Urban areas in the European Union

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.UN's report on The World’s Cities in 2018 Demographia provides figures for urban areas (including conurbations), while the UN DESA figures are a mix agglomerations, cities proper and metropolitan areas. For comparison, Functional Urban Area (FUA) population figures by Eurostat are also provided,Population on 1 January by age groups and sex - functional urban areas. Retrieved 13 April 2024. however, these measure the wider metropolitan areas.

Important notes This is a list of urban areas, not a list of metropolitan areas. Urban and metropolian areas are different because Urban areas are contiguous built-up areas where houses are typically not more than 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)

+RankUrban areaImageState Population (2023) (urban areas; Demographia) ESPON Population (Functional Urban Area) Population (UN)FUA population (metropolitan areas; Eurostat) Demographia)1Paris11,108,00012,998,58310,901,000 13,125,142 3,8931.832Madrid6,798,0005,263,0006,497,000 6,982,656 4,9803Ruhr6,769,0005,376,000N/AN/A2,5234Milan5,471,0007,636,0003,132,000 4,934,205 2,4595Barcelona5,317,0004,082,0005,494,000 5,093,585 4,9596Berlin4,286,0004,016,0003,552,000 4,979,867 3,1347Naples3,653,0003,714,0002,198,000 3,303,711 3,5448Athens3,309,0003,761,0003,156,000 3,828,434 5,6789Rome3,239,0005,190,0004,210,956 4,291,581 2,82910Rotterdam–The Hague3,027,0001,904,000N/A3,035,679 2,98111Lisbon2,832,0002,591,0002,927,000 3,049,222 2,97912Budapest2,407,0002,523,0001,759,00 3,001,643 2,41413Brussels2,238,0002,639,0002,050,000 3,350,969 2,5720.0214Cologne–Bonn2,218,0003,070,000N/A3,005,728 2,84515Stockholm2,200,0002,171,0001,583,000 2,308,143 2,5980.5816Hamburg2,189,0002,983,0001,793,000 3,421,692 2,75317Munich2,112,0002,665,0001,504,000 3,016,834 4,3840.7218Bucharest2,097,0002,064,0001,821,000 2,412,530 5,0920.10United Nations: World Urbanization Prospects 19Frankfurt2,055,0002,764,000n/a2,678,557 3,11220Vienna2,030,0002,584,0001,901,000 n/a6,0291.0421Warsaw2,028,0002,785,0001,768,000 3,374,742 3,71122Katowice1,903,0003,029,000N/A2,417,386 2,61523Amsterdam1,736,0002,497,0001,132,000 2,915,114 3,56524Copenhagen1,650,0002,350,0001,321,000 n/a2,92225Valencia1,547,0001,398,000N/A1,775,845 3,9300.2926Turin1,492,0001,601,0001,786,000 1,712,372 3,919 −0.1627Lyon1,424,000 1,669,0001,690,000 2,280,845 3,0890.5028Marseille1,406,0001,530,0001,599,000 1,879,601 2,0410.4629Stuttgart1,397,0002,289,000N/A2,531,040 2,93130Dublin1,386,0001,477,0001,201,000 1,793,902 3,0061.1431Porto1,364,0001,245,0001,307,000 1,316,989 1,71532Lille, 1,315,0001,379,0001,054,000 1,515,061 2,4890.5033Prague1,240,0001,669,0001,292,000 2,216,746 4,023 −0.0734Helsinki1,146,0001,285,0001,279,000 1,551,959 2,2230.8135Seville1,138,0001,180,000N/A1,556,975 4,18536Sofia1,087,0001,174,0001,272,000 1,531,867 5,2460.7837Antwerp1,070,000 1,406,0001,032,000 1,157,068 1,6080.0538Toulouse946,000832,000N/A1,470,899 1,8640.7239Utrecht907,000692,000N/A895,000 2,89440Gdańsk874,000993,000N/A1,223,884 2,90941Nice871,0001,082,000N/A618,489 1,8680.5242Thessaloniki844,0001,052,000N/A973,997 3,9100.3943Bordeaux827,000 918,000N/A1,376,375 1,1040.6044Łódź798,0001,165,000N/A893,083 2,75145Bilbao782,000947,000N/A1,041,059 5,29746Florence764,000645,000N/A784,279 3,35247Palermo747,000861,000N/A986,721 4,2410.1248Kraków744,000 1,236,000N/A1,489,912 3,50349Hanover742,000997,000N/A1,289,320 2,55850Nuremberg720,0001,443,000N/A1,181,541 3,05551Zaragoza707,000639,000N/A770,370 4,78952Dresden698,000882,000N/A965,353 2,56753Málaga692,000 944,000N/A887,146 5,13854Zagreb691,0001,153,255N/A1,161,259 3,70655Catania687,000707,000N/A643,274 2,55056Gothenburg629,000 759,000N/A1,021,831 2,19857Poznań680,000 919,000N/A1,051,414 2,00458Bergamo660,000662,000N/A310,020 2,02259Mannheim658,000683,000N/An/a2,92060Leipzig636,000842,000N/A956,290 2,50661Wrocław635,000861,000N/A963,311 2,63662Las Palmas619,000 640,000N/A630,900 2,87963Riga603,0001,195,000N/A917,351 2,21764Bremen599,000 1,077,000N/A1,046,897 2,16165Nantes578,000708,000N/A1,022,775 2,27766Aachen571,000672,000N/A594,324 2,08067Vilnius550,000 680,000N/A716,856 1,96668Genoa546,000694,000N/A681,459 7,02769Palma522,000433,000N/A709,091 3,35970Santa Cruz510,000N/A520,728 4,688

Other notable urban areas

+Urban areaImageState ESPON Population (Functional Urban Area)FUA population (metropolitan areas; Eurostat)Population on 1 January by age groups and sex - functional urban areas. Retrieved 21 September 2022.Aarhus845,971Oviedo–Gijón–Avilés844,000Alicante–Elche–Elda793,000Ostrava709,768713,812 Bologna690,000785,941 Malmö658,050669,741 Grenoble555,000717,469 Douai-Lens550,000Toulon518,000573,230 Charleroi489,264Odense485,672Granada440,000571,447 Vigo413,000547,151 Montpellier801,595 Eindhoven771,263 Rennes755,668 Brno727,759 Bari727,549 Heidelberg709,840 Rouen705,627 Augsburg684,705 Bratislava669,592 Kiel649,578 Murcia646,099 Catania640,088 Tallinn609,515 Ghent605,956 Venice552,414 Groningen543,707 Plovdiv542,407 Padua535,922 Münster535,879 Erfurt524,565 Tours519,778 Verona517,271 Nancy510,306 Clermont-Ferrand507,479

By country

+Number of cities by country with urban areas over 500,000 inhabitants represented in the tableCountryNo. of cities 19 1715147553222

Top 30 urban areas by population

Urban areas in the European Union

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