 | This article is missing information about smaller metropolitan areas defined by OECD and Eurostat.(April 2023) |
This list ranks metropolitan areas in Europe by their population according to three different sources; it includes metropolitan areas that have a population of over 1 million.
List includes metropolitan areas according only studies of ESPON, Eurostat, and OECD. For this reason some metropolitan areas, like the Italian Genoa Metropolitan Area (with a population over 1,510,000 as of 2012 according to "CityRailway" Official Report), are not included in this list, with data by other statistic survey institutes.
Figures in the first column come from the ESPON project, "Study on Urban Functions", which defines cities according to the concept of a functional urban area (core urban area defined morphologically on the basis of population density, plus the surrounding labour pool defined on the basis of commuting). Figures in the second column come from Eurostat's Urban Audit and correspond to Larger Urban Zones (LUZ). Figures in the fourth column come from the OECD Territorial Reviews and correspond to "metropolitan regions". Further information on how the areas are defined can be found in the source documents. These figures should be seen as an interpretation, not as conclusive fact.
| Metropolitan area name | Country | OECD Metropolitan areas (2020) [1] | City Population Urban Agglomeration (2024) [2] | Eurostat Metropolitan region (2019) [3] | Eurostat Metropolitan region (2018) [3] | ESPON Functional Urban Area (2006) [4] |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aberdeen |  United Kingdom | 489,840 | 495,365 | |||
| Amsterdam metropolitan area |  Netherlands | 2,890,428 | 2,525,000 | 3,269,905 | 3,242,852 | 2,497,000 [lower-alpha 1] |
| Antwerp |  Belgium | 1,146,565 | 1,240,000 | 985,332 | 1,047,030 | 1,406,000 [lower-alpha 2] |
| Athens metropolitan area |  Greece | 3,526,887 | 3,575,000 | 3,561,750 | 3,576,590 | 3,761,000 |
| Barcelona metropolitan area |  Spain | 5,105,991 | 4,850,000 | 5,575,204 | 5,514,881 | 4,082,000 [lower-alpha 3] |
| Belfast | United Kingdom | 794,824 | 780,817 | |||
| Belgrade |  Serbia | — | 1,430,000 | — | — | — |
| Berlin metropolitan area |  Germany | 5,342,958 | 4,775,000 | 5,303,846 | 5,259,363 | 4,016,000 |
| Bilbao | Spain | 1,014,366 | <1,000,000 | 1,137,191 | 1,134,848 | 947,000 |
| Birmingham (West Midlands) | United Kingdom | 3,122,915 | 3,250,000 | 3,558,916 | 2,545,475 | 4,483,000 |
| Blackpool | United Kingdom | 332,659 | 678,995 | |||
| Bordeaux |  France | 1,290,068 | 1,140,000 | — | — | |
| Bremen | Germany | 1,274,429 | 1,000,000 | 1,277,609 | 1,274,611 | 1,077,000 |
| Brighton and Hove | United Kingdom | 459,450 | 292,169 | |||
| Bristol | United Kingdom | 969,256 | <1,000,000 | 1,157,937 | 1,147,017 | 1,041,000 |
| Bournemouth | United Kingdom | 396,986 | 348,309 | |||
| Brussels metropolitan area | Belgium | 2,500,251 | 2,750,000 | 2,548,941 | 2,528,996 | 2,639,000 [lower-alpha 2] |
| Bucharest metropolitan area |  Romania | 2,219,341 | 2,200,000 | 2,315,173 | 2,301,255 | 2,064,000 |
| Budapest metropolitan area |  Hungary | 3,012,001 | 2,500,000 | 3,031,160 | 3,011,598 | 2,523,000 |
| Cardiff | United Kingdom | 928,101 | <1,000,000 | 1,140,165 | 1,135,795 | 1,097,000 |
| Cambridge | United Kingdom | 376,139 | 653,412 | |||
| Copenhagen metropolitan area |  Denmark | 1,945,157 | 1,770,000 | 2,045,259 | 2,030,718 | 2,350,000 [5] [6] [lower-alpha 4] |
| Donetsk |  Ukraine | — | 1,410,000 [lower-alpha 5] | — | — | — |
| Dnipro | Ukraine | — | 1,330,000 [lower-alpha 6] | — | — | — |
| Dresden | Germany | 1,343,747 | — | — | — | — |
| Dublin Metropolitan Area |  Ireland | 2,110,459 | 1,530,000 | 2,107,749 | 2,069,386 | 1,477,000 |
| Edinburgh | United Kingdom | 912,490 | 901,455 | |||
| Exeter | United Kingdom | 499,742 | 795,012 | |||
| Frankfurt/Rhine-Main Region | Germany | 2,729,936 | 3,300,000 | 2,710,127 | 2,693,115 | 2,764,000 [lower-alpha 7] |
| Gdańsk (Tricity) |  Poland | 1,170,990 | <1,000,000 | — | 1,317,517 | 993,000 |
| Gothenburg |  Sweden | 1,051,345 | <1,000,000 | 1,021,831 | 1,015,974 | 759,000 |
| Graz |  Austria | 662,531 | 637,532 | |||
| Greater Glasgow | United Kingdom | 1,847,200 | 1,700,000 | 1,861,315 | 1,854,866 | 1,395,000 |
| The Hague | Netherlands | 1,116,798 | 3,400,000 [lower-alpha 8] | 1,103,368 | 1,093,212 | 1,404,000 [lower-alpha 1] |
| Hamburg Metropolitan Region | Germany | 3,328,679 | 2,925,000 | 3,327,940 | 3,309,215 | 2,983,000 |
| Hannover | Germany | 1,316,006 | 1,150,000 | — | — | — |
| Helsinki Metropolitan Area |  Finland | 1,526,778 | 1,530,000 | 1,671,024 | 1,655,624 | 1,285,000 |
| Hull | United Kingdom | 602,327 | 600,774 | |||
| Innsbruck | Austria | 353,941 | 312,414 | |||
| Istanbul [lower-alpha 9] |  Turkey | 13,719,061 | 15,900,000 | — | — | — |
| Katowice metropolitan area | Poland | 2,486,510 | 2,225,000 | 2,695,148 | 2,705,106 | 3,029,000 [lower-alpha 10] |
| Kazan metropolitan area |  Russia | — | 1,590,000 | — | — | — |
| Kharkiv | Ukraine | — | 1,600,000 [lower-alpha 11] | — | — | — |
| Kryvyi Rih metropolitan area | Ukraine | — | — | 1,170,953 [7] | — | — |
| Kyiv metropolitan area | Ukraine | — | 3,475,000 [lower-alpha 12] | — | — | — |
| Kraków metropolitan area | Poland | 1,423,235 | <1,000,000 | 1,491,811 | 1,480,803 | 1,236,000 |
| Leicester | United Kingdom | 910,918 | ||||
| Leipzig | Germany | 1,049,342 | — | — | — | — |
| Lille | France | 1,505,093 | 1,320,000 | 2,594,456 | 2,597,774 | 1,379,000 [lower-alpha 13] |
| Linz | Austria | 655,268 | 801,085 | |||
| Lisbon metropolitan area |  Portugal | 3,035,487 | 2,500,000 | 2,846,332 | 2,833,679 | 2,591,000 |
| Liverpool/Birkenhead | United Kingdom | 1,548,752 | 1,890,000 | 1,784,475 | 2,042,955 | 2,241,000 |
| Łódź metropolitan area | Poland | 903,719 | <1,000,000 | 1,070,544 | 1,074,374 | 1,165,000 |
| London metropolitan area | United Kingdom | 12,451,423 | 14,900,000 | 14,372,596 | 14,257,962 | 11,203,000 |
| Lyon | France | 2,129,101 | 2,025,000 | 1,865,534 | 1,867,275 | 1,669,000 |
| Madrid metropolitan area | Spain | 7,005,286 | 6,650,000 | 6,641,649 | 6,549,520 | 5,263,000 |
| Greater Manchester | United Kingdom | 3,399,018 | 3,150,000 | 3,712,997 | 3,695,071 | 2,556,000 |
| Mannheim-Ludwigshafen | Germany | 1,191,766 | 1,590,000 | — | — | — |
| Marseille | France | 1,278,124 [lower-alpha 14] | 1,700,000 | 3,100,329 | 3,100,110 | 1,530,000 |
| Middlesbrough / Tees Valley | United Kingdom | 569,768 | 567,986 | |||
| Milan metropolitan area |  Italy | 4,985,668 | 6,100,000 | 4,354,448 | 4,336,121 | 7,636,000 [lower-alpha 15] |
| Minsk metropolitan area |  Belarus | — | 2,100,000 | — | — | — |
| Moscow metropolitan area | Russia | — | 19,100,000 | — | — | — |
| Munich | Germany | 2,926,802 | 2,300,000 | 2,908,664 | 2,883,373 | 2,665,000 [lower-alpha 16] |
| Nantes | France | 1,003,395 | — | — | — | — |
| Naples metropolitan area | Italy | 3,349,233 | 4,050,000 | 3,084,890 | 3,101,002 | 3,714,000 [8] |
| Nice | France | 1,020,879 | <1,000,000 | 1,080,815 | 1,082,139 | 1,082,000 |
| Nizhny Novgorod | Russia | — | 1,660,000 | — | — | — |
| Norwich | United Kingdom | 417,174 | 370,822 | |||
| Nottingham-Derby | United Kingdom | 935,049 [lower-alpha 17] | 1,380,000 | 331,297 | 329,448 [lower-alpha 18] | 1,534,000 |
| Nuremberg Metropolitan Region | Germany | 1,352,002 | 1,210,000 | 1,349,848 | 1,340,886 | 1,443,000 |
| Odesa | Ukraine | — | 1,100,000 [lower-alpha 19] | — | — | — |
| Greater Oslo |  Norway | 1,420,926 | 1,260,000 | 1,305,122 | 1,287,495 | 1,037,000 |
| Paris metropolitan area | France | 12,997,058 | 11,000,000 | 12,244,807 | 12,183,893 | 11,175,000 |
| Perm | Russia | — | 1,090,000 | — | — | — |
| Plymouth | United Kingdom | 406,924 | 264,135 | |||
| Porto Metropolitan Area | Portugal | 1,785,248 | 1,550,000 | 1,722,374 | 1,719,702 | 1,245,000 [lower-alpha 20] |
| Portsmouth-Southampton | United Kingdom | 695,204 [lower-alpha 21] | 1,150,000 | 806,001 | 802,162 | 1,547,000 |
| Poznań metropolitan area | Poland | 993,656 | <1,000,000 | — | 1,186,164 | 919,000 |
| Prague metropolitan area |  Czech Republic | 2,267,817 | 1,470,000 | 2,677,964 | 2,647,308 | 1,669,000 |
| Rhein-Nord [lower-alpha 22] (Düsseldorf - Neuss) | Germany | 1,557,269 | See Rhein-Sud | 1,555,985 | 1,552,097 | 3,073,000 [lower-alpha 23] |
| Rhein-Süd [lower-alpha 22] (Cologne - Bonn) | Germany | 2,004,984 | 5,000,000 | 2,003,046 | 1,994,524 | 3,070,000 [lower-alpha 23] |
| Riga metropolitan area |  Latvia | 927,924 | <1,000,000 | 1,003,203 | 1,005,237 | 1,195,000 |
| Rome metropolitan area | Italy | 4,325,591 | 3,425,000 | 4,342,212 | 4,355,725 | 5,190,000 |
| Rostov-on-Don | Russia | — | 1,400,000 | — | — | — |
| Rotterdam | Netherlands | 1,876,165 | 3,400,000 [lower-alpha 24] | 1,846,933 | 1,835,354 | 1,904,000 [lower-alpha 1] |
| Ruhr [lower-alpha 22] | Germany | 5,115,617 | 5,650,000 | 5,111,530 | 5,113,487 | 5,376,000 [lower-alpha 23] |
| Saarbrücken - Forbach | Germany / France | 797,110 | — | — | 802,664 | 1,102,000 |
| Saint Petersburg metropolitan area | Russia | — | 6,500,000 | — | — | — |
| Salzburg | Austria | 378,171 | 366,866 | |||
| Samara | Russia | — | 1,370,000 | — | — | — |
| Saratov | Russia | — | 1,210,000 | — | — | — |
| Seville | Spain | 1,558,006 | 1,300,000 | 1,949,640 | 1,945,236 | 1,180,000 [lower-alpha 25] |
| Sofia |  Bulgaria | 1,551,056 | 1,240,000 | 1,678,041 | 1,679,413 | 1,174,000 |
| Metropolitan Stockholm | Sweden | 2,377,081 | 2,275,000 | 2,344,124 | 2,308,143 | 2,171,000 |
| South Yorkshire (Sheffield) | United Kingdom | 1,204,485 | 1,540,000 | 584,028 | 580,108 | 1,869,000 |
| Stoke | United Kingdom | 484,659 | ||||
| Stuttgart Metropolitan Region | Germany | 2,794,283 | 2,400,000 | 2,787,724 | 2,778,591 | 2,289,000 |
| Swansea | United Kingdom | 390,949 | 532,489 | |||
| Thessaloniki metropolitan area | Greece | 1,049,937 | <1,000,000 | 1,104,690 | 1,105,663 | 1,052,000 |
| Toulouse | France | 1,445,789 | 1,130,000 | — | — | — |
| Turin metropolitan area | Italy | 1,728,714 | 1,580,000 | 2,259,523 | 2,269,120 | 1,601,000 [lower-alpha 26] |
| Newcastle-Sunderland | United Kingdom | 1,192,598 | 1,470,000 | 1,177,704 | 1,172,580 | 1,599,000 |
| Ufa | Russia | — | 1,230,000 | — | — | — |
| Valencia | Spain | 1,768,205 | 2,075,000 | 2,540,588 | 2,531,187 | 1,398,000 [lower-alpha 27] |
| Vienna | Austria | 3,004,660 | 2,350,000 | 2,853,903 | 2,838,558 | 2,584,000 |
| Volgograd | Russia | — | 1,090,000 | — | — | — |
| Warsaw metropolitan area | Poland | 3,209,784 | 2,500,000 | 3,053,104 | 3,025,034 | 2,785,000 |
| West Yorkshire (Leeds - Bradford) | United Kingdom | 2,655,815 | 2,225,000 | 1,750,276 | 1,741,298 | 2,302,000 |
| Wrocław metropolitan area | Poland | 883,468 | <1,000,000 | 638,659 | 636,050 | 861,000 |
| Zagreb metropolitan area |  Croatia | 1,219,858 | <1,000,000 | 1,240,433 | 1,240,310 | — |
| Zürich metropolitan area |  Switzerland | 1,401,783 | 1,490,000 | 1,520,968 | 1,504,346 | 1,615,000 |
| Rank | Area | State | Population [9] |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region | Germany | 12,190,000 |
| 2 | Randstad | Netherlands | 8,219,380 |
| 3 | Upper Silesian-Moravian metropolitan area | Poland/ Czech Republic | 5,294,000 |
| 4 | Flemish Diamond | Belgium | 5,103,000 |
| 5 | Vienna-Bratislava metropolitan region | Austria/  Slovakia | 4,600,000 |
A metropolitan area or metro is a region consisting of a densely populated urban agglomeration and its surrounding territories sharing industries, commercial areas, transport network, infrastructures and housing. A metropolitan area usually comprises multiple principal cities, jurisdictions and municipalities: neighborhoods, townships, boroughs, cities, towns, exurbs, suburbs, counties, districts and even states and nations in areas like the eurodistricts. As social, economic and political institutions have changed, metropolitan areas have become key economic and political regions.
The Upper Silesian metropolitan area is a polycentric metropolitan area in southern Poland and northeastern Czech Republic, centered on the cities of Katowice and Ostrava, and has around 5 million inhabitants. Geographically, it is located mainly in Upper Silesia, with small parts of the area also in the historical regions of Moravia and Lesser Poland. Administratively, it is located in the three administrative units : mainly Silesian Voivodeship and a small western part of Lesser Poland Voivodeship in Poland, and also a small eastern part of Moravian-Silesian Region in the Czech Republic. The metropolitan area lies within the Upper Silesian Coal Basin and is sometimes called by different names, e.g. Upper Silesian urban-industrial agglomeration. The Upper Silesian metropolitan area, together with nearby Kraków metropolitan area and Częstochowa metropolitan area, create a greater Kraków-Katowice-Ostrava metropolitan region covering 7 million people.
The London metropolitan area is the metropolitan area of London, England. It has several definitions, including the London Travel to Work Area, and usually consists of the London urban area, settlements that share London's infrastructure, and places from which it is practicable to commute to work in London. It is also known as the London commuter belt, or Southeast metropolitan area.
An aire urbaine is an INSEE statistical concept describing a core of urban development and the extent of its commuter activity. It was replaced by the concept "functional area", which uses the same definition as Eurostat's functional urban areas, in 2020.
Helsinki metropolitan area or Greater Helsinki is the metropolitan area around Helsinki, the capital city of Finland. It also includes the smaller capital region. The terms Helsinki metropolitan area, Greater Helsinki, Capital region and the other terms used are not fixed and may vary in different contexts.
The North Region or Northern Portugal is the most populous region in Portugal, ahead of Lisbon, and the third most extensive by area. The region has 3,576,205 inhabitants according to the 2017 census, and its area is 21,278 kilometres (13,222 mi) with a density of 173 inhabitants per square kilometre. It is one of five regions of Mainland Portugal. Its main population center is the urban area of Porto, with about one million inhabitants; it includes a larger political metropolitan region with 1.8 million, and an urban-metropolitan agglomeration with 2.99 million inhabitants, including Porto and neighboring cities, such as Braga, Guimarães and Póvoa de Varzim. The Commission of Regional Coordination of the North (CCDR-N) is the agency that coordinates environmental policies, land-use planning, cities and the overall development of this region, supporting local governments and associations.
The larger urban zone (LUZ), or functional urban area (FUA), is a measure of the population and expanse of metropolitan and surrounding areas which may or may not be exclusively urban. It consists of a city and its commuting zone outside it.
The Copenhagen metropolitan area or Metropolitan Copenhagen is a large commuter belt surrounding Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark. It includes Copenhagen Municipality, Frederiksberg and surrounding municipalities stretching westward across Zealand. It has a densely-populated core surrounded by suburban settlements.
The Milan metropolitan area, also known as Grande Milano, is the largest metropolitan area in Italy and the 54th largest in the world. It is the largest transnational metropolitan area in the EU. The metropolitan area described in this article is strictly statistical and, contrary to the administrative Metropolitan City of Milan, a provincial-level municipality, does not imply any kind of administrative unity or function.
The Naples metropolitan area, or Greater Naples, is a metropolitan area in Campania, Italy, centered on the city of Naples.
The Katowice urban area, also known as the Upper Silesian urban area, is an urban area/conurbation in southern Poland, centered on Katowice. It is located in the Silesian Voivodeship and in a small part of the Lesser Poland Voivodeship. The Katowice urban area is the largest urban area in Poland and 21st largest urban area in the European Union. According to Demographia, its population is 1,903,000.
A metropolitan area is generally defined as consisting of an urban area, conurbation or agglomeration, together with the surrounding area to which it is closely economically and socially integrated through commuting.
The Rhine-Main Metropolitan Region, often simply referred to as Frankfurt Rhine-Main, Frankfurt Rhine-Main area or Rhine-Main area, is the second-largest metropolitan region in Germany after Rhine-Ruhr, with a total population exceeding 5.8 million. The metropolitan region is located in the central-western part of Germany, and stretches over parts of three German states: Hesse, Rhineland-Palatinate, and Bavaria. The largest cities in the region are Frankfurt am Main, Wiesbaden, Mainz, Darmstadt, Offenbach, Worms, Hanau, and Aschaffenburg.
In urban planning, a historic core city or central city is the municipality with the largest 1940 population in the present metropolitan area. This term was retired by the US census bureau and replaced by the term principal city, which can include historic core cities and post-WWII cities. Metropolitan areas were no longer considered monocentric, but polycentric due to suburbanization of employment. A historic core city is not to be confused with the core of a metropolitan area which is defined as an urban area with a population of over 50,000 by the US census bureau.
An aire d'attraction d'une ville is a statistical area used by France's national statistics office INSEE since 2020, officially translated as functional area in English by INSEE, which consists of a densely populated urban agglomeration and the surrounding exurbs, towns and intervening rural areas that are socioeconomically tied to the central urban agglomeration, as measured by commuting patterns. INSEE's functional area (AAV) is therefore akin to what is most often called metropolitan area in English.
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