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 2014. The data comes from Demographia and the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs.[1][2][3] Demographia provides figures for urban areas (including conurbations),[2] while the UN DESA figures are for agglomerations only.[3] For comparison, Function Urban Area (FUA) population figures by Eurostat are also provided, 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 (2015–2020)
Rank Urban area Image State Population (urban areas; Demographia)[2] ESPON Population (Functional Urban Area)[4] Population (agglomerations; UN WUP)[3] FUA population (metropolitan areas; Eurostat)[1] Density
(per km2; Demographia)		 Annual growth
rate (%;
Demographia)
1 Paris  France 11,020,000 11,175,000 14,684,473[5] 11,002,000 3,800 1.23[6]
2 Ruhr (multiple cities)  Germany 6,125,000 5,376,000 N/A 11,300,000 2,800 0.01
3 Madrid  Spain 6,026,000 5,263,000 6,729,254 7,100,000 4,600 0.27
4 Milan  Italy 4,907,000 7,636,000 3,098,974 7,465,000 2,800 −0.16
5 Barcelona  Spain 4,588,000 4,082,000 5,658,319 5,900,000 4,300 0.12
6 Berlin  Germany 3,972,000 4,016,000 3,863,194 n/a 2,900 0.01
7 Naples  Italy 3,574,000 3,714,000 2,201,789 n/a 3,600 0.01
8 Athens  Greece 3,325,000 3,761,000 3,051,899 n/a 5,000 0.29
9 Rome  Italy 3,189,000 5,190,000 3,717,956 n/a 3,400 0.89
10 Lisbon  Portugal 3,035,000 2,591,000 2,884,297 n/a 2,800 0.39
11 Rotterdam–The Hague
 Netherlands 2,770,000 1,904,000 N/A n/a 2,700 0.39
12 Budapest  Hungary 2,395,000 2,523,000 1,713,903 3,100,000 1,900 −0.19
13 Cologne-Bonn
 Germany 2,085,000 3,070,000 N/A n/a 2,300 0.50
14 Brussels  Belgium 1,990,000 2,639,000 2,044,993 n/a 2,600 0.02[7]
15 Hamburg  Germany 1,976,000 2,983,000 1,830,673 n/a 2,700 0.43[7]
16 Warsaw  Poland 1,935,000 2,785,000 1,722,310 3,000,000 3,200 0.67
17 Munich  Germany 1,928,000 2,665,000 1,437,900 n/a 4,200 0.72[7]
18 Frankfurt  Germany 1,904,000 2,764,000 n/a n/a 3,000 0.50
19 Bucharest  Romania 1,870,000 2,064,000 1,867,724 n/a 6,500 0.10[7]
20 Vienna  Austria 1,809,000 2,584,000 1,752,845 n/a 3,900 1.04[7]
21 Katowice (Katowice urban area)  Poland 1,726,000 3,029,000 N/A n/a 3,300 0.11
22 Sofia-Pernik  Bulgaria 1,646,636 3,174,000 N/A N/A 5,700 0.78[7]
23 Turin  Italy 1,445,000 1,601,000 1,764,868 n/a 4,100 −0.16[7]
24 Stockholm  Sweden 1,436,000 2,171,000 1,485,680 n/a 4,300 0.58[7]
25 Lyon  France 1,413,000 1,669,000 1,608,712 n/a 1,300 0.50[7]
26 Valencia  Spain 1,393,000 1,398,000 n/a 5,700 0.29[7]
27 Marseille  France 1,330,000 1,530,000 1,605,046 n/a 3,100 0.46[7]
28 Porto  Portugal 1,323,000 1,245,000 1,299,437 n/a 1,900
29 Copenhagen  Denmark 1,321,000 2,350,000 1,268,052 1,900,000 2,700 0.04[7]
30 Dublin  Ireland 1,306,000 1,477,000 1,169,371 n/a 2,500 1.14[7]
31 Stuttgart  Germany 1,301,000 2,289,000 n/a 2,900
32 Helsinki  Finland 1,282,000 1,285,000 1,179,916 1,495,271 2,400 0.81[7]
33 Lille  France,  Belgium 1,270,000 1,379,000 1,027,178 n/a 2,200 0.50[7]
34 Prague  Czech Republic 1,158,000 1,669,000 2,156,809 2,620,000 4,600 −0.07[7]
35 Amsterdam  Netherlands 1,140,000 2,497,000 1,090,772 n/a 3,200 0.41[7]
36 Seville  Spain 1,039,000 1,180,000 n/a 5,600
37 Antwerp  Belgium 1,013,000 1,406,000 n/a 1,500 0.05[7]
38 Nice  France 955,000 1,082,000 n/a 1,300 0.52[7]
39 Toulouse  France 944,000 832,000 n/a 1,100 0.72[7]
40 Bergamo  Italy 880,000 662,000 n/a 3,300
41 Gdańsk (Tricity)  Poland 855,000 993,000 n/a 5,000
42 Thessaloniki  Greece 845,000 1,052,000 n/a 4,300 0.39[7]
43 Florence  Italy 835,000 645,000 n/a 3,700
44 Bordeaux  France 823,000 918,000 1,244,264 700 0.60[7]
45 Bilbao  Spain 765,000 947,000 n/a 5,800
46 Kraków  Poland 765,000 1,236,000 1,725,894 n/a 3,500
47 Dresden  Germany 765,000 882,000 n/a 2,200
48 Zaragoza  Spain 735,000 639,000 n/a 5,700
49 Palermo  Italy 725,000 861,000 n/a 6,000 0.12[7]
50 Catania  Italy 725,000 707,000 n/a 2,900
51 Málaga  Spain 720,000 944,000 n/a 3,600
52 Utrecht  Netherlands 715,000 692,000 n/a 3,900
53 Hanover  Germany 710,000 997,000 n/a 2,500
54 Zagreb  Croatia 769,000 1,153,255 n/a 4,400
55 Łódź  Poland 670,000 1,165,000 n/a 5,000
56 Las Palmas  Spain 670,000 640,000 n/a 6,800
57 Nuremberg  Germany 665,000 1,443,000 n/a 3,000
58 Bremen  Germany 645,000 1,077,000 n/a 2,400
59 Wrocław  Poland 625,000 861,000 n/a 4,800
60
 Leipzig  Germany 625,000 842,000 1,037,782 2,000
61 Mannheim  Germany 625,000 683,000 1,184,343 3,500
62 Padua  Italy 620,000 549,000 n/a 3,200
63 Gothenburg  Sweden 615,000 759,000 n/a 2,700
64 Genoa  Italy 610,000 694,000 1,500,000 n/a 7,900
65 Riga  Latvia 605,000 1,195,000 n/a 2,900
66 Toulon  France 580,000 518,000 n/a 700
67 Liège  Belgium 565,000 750,000 n/a 1,900
68 Saarbrücken  Germany 565,000 1,102,000 n/a 2,200
69 Nantes  France 562,000 708,000 n/a 1,100
70 Palma, Majorca  Spain 560,000 433,000
71 Aachen  Germany 545,000 672,000 n/a 1,500
72 Santa Cruz de Tenerife  Spain 540,000 399,000
73 Avignon
 France 530,267[8]
74 Bologna  Italy 530,000 690,000
75 Grenoble  France 530,000 555,000 n/a 985
76 Poznań  Poland 525,000 919,000 n/a 2,700
77 Murcia  Spain 525,000 504,000
78 Vilnius  Lithuania 515,000 680,000 649,000 n/a 2,500
79 Douai-Lens  France 510,000 550,000 n/a 1,100
80 Karlsruhe  Germany 500,000 842,000

Other notable urban areas
Urban area Image State ESPON Population (Functional Urban Area)[4] FUA population (metropolitan areas; Eurostat)[1]
Oviedo–Gijón–Avilés  Spain 844,000
Alicante-Elche-Elda  Spain 793,000
Granada  Spain 440,000
Vigo metropolitan area  Spain 413,000
Cartagena  Spain 409,000
Cádiz  Spain 400,000
San Sebastián metropolitan area  Spain 403,000* (403,000)
A Coruña  Spain 376,000 (408,00)
Valladolid  Spain 369,000 (395,984)
Córdoba  Spain 325,000 (360,000)
Tarragona–Reus  Spain 325,000 (423,360)
Malmö  Sweden 658,050
Tampere  Finland 440,372
Aarhus  Denmark 845,971
Charleroi  Belgium 489,264
Odense  Denmark 485,672
Ostrava  Czech Republic 709,768
Braunschweig  Germany 997,089
Brno  Czech Republic 735,652
Bari  Italy 744,564
Eindhoven  Netherlands 761,702
Rouen  France 694,558
Montpellier  France 709,347
Heidelberg  Germany 707,346
Lublin  Poland 668,346
Rennes  France 684,304
Augsburg  Germany 675,285
Kiel  Germany 649,807[9]
Ghent  Belgium 399,741
Catania  Italy 656,989

Top 20 and top 30 urban areas by population
Location of the top 20 urban areas by population in the European Union.
Location of the top 30 urban areas by population in the European Union.

See also

References
  1. Eurostat: Cities (Urban Audit) Database. Retrieved 19 September 2016.
  2. Demographia: World Urban Areas. Retrieved 12 July 2017.
  3. 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.
  4. "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. Aire urbaine de Paris (001), INSEE
  6. Aire urbaine de Paris (001), INSEE
  7. United Nations: World Urbanization Prospects Archived 10 March 2007 at archive.today
  8. "Villes et communes de France − Tableaux de l'économie française | Insee". www.insee.fr. Retrieved 2 March 2022.
  9. "Eurostat".

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

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