2,927,716 (2020) 4,231 0.72[9]
18 Hamburg     Germany 2,019,000 2,983,000 1,830,673 3,341,649 (2020) 2,539
19 Frankfurt     Germany 2,002,000 2,764,000 n/a 2,729,562 (2020) 3,031
20 Warsaw     Poland 1,963,000 2,785,000 1,722,310 3,091,000 3,592
21 Katowice     Poland 1,894,000 3,029,000 N/A n/a 2,602
22 Vienna     Austria 1,890,000 2,584,000 1,752,845 n/a 5,614 1.04[9]
23 Bucharest     Romania 1,862,000 2,064,000 1,867,724 2,412,530 (2015) 4,522 0.10[9]
24 Amsterdam     Netherlands 1,654,000 2,497,000 1,090,772 2,915,114 (2022) 3,397
25 Copenhagen     Denmark 1,649,000 2,350,000 1,268,052 n/a 2,921
26 Turin     Italy 1,494,000 1,601,000 1,764,868 1,712,372 (2022) 3,924 −0.16[9]
27 Lyon     France 1,471,000 1,669,000 1,608,712 2,280,845 (2019) 3,191 0.50[9]
28 Valencia     Spain 1,448,000 1,398,000 1,775,845 (2022) 3,678 0.29[9]
29 Marseille     France 1,380,000 1,530,000 1,605,046 1,873,270 (2019) 2,003 0.46[9]
30 Stuttgart     Germany 1,374,000 2,289,000 2,794,558 (2020) 2,883
31 Porto     Portugal 1,355,000 1,245,000 1,299,437 1,302,734 (2022) 1,704
32 Lille     France,   Belgium 1,304,000 1,379,000 1,027,178 1,510,079 (2019) 2,468 0.50[9]
33 Helsinki     Finland 1,223,000 1,285,000 1,179,916 1,551,959 (2022) 2,373 0.81[9]
34 Prague     Czech Republic 1,183,000 1,669,000 2,156,809 2,216,746 (2022) 3,838 −0.07[9]
35 Seville     Spain 1,100,000 1,180,000 1,556,975 (2022) 4,045
36 Antwerp     Belgium 1,061,000 1,406,000 1,157,068 (2022) 1,579 0.05[9]
37 Toulouse     France 981,000 832,000 1,454,158 (2019) 1,933 0.72[9]
38 SofiaPernik     Bulgaria 1,428,000 3,174,000 N/A 1,531,867 (2022) 4,571 0.78[9]
39 Nice     France 933,000 1,082,000 615,126 (2019) 2,001 0.52[9]
40 Thessaloniki     Greece 881,000 1,052,000 n/a 3,910 0.39[9]
41 Bordeaux     France 860,000 918,000 1,363,711 (2019) 1,876 0.60[9]
42 GdańskGdynia (Tricity)     Poland 845,000 993,000 n/a 2,813
43 Łódź     Poland 799,000 1,165,000 n/a 2,755
44 Dresden     Germany 781,000 882,000 1,343,831 (2020) 2,872
45 Palermo     Italy 776,000 861,000 986,721 (2022) 4,406 0.12[9]
46 Bilbao     Spain 775,000 947,000 1,041,059 (2022) 5,250
47 Florence     Italy 768,000 645,000 784,279 (2022) 3,370
48 Utrecht     Netherlands 732,000 692,000 895,000 (2022) 2,336
49 Catania     Italy 713,000 707,000 640,088 (2021) 2,647
50 Hanover     Germany 689,000 997,000 1,314,935 (2020) 2,375
51 Málaga     Spain 686,000 944,000 887,146 (2022) 5,094
52 Bergamo     Italy 681,000 662,000 n/a 2,087
53 Kraków     Poland 678,000 1,236,000 1,725,894 n/a 3,193
54 Poznań     Poland 660,000 919,000 n/a 1,945
55 Nuremberg     Germany 657,000 1,443,000 1,353,032 (2020) 2,788
56 Zaragoza     Spain 637,000 639,000 776,669 (2020) 4,315
57 Las Palmas     Spain 635,000 640,000 635,919 (2020) 2,954
58 Zagreb     Croatia 630,000 1,153,255 1,161,259 (2022) 3,379
59 Gothenburg     Sweden 629,000 759,000 1,021,831 (2018) 2,926
60 Wrocław     Poland 624,000 861,000 n/a 2,691
61 Mannheim     Germany 616,000 683,000 n/a 2,734
62 Riga     Latvia 615,000 1,195,000 917,351 (2022) 2,262
63 Nantes     France 590,000 708,000 1,011,020 (2019) 2,325
64 Leipzig     Germany 576,000 842,000 1,049,025 (2020) 2,269
65 Bremen     Germany 562,000 1,077,000 1,277,050 (2020) 2,028
66 Vilnius     Lithuania 545,000 680,000 649,000 708,203 (2021) 1,948
67 Genoa     Italy 540,000 694,000 1,500,000 687,196 (2021) 6,950
68 Aachen     Germany 513,000 672,000 557,026 (2020) 1,869
69 Santa Cruz     Spain 506,000 520,655 (2020) 4,652
70 Palma     Spain 502,000 433,000 709,028 (2020) 3,230

Other notable urban areas edit

Urban area Image State ESPON Population (Functional Urban Area)[4] FUA population (metropolitan areas; Eurostat)[3]
Aarhus     Denmark 845,971
OviedoGijónAvilés     Spain 844,000
AlicanteElcheElda     Spain 793,000
Ostrava     Czech Republic 709,768 713,812 (2017)
Bologna     Italy 690,000 785,941 (2021)
Malmö     Sweden 658,050 669,741 (2018)
Grenoble     France 555,000 717,469 (2019)
Douai-Lens      France 550,000
Toulon     France 518,000 573,230 (2019)
Charleroi     Belgium 489,264
Odense     Denmark 485,672
Granada     Spain 440,000 571,447 (2020)
Vigo     Spain 413,000 547,151 (2020)
Montpellier     France 801,595 (2019)
Eindhoven     Netherlands 771,263 (2021)
Rennes     France 755,668 (2019)
Brno     Czech Republic 727,759 (2017)
Bari     Italy 727,549 (2021)
Heidelberg     Germany 709,840 (2020)
Rouen     France 705,627 (2019)
Augsburg     Germany 684,705 (2020)
Bratislava   Slovakia 669,592 (2020)
Kiel     Germany 649,578 (2020)
Murcia   Spain 646,099 (2020)
Catania     Italy 640,088 (2021)
Tallinn   Estonia 609,515 (2021)
Ghent     Belgium 605,956 (2018)
Venice     Italy 552,414 (2021)
Groningen     Netherlands 543,707 (2021)
Plovdiv   Bulgaria 542,407 (2020)
Padua   Italy 535,922 (2021)
Münster   Germany 535,879 (2020)
Erfurt   Germany 524,565 (2020)
Tours   France 519,778 (2019)
Verona   Italy 517,271 (2021)
Nancy   France 510,306 (2019)
Clermont-Ferrand   France 507,479 (2019)

By country edit

Number of cities by country with urban areas over 500,000 inhabitants represented in the table
Country No. of cities
  Germany 19
  France 17
  Spain 15
  Italy 14
  Poland 7
  Netherlands 5
  Belgium 5
  Czech Republic 2
  Portugal 2
  Sweden 2

Top 30 urban areas by population edit

See also edit

References edit

  1. ^ a b c "Demographia" (PDF), www.demographia.com
  2. ^ a b c Annual Population of Urban Agglomerations with 300,000 Inhabitants or More in 2014, by Country, 1950-2030 (thousands), World Urbanization Prospects, the 2014 revision, Archived 18 February 2015 at the Wayback Machine, Population Division of the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs. Retrieved 6 September 2015. Note: List based on estimates for 2015, from 2014.
  3. ^ a b c Population on 1 January by age groups and sex - functional urban areas. Retrieved 21 September 2022.
  4. ^ a b "ESPON Project 1.4.3 Study on Urban Functions" (PDF). 24 September 2015. Archived from the original (PDF) on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 21 June 2020.
  5. ^ "MAJOR AGGLOMERATIONS OF THE WORLD". citypopulation.de/en. Retrieved 27 October 2022.
  6. ^ Aire d'attraction des villes 2020 de Paris (001), INSEE
  7. ^ Aire urbaine de Paris (001), INSEE
  8. ^ "Statistics Portugal - Web Portal". www.ine.pt. Retrieved 13 February 2024.
  9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t United Nations: World Urbanization Prospects Archived 10 March 2007 at archive.today

http://www.demographia.com/db-worldua.pdf

External links edit