List of urban areas in the European Union explained

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.^[1] Demographia provides figures for urban areas (including conurbations), while the UN DESA figures are a mix agglomerations, cities proper and metropolitan areas.^[1] For comparison, Function Urban Area (FUA) population figures by Eurostat are also provided,^[2] 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)

Population (2023) (urban areas; Demographia)! data-sort-type="number"

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

Other notable urban areas

ESPON Population (Functional Urban Area)! data-sort-type="number"

FUA population (metropolitan areas; Eurostat)^[6]
Aarhus			845,971
Oviedo–Gijón–Avilés			844,000
Alicante–Elche–Elda			793,000
Ostrava			709,768	713,812
Bologna			690,000	785,941
Malmö			658,050	669,741
Grenoble			555,000	717,469
Douai-Lens			550,000
Toulon			518,000	573,230
Charleroi			489,264
Odense			485,672
Granada			440,000	571,447
Vigo			413,000	547,151
Montpellier				801,595
Eindhoven				771,263
Rennes				755,668
Brno				727,759
Bari				727,549
Heidelberg				709,840
Rouen				705,627
Augsburg				684,705
Bratislava				669,592
Kiel				649,578
Murcia				646,099
Catania				640,088
Tallinn				609,515
Ghent				605,956
Venice				552,414
Groningen				543,707
Plovdiv				542,407
Padua				535,922
Münster				535,879
Erfurt				524,565
Tours				519,778
Verona				517,271
Nancy				510,306
Clermont-Ferrand				507,479

By country

Number of cities by country with urban areas over 500,000 inhabitants represented in the table

scope=col	Country	scope=col	No. of cities
scope=row		19
scope=row		17
scope=row		15
scope=row		14
scope=row		7
scope=row		5
scope=row		5
scope=row		3
scope=row		2
scope=row		2

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

1. UN's report on The World’s Cities in 2018
2. https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/URB_LPOP1__custom_3416005/default/table?lang=en Population on 1 January by age groups and sex - functional urban areas
3. Web site: 24 September 2015. ESPON Project 1.4.3 Study on Urban Functions. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20150924002318/http://www.espon.eu/export/sites/default/Documents/Projects/ESPON2006Projects/StudiesScientificSupportProjects/UrbanFunctions/fr-1.4.3_April2007-final.pdf. 24 September 2015. 21 June 2020.
4. https://www.insee.fr/fr/metadonnees/cog/aire-urbaine/AU2010001-paris Aire urbaine de Paris (001)
5. http://esa.un.org/unup/p2k0data.asp United Nations: World Urbanization Prospects
6. https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/URB_LPOP1__custom_3416005/default/table?lang=en Population on 1 January by age groups and sex - functional urban areas

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