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)[]

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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	10,843,285	11,002,000	3,800	0.83
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	Rotterdam–The Hague		Netherlands	2,770,000	1,904,000	N/A	n/a	2,700	0.39
11	Lisbon		Portugal	2,656,000	2,591,000	2,884,297	n/a	2,800	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[5]
15	Hamburg		Germany	1,976,000	2,983,000	1,830,673	n/a	2,700	0.43[5]
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[5]
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[5]
20	Vienna		Austria	1,809,000	2,584,000	1,752,845	n/a	3,900	1.04[5]
21	Katowice (Katowice urban area)		Poland	1,726,000	3,029,000	N/A	n/a	3,300	0.11
22	Turin		Italy	1,445,000	1,601,000	1,764,868	n/a	4,100	−0.16[5]
23	Stockholm		Sweden	1,436,000	2,171,000	1,485,680	n/a	4,300	0.58[5]
24	Lyon		France	1,413,000	1,669,000	1,608,712	n/a	1,300	0.50[5]
25	Valencia		Spain	1,393,000	1,398,000		n/a	5,700	0.29[5]
26	Marseille		France	1,330,000	1,530,000	1,605,046	n/a	3,100	0.46[5]
27	Porto		Portugal	1,323,000	1,245,000	1,299,437	n/a	1,900
28	Copenhagen		Denmark	1,321,000	2,350,000	1,268,052	1,900,000	2,700	0.04[5]
29	Dublin		Ireland	1,306,000	1,477,000	1,169,371	n/a	2,500	1.14[5]
30	Stuttgart		Germany	1,301,000	2,289,000		n/a	2,900
31	Helsinki		Finland	1,282,000	1,285,000	1,179,916	1,495,271	2,400	0.81[5]
32	Lille		France, Belgium	1,270,000	1,379,000	1,027,178	n/a	2,200	0.50[5]
33	Prague		Czechia	1,158,000	1,669,000	2,156,809	2,620,000	4,600	−0.07[5]
34	Amsterdam		Netherlands	1,140,000	2,497,000	1,090,772	n/a	3,200	0.41[5]
35	Seville		Spain	1,039,000	1,180,000		n/a	5,600
36	Antwerp		Belgium	1,013,000	1,406,000		n/a	1,500	0.05[5]
37	Nice		France	955,000	1,082,000		n/a	1,300	0.52[5]
38	Toulouse		France	944,000	832,000		n/a	1,100	0.72[5]
39	Sofia		Bulgaria	934,000	1,174,000	1,226,155	1,543,377	5,700	0.78[5]
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[5]
43	Florence		Italy	835,000	645,000		n/a	3,700
44	Bordeaux		France	823,000	918,000		1,244,264	700	0.60[5]
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[5]
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	700,000	1,107,115		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	Bologna		Italy	530,000	690,000
74	Grenoble		France	530,000	555,000		n/a	985
75	Poznań		Poland	525,000	919,000		n/a	2,700
76	Murcia		Spain	525,000	504,000
77	Vilnius		Lithuania	515,000	680,000	649,000	n/a	2,500
78	Douai-Lens		France	510,000	550,000		n/a	1,100
79	Karlsruhe		Germany	500,000	842,000

Other notable urban areas[]

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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)
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[6]
Ghent		Belgium		399,741
Catania		Italy		656,989

Top 20 and top 30 urban areas by population[]

Paris (1)

Ruhr (2)

Madrid (3)

Milan (4)

Barcelona (5)

Berlin (6)

Rome (7)

Naples (8)

Athens (9)

Lisbon (10)

Rotterdam - The Hague (11)

Budapest (12)

Warsaw (13)

Cologne(14)

Katowice (15)

Brussels (16)

Munich (17)

Hamburg (18)

Bucharest (19)

Frankfurt (20)

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

Paris

Ruhr

Madrid

Milan

Barcelona

Berlin

Rome

Naples

Athens

Lisbon

Rotterdam

Budapest

Warsaw

Cologne

Katowice

Brussels

Munich

Hamburg

Bucharest

Frankfurt

Vienna

Lyon

Amsterdam)

Marseille

Stockholm

Valencia

Turin

Porto

Prague

Stuttgart

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

See also[]

• List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits
• List of European cities by population within city limits
• List of urban areas in Europe
• List of metropolitan areas in Europe
• List of larger urban zones (metropolitan area)
• List of urban areas by population
• Blue Banana
• Golden Banana

References[]

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

External links[]

• United Nations list of urban agglomerations in the European Union (as tabulated by INSEE).
• Population of urban areas provided by UK National Statistics for UK urban areas
• e-Geopolis: research group, university of Paris-Diderot, France - About world urbanization