List of urban areas in the European Union

(Redirected from Largest urban areas of Western Europe)

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. Demographia provides figures for urban areas (including conurbations), while the UN DESA figures are a mix agglomerations, cities proper and metropolitan areas. 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.

Urban areas over 500,000 inhabitants (2015–2022)


Rank	Urban area	State	Population (2023) (urban areas; Demographia)	ESPON Population (Functional Urban Area)	Population (UN)	FUA population (metropolitan areas; Eurostat)	Density (per km; Demographia)	Annual growth rate (%)
1	Paris	France	11,108,000	12,998,583	10,901,000 (agglomeration)	13,125,142 (2020)	3,893	1.83
2	Madrid	Spain	6,798,000	5,263,000	6,497,000 (city proper)	6,982,656 (2022)	4,980
3	Ruhr	Germany	6,769,000	5,376,000	N/A	N/A	2,523
4	Milan	Italy	5,471,000	7,636,000	3,132,000 (metro)	4,934,205 (2022)	2,459
5	Barcelona	Spain	5,317,000	4,082,000	5,494,000 (city proper)	5,093,585 (2022)	4,959
6	Berlin	Germany	4,286,000	4,016,000	3,552,000 (city proper)	4,979,867 (2021)	3,134
7	Naples	Italy	3,653,000	3,714,000	2,198,000 (metro)	3,303,711 (2022)	3,544
8	Athens	Greece	3,309,000	3,761,000	3,156,000 (agglomeration)	3,828,434 (2011)	5,678
9	Rome	Italy	3,239,000	5,190,000	4,210,956 (metro)	4,291,581 (2022)	2,829
10	Rotterdam–The Hague	Netherlands	3,027,000	1,904,000	N/A	3,035,679 (2022)	2,981
11	Lisbon	Portugal	2,832,000	2,591,000	2,927,000 (metro)	3,049,222 (2023)	2,979
12	Budapest	Hungary	2,407,000	2,523,000	1,759,00 (city proper)	3,001,643 (2022)	2,414
13	Brussels	Belgium	2,238,000	2,639,000	2,050,000 (metro)	3,350,969 (2022)	2,572	0.02
14	Cologne–Bonn	Germany	2,218,000	3,070,000	N/A	3,005,728 (2021)	2,845
15	Stockholm	Sweden	2,200,000	2,171,000	1,583,000 (agglomeration)	2,308,143 (2018)	2,598	0.58
16	Hamburg	Germany	2,189,000	2,983,000	1,793,000 (city proper)	3,421,692 (2021)	2,753
17	Munich	Germany	2,112,000	2,665,000	1,504,000 (city proper)	3,016,834 (2021)	4,384	0.72
18	Bucharest	Romania	2,097,000	2,064,000	1,821,000 (city proper)	2,412,530 (2015)	5,092	0.10
19	Frankfurt	Germany	2,055,000	2,764,000	n/a	2,678,557 (2021)	3,112
20	Vienna	Austria	2,030,000	2,584,000	1,901,000 (city proper)	n/a	6,029	1.04
21	Warsaw	Poland	2,028,000	2,785,000	1,768,000 (city proper)	3,374,742 (2022)	3,711
22	Katowice	Poland	1,903,000	3,029,000	N/A	2,417,386 (2022)	2,615
23	Amsterdam	Netherlands	1,736,000	2,497,000	1,132,000 (agglomeration)	2,915,114 (2022)	3,565
24	Copenhagen	Denmark	1,650,000	2,350,000	1,321,000 (metro)	n/a	2,922
25	Valencia	Spain	1,547,000	1,398,000	N/A	1,775,845 (2022)	3,930	0.29
26	Turin	Italy	1,492,000	1,601,000	1,786,000 (metro)	1,712,372 (2022)	3,919	−0.16
27	Lyon	France	1,424,000	1,669,000	1,690,000 (agglomeration)	2,280,845 (2019)	3,089	0.50
28	Marseille	France	1,406,000	1,530,000	1,599,000 (agglomeration)	1,879,601 (2020)	2,041	0.46
29	Stuttgart	Germany	1,397,000	2,289,000	N/A	2,531,040 (2020)	2,931
30	Dublin	Ireland	1,386,000	1,477,000	1,201,000 (agglomeration)	1,793,902 (2011)	3,006	1.14
31	Porto	Portugal	1,364,000	1,245,000	1,307,000 (agglomeration)	1,316,989 (2023)	1,715
32	Lille	France, Belgium	1,315,000	1,379,000	1,054,000 (agglomeration)	1,515,061 (2020)	2,489	0.50
33	Prague	Czech Republic	1,240,000	1,669,000	1,292,000 (city proper)	2,216,746 (2022)	4,023	−0.07
34	Helsinki	Finland	1,146,000	1,285,000	1,279,000 (agglomeration)	1,551,959 (2022)	2,223	0.81
35	Seville	Spain	1,138,000	1,180,000	N/A	1,556,975 (2022)	4,185
36	Sofia	Bulgaria	1,087,000	3,174,000	1,272,000 (agglomeration)	1,531,867 (2022)	5,246	0.78
37	Antwerp	Belgium	1,070,000	1,406,000	1,032,000 (metro)	1,157,068 (2022)	1,608	0.05
38	Toulouse	France	946,000	832,000	N/A	1,470,899 (2020)	1,864	0.72
39	Utrecht	Netherlands	907,000	692,000	N/A	895,000 (2022)	2,894
40	Gdańsk	Poland	874,000	993,000	N/A	1,223,884 (2021)	2,909
41	Nice	France	871,000	1,082,000	N/A	618,489 (2019)	1,868	0.52
42	Thessaloniki	Greece	844,000	1,052,000	N/A	973,997 (2011)	3,910	0.39
43	Bordeaux	France	827,000	918,000	N/A	1,376,375 (2020)	1,104	0.60
44	Łódź	Poland	798,000	1,165,000	N/A	893,083 (2021)	2,751
45	Bilbao	Spain	782,000	947,000	N/A	1,041,059 (2022)	5,297
46	Florence	Italy	764,000	645,000	N/A	784,279 (2022)	3,352
47	Palermo	Italy	747,000	861,000	N/A	986,721 (2022)	4,241	0.12
48	Kraków	Poland	744,000	1,236,000	N/A	1,489,912 (2021)	3,503
49	Hanover	Germany	742,000	997,000	N/A	1,289,320 (2021)	2,558
50	Nuremberg	Germany	720,000	1,443,000	N/A	1,181,541 (2021)	3,055
51	Zaragoza	Spain	707,000	639,000	N/A	770,370 (2022)	4,789
52	Dresden	Germany	698,000	882,000	N/A	965,353 (2021)	2,567
53	Málaga	Spain	692,000	944,000	N/A	887,146 (2022)	5,138
54	Zagreb	Croatia	691,000	1,153,255	N/A	1,161,259 (2022)	3,706
55	Catania	Italy	687,000	707,000	N/A	643,274 (2022)	2,550
56	Gothenburg	Sweden	629,000	759,000	N/A	1,021,831 (2018)	2,198
57	Poznań	Poland	680,000	919,000	N/A	1,051,414 (2021)	2,004
58	Bergamo	Italy	660,000	662,000	N/A	310,020 (2022)	2,022
59	Mannheim	Germany	658,000	683,000	N/A	n/a	2,920
60	Leipzig	Germany	636,000	842,000	N/A	956,290 (2021)	2,506
61	Wrocław	Poland	635,000	861,000	N/A	963,311 (2021)	2,636
62	Las Palmas	Spain	619,000	640,000	N/A	630,900 (2022)	2,879
63	Riga	Latvia	603,000	1,195,000	N/A	917,351 (2022)	2,217
64	Bremen	Germany	599,000	1,077,000	N/A	1,046,897 (2021)	2,161
65	Nantes	France	578,000	708,000	N/A	1,022,775 (2020)	2,277
66	Aachen	Germany	571,000	672,000	N/A	594,324 (2020)	2,080
67	Vilnius	Lithuania	550,000	680,000	N/A	716,856 (2021)	1,966
68	Genoa	Italy	546,000	694,000	N/A	681,459 (2022)	7,027
69	Palma	Spain	522,000	433,000	N/A	709,091 (2020)	3,359
70	Santa Cruz	Spain	510,000		N/A	520,728 (2021)	4,688

Other notable urban areas


Urban area	State	ESPON Population (Functional Urban Area)	FUA population (metropolitan areas; Eurostat)
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	3
Greece	2
Portugal	2
Sweden	2

Top 30 urban areas by population

Cologne–Bonn

Stuttgart class=notpageimage| Location of the top 30 urban areas by population in the European Union.

References

^ "Demographia" (PDF), www.demographia.com
^ UN's report on The World’s Cities in 2018
^ Population on 1 January by age groups and sex - functional urban areas. Retrieved 13 April 2024.
^ "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.
^ United Nations: World Urbanization Prospects Archived 10 March 2007 at archive.today
Population on 1 January by age groups and sex - functional urban areas. Retrieved 21 September 2022.

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

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