This is a list of the 'largest
metropolitan areas of
Europe'. The population figures for both the metropolitan area and central city are given.
In some cases, the list of
Largest urban areas of the European Union would give figures that better reflect common understanding of the different cities' sizes as the metropolitan areas include also non-
urban and suburban areas and administrative borders for cities often cut across most urban areas. The list of
Larger Urban Zones (LUZ) in the European Union can also be consulted for an attempt by
Eurostat, the European Union's statistical office, to provide harmonized data for EU metropolitan areas. The list below includes cities which are not part of the European Union and therefore do not benefit from the harmonized definition used by Eurostat and the different National Statistics Offices of the European Union.
The list also includes multicentric
conurbations that are not based on single central city. In addition, the numbers below are only rough projections based on historical growth rates. As in the rest of the world, metropolitan areas in Europe are much debated, and different sources will provide different statistics (including Wikipedia's own worldwide
list of metropolitan areas by population). These figures should be seen as an interpretation, not as conclusive fact. In most cases, they are towards the top of the range of figures quoted for each metropolitan area. Some of these areas are very much regions rather than single settlements. Unless otherwise indicated, metropolitan area figures are from
World Gazetteer.
| Rank | Metropolitan area name | Country | Population of metropolitan area | Population of municipality |
|---|
| 1 | Moscow | | 14,612,602 | 10,425,075 (2006) |
| 2 | London | | 12,629,020 | 7,517,700 (2005) |
| 3 | Istanbul | | 12,249,536 | 8,803,468 (2000) |
| 4 | Rhine-Ruhr | | 11,805,887[Multicentric urban area] | Essen (585,430); Dusseldorf (574,514); Cologne (983,347) |
| 5 | Paris | | 11,695,134 | 2,153,600 (2005) |
| 6 | Randstad | | 6,620,133 | Amsterdam (743,070); Rotterdam (588,697); The Hague (475,627); Utrecht (288,732) |
| 7 | Madrid | | 6,097,994 | 3,128,600 (2006) |
| 8 | Barcelona | | 4,853,308 | 1,605,602 (2006) |
| 9 | St. Petersburg | | 4,830,552 | 4,580,620 (2006) |
| 10 | Milan | | 4,320,422 | 1,308,735 (2006) |
| 11 | Greater Manchester/Liverpool | | 4,209,132 | Liverpool (460,500); Manchester (442,800); Stockport (281,600); Oldham (217,393); Salford (216,103); Rochdale (206,400); Trafford (213,200) |
| 12 | Berlin | | 4,025,873 | 3,395,189 (2005) |
| 13 | Naples | | 3,832,622 | 984,242 (2006) |
| 14 | Athens | | 3,799,134 | 745,514 (2001) |
| 15 | Rome | | 3,776,313 | 2,547,677 (2006) |
| 16 | Hamburg Metropolitan Region | | 3,279,604 | 1,743,627 (2006) |
| 17 | West Midlands | | 3,250,155 | Birmingham (994,900); Coventry (306,900); Wolverhampton (251,462) |
| 18 | Frankfurt Rhine Main Area | | 3,123,410 | 651,889 (2005) |
| 19 | Kiev | | 3,000,388 | 2,660,401 (2005) |
| 20 | Lisbon | | 2,618,411 | 564,657 (2001) |
| 21 | Budapest | | 2,571,504 | 1,697,343 (2005) |
| 22 | Katowice | | 2,566,339 | 315,996 (2006) |
| 23 | Copenhagen-Malmö | / | 2,379,237 | Copenhagen 503,699 (2007); Malmö 258,020 (2005) |
| 24 | Stuttgart Region | | 2,344,365 | 592,569 (2005) |
| 25 | Munich | | 2,324,646 | 1,259,677 (2005) |
| 26 | Warsaw | | 2,250,836 | 1,700,536 (2006) |
| 27 | Bucharest | | 2,209,108 | 1,921,751 (2002) |
| 28 | Brussels | | 2,129,024 | 144,784 (2006) |
| 29 | Alma (Aachen, Liège, Maastricht) | | 2,128,092 | Aachen (258,208); Liege (187,086); Maastricht (120,175) |
| 30 | Wien | | 2,081,714 | 1,651,365 (2006) |
| 31 | Lille-Kortrijk | / | 1,882,688 | Lille (225,100) |
| 32 | Nizhniy Novgorod | | 1,829,923 | 1,283,553 (2006) |
| 33 | Lyon | | 1,773,319 | 466,400 (2005) |
| 34 | Belgrade | | 1,764,650 | 1,120,092[1] (2002) |
| 35 | Valencia | | 1,759,485 | 805,304 (2006) |
| 36 | Minsk | | 1,753,245[Metropolitan area definition is the same as the city proper] | 1,765,800 (2005) |
| 37 | Stockholm | | 1,721,758 | 782,885 (2006) |
| 38 | Turin | | 1,699,308 | 900,608 (2006) |
| 39 | Donetsk | | 1,640,854 | 999,975 (2005) |
| 40 | Greater Glasgow | | 1,611,019 | 632,000 (2005) |
| 41 | Kharkiv | | 1,606,448 | 1,464,740 (2005) |
| 42 | Marseille | | 1,604,505 | 820,900 (2005) |
| 43 | West Yorkshire | | 1,580,032 (2005) | Leeds (448,000); Bradford (477,770); Wakefield (320,600) |
| 44 | Rhine Neckar Area | | 1,515,640 | Mannheim (307,900) |
| 45 | Douai-Lens-Bethune-Valenciennes | | 1,476,159 | Douai (43,200) |
| 46 | Bielefeld | | 1,448,403 | 326,925 (2005) |
| 47 | Samara | | 1,441,868 | 1,143,346 (2006) |
| 48 | Volgograd | | 1,441,160 | 991,643 (2006) |
| 49 | Prague | | 1,417,844 | 1,181,610 (2006) |
| 50 | Dnipropetrovsk | | 1,414,772 | 1,056,497 (2005) |
| 51 | Halle-Leipzig | | 1,395,721 | Halle (237,198); Leipzig (502,651) |
| 52 | Rostov-on-Don | | 1,354,851 | 1,054,865 (2006) |
| 53 | Seville | | 1,293,275 | 704,414 (2006) |
| 54 | Porto | | 1,288,634 | 263,131 (2001) |
| 55 | South Yorkshire | | 1,253,179 (2005) | Sheffield (446,300); Doncaster (289,600); Rotherham (253,200) |
| 56 | Helsinki | | 1,248,122 | 560,905 (2005) |
| 57 | Sofia | | 1,217,465 | 1,138,950 (2004) |
| 58 | Tyne and Wear | | 1,194,652 | Sunderland (280,807); Newcastle (276,400) |
| 59 | Nürnberg | | 1,182,563 | 499,237 (2005) |
| 60 | Bremen | | 1,180,530 | 546,852 (2005) |
| 61 | Chemnitz-Zwickau | | 1,167,946 | Chemnitz (246,587); Zwickau (97,382) |
| 62 | Bilbao | | 1,132,343 | 354,145 (2006) |
| 63 | Odessa | | 1,130,921 | 1,007,131 (2005) |
| 64 | Antwerp | | 1,128,828 | 461,496 (2006) |
| 65 | Hannover | | 1,108,897 | 515,729 (2005) |
| 66 | Toulouse | | 1,107,995 | 435,000 (2005) |
| 67 | Kazan | | 1,105,083 | 1,112,673 (2006) |
| 68 | Saarbrucken-Forbach |
| 1,104,869 | Saarbrucken (178,914) |
| 69 | Saratov | | 1,101,639 | 850,086 (2006) |
| 70 | Zagreb | | 1,088,841 (2001)[2] | 783,500 (2005 est.[3] |
| 71 | Dresden | | 1,076,433 | 495,181 (2005) |
| 72 | Dublin | | 1,036,724 | 506,211 (2006) |
| 73 | Ufa | | 1,027,645 | 1,029,616 (2006) |
| 74 | Zürich | | 1,024,089 | 347,517 (2006) |
| 75 | Palermo | | 1,004,613 | 670,820 (2006) |
References and notes
NB To access the relevant Eurostat reports, once the reference has been followed, click at 'Indicators for larger urban zones'. In the new window that opens, click the 'TIME' button and set the time period (1999_2003). Then click the 'CITIES' button and choose the cities for which you want to access the data. Then click the 'NEXT' button, click 'OK' at the Javascript alert box, and then click 'DOWNLOAD'.
1. Национална или етничка припадност - подаци по насељима, Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia, , , Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia, 2002,
2. Republic of Croatia - Central Bureau of Statistics [1]
3. City of Zagreb - City bureau for urban planning, statistics office [2]
See also
★
Larger Urban Zones (LUZ) in the European Union
★
Largest urban areas of the European Union for the population of urban areas (and not metropolitan areas like here)
★
Largest Cities of the European Union by population for only the cities proper, at the center of the metropolitan areas
★
Largest Cities (25,000+) of Europe by number of headquarters
★
World largest cities
★
List of metropolitan areas by population for the world
★
Largest metropolitan areas in the Americas
★
List of the largest metropolitan areas in Africa