 | 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 to the studies of ESPON, Eurostat, and OECD. For European countries not covered by the three institutions, City Population is used as the population count source for the purpose of assessing the inclusion criteria. For this reason some metropolitan areas, like the Italian Genoa Metropolitan Area (with a population of 1,510,781 as of 2010 [1] ) or the Ukrainian Kryvyi Rih metropolitan area (with a population of 1,170,953 as of 2019 [2] ), are not included in this list, with data by other statistic survey institutes.
Figures in the first three columns correspond to Functional urban areas (FUA). The concept of a functional urban area defines a metropolitan area as a 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 first two columns use a harmonised definition of a Functional urban area developed jointly in 2011, with delimitation basing on the DEGURBA method. [3] [4]
Figures in the fourth column come from City Population and correspond to variously defined urban agglomerations.
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.
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| Metropolitan area name | Country | OECD (2020) [5] | Eurostat [6] | ESPON (2006) [7] | City Population (urban agglomerations) (2024) [8] |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Amsterdam metropolitan area |  Netherlands | 2,890,428 | 2,915,114(2022) | 2,497,000 [lower-alpha 1] | 2,525,000 |
| Antwerp |  Belgium | 1,146,565 | 1,157,068(2021) | 1,406,000 [lower-alpha 2] | 1,240,000 |
| Athens metropolitan area |  Greece | 3,526,887 | 3,828,434(2011) | 3,761,000 | 3,575,000 |
| Barcelona metropolitan area |  Spain | 5,105,991 | 5,093,585(2022) | 4,082,000 [lower-alpha 3] | 4,875,000 |
| Belgrade |  Serbia | — | — | — | 1,430,000 |
| Berlin metropolitan area |  Germany | 5,342,958 | 4,979,867(2021) | 4,016,000 | 4,850,000 |
| Bilbao | Spain | 1,014,366 | 1,041,059(2022) | 947,000 | <1,000,000 |
| Bordeaux |  France | 1,290,068 | 1,376,375(2020) | 918,000 | 1,140,000 |
| Greater Bristol |  United Kingdom | 969,256 | 955,541(2018) | 1,041,000 | <1,000,000 |
| Brussels metropolitan area | Belgium | 2,500,251 | 3,350,969(2022) | 2,639,000 [lower-alpha 2] | 2,750,000 |
| Bucharest metropolitan area |  Romania | 2,219,341 | 2,478,618(2018) | 2,064,000 | 2,200,000 |
| Budapest metropolitan area |  Hungary | 3,012,001 | 3,001,643(2022) | 2,523,000 | 2,500,000 |
| Cardiff | United Kingdom | 928,101 | 915,466(2018) | 1,097,000 | <1,000,000 |
| Copenhagen metropolitan area |  Denmark | 1,945,157 | 1,928,612(2013) | 1,881,000 [lower-alpha 4] | 1,770,000 |
| Donetsk |  Ukraine | — | — | — | 1,410,000 [lower-alpha 5] |
| Dnipro | Ukraine | — | — | — | 1,330,000 [lower-alpha 6] |
| Dresden | Germany | 1,343,747 | 965,353(2021) | 882,000 | <1,000,000 |
| Dublin Metropolitan Area |  Ireland | 2,110,459 | 1,793,902(2011) | 1,477,000 | 1,530,000 |
| Metropolitan City of Florence |  Italy | 791,543 | 784,279(2022) | 645,000 [lower-alpha 7] | <1,000,000 |
| Frankfurt Rhine-Main | Germany | 2,729,936 | 2,678,557(2021) | 2,764,000 [lower-alpha 8] | 3,300,000 |
| Gdańsk (Tricity) |  Poland | 1,170,990 | 1,223,884(2021) | 993,000 | <1,000,000 |
| Greater Glasgow | United Kingdom | 1,847,200 | 1,830,710(2018) | 1,395,000 | 1,700,000 |
| Gothenburg |  Sweden | 1,051,345 | 1,021,831(2018) | 759,000 | <1,000,000 |
| The Hague | Netherlands | 1,116,798 | 1,132,975(2021) | 1,404,000 [lower-alpha 1] | 3,400,000 [lower-alpha 9] |
| Hamburg Metropolitan Region | Germany | 3,328,679 | 3,421,692(2021) | 2,983,000 | 2,925,000 |
| Hannover | Germany | 1,316,006 | 1,289,320(2021) | 997,000 [lower-alpha 10] | 1,150,000 |
| Helsinki Metropolitan Area |  Finland | 1,526,778 | 1,551,959(2022) | 1,285,000 | 1,530,000 |
| Istanbul [lower-alpha 11] |  Turkey | 13,719,061 | 11,044,642(2004) | — | 15,900,000 |
| Katowice metropolitan area | Poland | 2,486,510 | 2,417,386(2021) | 3,029,000 [lower-alpha 12] | 2,225,000 |
| Kazan metropolitan area |  Russia | — | — | — | 1,590,000 |
| Kharkiv | Ukraine | — | — | — | 1,600,000 [lower-alpha 6] |
| Kyiv metropolitan area | Ukraine | — | — | — | 3,475,000 [lower-alpha 6] |
| Kraków metropolitan area | Poland | 1,423,235 | 1,489,912(2021) | 1,236,000 | <1,000,000 |
| Leipzig | Germany | 1,049,342 | 956,290(2021) | 842,000 | <1,000,000 |
| Lille | France | 1,505,093 | 1,515,061(2020) | 1,161,000 [lower-alpha 13] | 1,320,000 |
| Lisbon metropolitan area |  Portugal | 3,035,487 | 3,049,222(2023) | 2,591,000 | 2,500,000 |
| Łódź metropolitan area | Poland | 903,719 | 893,083(2021) | 1,165,000 | <1,000,000 |
| London metropolitan area | United Kingdom | 12,451,423 | 12,434,823(2018) | 11,203,000 | 14,900,000 |
| Lyon | France | 2,129,101 | 2,293,180(2020) | 1,669,000 | 2,025,000 |
| Madrid metropolitan area | Spain | 7,005,286 | 6,982,656(2022) | 5,263,000 | 6,650,000 |
| Málaga-Marbella | Spain | 1,211,770 [lower-alpha 14] | 1,230,313 [lower-alpha 15] (2022) | 775,000 [lower-alpha 16] | 1,090,000 |
| Greater Manchester | United Kingdom | 3,399,018 | 3,348,274(2018) | 2,556,000 | 3,150,000 |
| Mannheim-Ludwigshafen | Germany | 1,191,766 | 1,318,805(2021) | 1,136,000 [lower-alpha 17] | 1,590,000 |
| Marseille | France | 1,278,124 [lower-alpha 18] | 1,879,601(2020) | 1,530,000 | 1,700,000 |
| Merseyside (Liverpool/Birkenhead) | United Kingdom | 1,548,752 | 1,533,860(2018) | 2,241,000 | 1,890,000 |
| Milan metropolitan area | Italy | 4,985,668 | 4,934,205(2022) | 4,136,000 [lower-alpha 19] | 6,100,000 [lower-alpha 20] |
| Minsk metropolitan area |  Belarus | — | — | — | 2,100,000 |
| Moscow metropolitan area | Russia | — | — | — | 19,100,000 |
| Munich | Germany | 2,926,802 | 3,016,834(2021) | 2,665,000 [lower-alpha 21] | 2,300,000 |
| Nantes | France | 1,003,395 | 1,022,775(2020) | 708,000 | <1,000,000 |
| Naples metropolitan area | Italy | 3,349,233 | 3,303,711(2022) | 2,905,000 [lower-alpha 22] | 4,050,000 [lower-alpha 23] |
| Nice | France | 1,020,879 | 618,489(2020) | 1,082,000 | <1,000,000 |
| Nizhny Novgorod | Russia | — | — | — | 1,660,000 |
| Nottingham-Derby | United Kingdom | 935,049 [lower-alpha 24] | 1,406,315 [lower-alpha 25] (2018) | 1,534,000 | 1,380,000 |
| Northwest Metropolitan Region (Bremen) | Germany | 1,274,429 | 1,046,897(2021) | 1,077,000 | 1,000,000 |
| Nuremberg Metropolitan Region | Germany | 1,352,002 | 1,181,541(2021) | 1,443,000 | 1,210,000 |
| Odesa | Ukraine | — | — | — | 1,100,000 [lower-alpha 6] |
| Greater Oslo Region |  Norway | 1,420,926 | 1,278,827(2013) | 1,037,000 | 1,260,000 |
| Ostrava metropolitan area |  Czech Republic | 709,768 | 695,244(2022) | 1,046,000 [lower-alpha 12] | <1,000,000 |
| Palermo metropolitan area | Italy | 995,821 | 986,721(2022) | 861,000 | <1,000,000 |
| Paris metropolitan area | France | 12,997,058 | 13,125,142(2020) | 11,175,000 | 11,500,000 |
| Perm | Russia | — | — | — | 1,090,000 |
| Porto Metropolitan Area | Portugal | 1,785,248 | 1,316,989(2023) | 1,245,000 [lower-alpha 26] | 1,550,000 |
| Portsmouth-Southampton | United Kingdom | 695,204 [lower-alpha 27] | 1,230,011 [lower-alpha 28] (2018) | 1,547,000 | 1,150,000 |
| Poznań metropolitan area | Poland | 993,656 | 1,051,414(2021) | 919,000 | <1,000,000 |
| Prague metropolitan area | Czech Republic | 2,267,817 | 2,216,746(2022) | 1,669,000 | 1,470,000 |
| Rhein-Nord [lower-alpha 29] (Düsseldorf - Neuss) | Germany | 1,557,269 | 2,247,629 [lower-alpha 30] (2021) | 3,073,000 [lower-alpha 31] [lower-alpha 32] | 5,000,000 [lower-alpha 33] |
| Rhein-Süd [lower-alpha 29] (Cologne - Bonn) | Germany | 2,004,984 | 3,005,728 [lower-alpha 34] (2021) | 3,070,000 [lower-alpha 32] | 5,000,000 [lower-alpha 33] |
| Riga metropolitan area |  Latvia | 927,924 | 917,351(2022) | 1,195,000 | <1,000,000 |
| Rome metropolitan area | Italy | 4,325,591 | 4,291,581(2022) | 5,190,000 | 3,425,000 |
| Rostov-on-Don | Russia | — | — | — | 1,410,000 |
| Rotterdam | Netherlands | 1,876,165 | 1,902,704(2022) | 1,904,000 [lower-alpha 1] | 3,400,000 [lower-alpha 9] |
| Ruhr [lower-alpha 29] | Germany | 5,115,617 | 5,068,912(2021) | 5,376,000 [lower-alpha 35] [lower-alpha 32] | 5,650,000 |
| Saarbrücken - Forbach | Germany / France | 797,110 | 522,983 [lower-alpha 36] (2021) | 1,102,000 | <1,000,000 |
| Saint Petersburg metropolitan area | Russia | — | — | — | 6,500,000 |
| Samara | Russia | — | — | — | 1,370,000 |
| Saratov | Russia | — | — | — | 1,210,000 |
| Seville | Spain | 1,558,006 | 1,556,975(2021) | 1,180,000 [lower-alpha 37] | 1,300,000 |
| Sofia |  Bulgaria | 1,551,056 | 1,531,867(2022) | 1,174,000 | 1,240,000 |
| South Yorkshire (Sheffield-Doncaster) | United Kingdom | 1,204,485 | 1,189,393(2018) | 1,869,000 | 1,540,000 |
| Metropolitan Stockholm | Sweden | 2,377,081 | 2,308,143(2018) | 2,171,000 | 2,275,000 |
| Stuttgart Metropolitan Region | Germany | 2,794,283 | 2,531,040(2021) | 2,289,000 | 2,400,000 |
| Tbilisi [lower-alpha 38] |  Georgia | — | — | — | 1,420,000 |
| Thessaloniki metropolitan area | Greece | 1,049,937 | 973,997(2011) | 1,052,000 | <1,000,000 |
| Toulouse | France | 1,445,789 | 1,470,899(2020) | 832,000 | 1,130,000 |
| Turin metropolitan area | Italy | 1,728,714 | 1,712,372(2022) | 1,601,000 [lower-alpha 39] | 1,580,000 |
| Tyne and Wear (Newcastle-Sunderland) | United Kingdom | 1,192,598 | 1,175,274(2018) | 1,599,000 | 1,470,000 |
| Ufa | Russia | — | — | — | 1,230,000 |
| Utrecht | Netherlands | 887,420 | 895,000(2022) | 982,000 [lower-alpha 1] | <1,000,000 |
| Valencia | Spain | 1,768,205 | 1,775,845(2022) | 1,398,000 [lower-alpha 40] | 1,920,000 |
| Vienna |  Austria | 3,004,660 | — | 2,584,000 | 2,350,000 |
| Volgograd | Russia | — | — | — | 1,090,000 |
| Voronezh | Russia | — | — | — | 1,170,000 |
| Warsaw metropolitan area | Poland | 3,209,784 | 3,374,742(2021) | 2,785,000 | 2,500,000 |
| West Midlands conurbation (Birmingham) | United Kingdom | 3,122,915 | 3,097,965(2018) | 3,683,000 | 3,250,000 |
| West Yorkshire Built-up Area (Leeds - Bradford) | United Kingdom | 2,655,815 | 2,619,128(2018) | 2,302,000 | 2,225,000 |
| Yerevan [lower-alpha 38] |  Armenia | — | — | — | 1,520,000 |
| Zagreb metropolitan area |  Croatia | 1,219,858 | 1,161,259(2022) | — | <1,000,000 |
| Zürich metropolitan area |  Switzerland | 1,401,783 | 1,951,341(2022) | 1,615,000 | 1,490,000 |
| Rank | Area | State | Population [9] |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region | Germany | 12,190,000 |
| 2 | Randstad | Netherlands | 6,787,000 |
| 3 | Katowice-Ostrava 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 which are 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 Katowice-Ostrava 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 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.
The Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region is the largest metropolitan region in Germany, with over ten million inhabitants. A polycentric conurbation with several major urban concentrations, the region covers an area of 7,110 square kilometres (2,750 sq mi), entirely within the federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia. The Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region spreads from the Ruhr area (Dortmund-Bochum-Essen-Duisburg) in the north to the urban areas of the cities of Mönchengladbach, Düsseldorf, Wuppertal, Leverkusen, Cologne, and Bonn in the south. The location of the Rhine-Ruhr at the heart of the European Blue Banana makes it well connected to other major European cities and metropolitan areas such as the Randstad, the Flemish Diamond and the Frankfurt Rhine Main Region.
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 Madrid metropolitan area is a monocentric metropolitan area in the centre of the Iberian peninsula, around the municipality of Madrid, Spain. It is not related to any sort of administrative delimitation, and thus, its limits are ambiguous.
The functional urban area (FUA), previously known as larger urban zone (LUZ), 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, which is a contiguous area of spatial units that have at least 15% of their employed residents working in the city.
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.
Metropolitan areas in Romania are private agencies of public utility which were established by Law no. 351 of 6 July 2001 with the aim of encouraging the development of neighboring towns and communes within a radius of 30 km. The first to be established was the metropolitan area of Iași, on 8 April 2004, while the last is that of Drobeta-Turnu Severin, on 28 August 2019. There are 24 metropolitan areas in Romania that have been constituted as of 2019.
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. The Katowice urban area is the largest urban area in Poland and 22nd largest urban area in the European Union. According to Demographia, its population is 1,903,000.
The Ostrava metropolitan area is the metropolitan area with the city of Ostrava in the Czech Republic at its center. The Ostrava urban area is the largest urban area in the metropolitan area with a population of 365,000. The metropolitan area has over 81% of the population of the Moravian-Silesian Region. The population of the metropolitan area is 970,189 as of 2024. An alternative definition, the Eurostat Larger Urban Zone, lists a population of 1,153,876. The Ostrava metropolitan area is sometimes combined with the Katowice metropolitan area to form a wider metropolitan area with a population of 5,008,000 (2015). The metropolitan area has 172 municipalities.
The Barcelona urban area is an urban area in Catalonia (Spain) centered on the city of Barcelona and located less than 100 km south of the border with France. With a population of over 5 million, it is one of the largest urban areas in Europe.
A 2001 ESPIN metropolitan area was defined as consisting of an urban area, conurbation or agglomeration, together with the surrounding area to which it was 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.
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.
The Vienna-Bratislava metropolitan region is one of 5 polycentric metropolitan areas in European Union. It has population of over 3 million inhabitants and covers an area of around 14,000 square kilometres (5,400 sq mi). It is located in seven administrative units.
The Vilnius urban area is the urban area of Vilnius. The urban area covers several municipalities in the Vilnius County.
Until recently, there was no harmonised definition of 'a city' for European and other countries member of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). This undermined the comparability, and thus also the credibility, of cross-country analysis of cities. To resolve this problem, the OECD and the European Commission developed a new definition of a city and its commuting zone in 2011. […] Each city is part of its own commuting zone or a polycentric commuting zone covering multiple cities. These commuting zones are significant, especially for larger cities. The cities and commuting zones together (called Larger Urban Zones) account for 60 % of the EU population.
Within the Urban Audit, (...) functional urban areas were previously referred to as 'larger urban zones'.
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