Largest urban areas of 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

  • 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)

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 7,005,286 (2020) 4,551
4 Milan  Italy 5,488,000 7,636,000 3,098,974 4,961,743 (2021) 2,467
5 Barcelona  Spain 4,800,000 4,082,000 5,658,319 5,111,749 (2020) 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 3,298,730 (2021) 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 4,303,821 (2021) 2,808
10 Rotterdam–The Hague
 Netherlands 2,881,000 1,904,000 N/A n/a 2,838
11 Lisbon  Portugal 2,727,000 2,591,000 2,884,297 3,015,099 (2021) 2,869
12 Budapest  Hungary 2,443,000 2,523,000 1,713,903 3,014,944 (2020) 2,450
13 Brussels  Belgium 2,203,000 2,639,000 2,044,993 2,708,766 (2020) 2,532 0.02[8]
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[8]
16 Stockholm  Sweden 2,121,000 2,171,000 1,485,680 2,308,143 (2018) 2,504 0.58[8]
17 Munich  Germany 2,038,000 2,665,000 1,437,900 2,927,716 (2020) 4,231 0.72[8]
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[8]
23 Bucharest  Romania 1,862,000 2,064,000 1,867,724 2,412,530 (2015) 4,522 0.10[8]
24 Amsterdam  Netherlands 1,654,000 2,497,000 1,090,772 2,891,907 (2021) 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 1,722,250 (2021) 3,924 −0.16[8]
27 Lyon  France 1,471,000 1,669,000 1,608,712 2,280,845 (2019) 3,191 0.50[8]
28 Valencia  Spain 1,448,000 1,398,000 1,768,205 (2020) 3,678 0.29[8]
29 Marseille  France 1,380,000 1,530,000 1,605,046 1,873,270 (2019) 2,003 0.46[8]
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 1,280,323 (2021) 1,704
32 Lille  France,  Belgium 1,304,000 1,379,000 1,027,178 1,510,079 (2019) 2,468 0.50[8]
33 Helsinki  Finland 1,223,000 1,285,000 1,179,916 1,526,778 (2020) 2,373 0.81[8]
34 Prague  Czech Republic 1,183,000 1,669,000 2,156,809 2,203,315 (2017) 3,838 −0.07[8]
35 Seville  Spain 1,100,000 1,180,000 1,555,663 (2020) 4,045
36 Antwerp  Belgium 1,061,000 1,406,000 1,125,878 (2020) 1,579 0.05[8]
37 Toulouse  France 981,000 832,000 1,454,158 (2019) 1,933 0.72[8]
38 Sofia–Pernik  Bulgaria 1,428,000 3,174,000 N/A 1,547,779 (2020) 4,571 0.78[8]
39 Nice  France 933,000 1,082,000 615,126 (2019) 2,001 0.52[8]
40 Thessaloniki  Greece 881,000 1,052,000 n/a 3,910 0.39[8]
41 Bordeaux  France 860,000 918,000 1,363,711 (2019) 1,876 0.60[8]
42 Gdańsk–Gdynia (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 776,000 861,000 985,924 (2021) 4,406 0.12[8]
46 Bilbao  Spain 775,000 947,000 1,048,966 (2020) 5,250
47 Florence  Italy 768,000 645,000 794,219 (2021) 3,370
48 Utrecht  Netherlands 732,000 692,000 890,330 (2021) 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 686,000 944,000 877,868 (2020) 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 1,216,497 (2020) 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 1,195,000 931,365 (2020) 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

Urban area Image State ESPON Population (Functional Urban Area)[4] FUA population (metropolitan areas; Eurostat)[3]
Aarhus  Denmark 845,971
Oviedo–Gijón–Avilés  Spain 844,000
Alicante–Elche–Elda  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

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
 Sweden 2

Top 30 urban areas by population

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Location of the top 30 urban areas by population in the European Union.

See also

References

  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. ^ 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