Largest European cities and metropolitan areas

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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 estimates for 2007-01-01 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	Cologne (983,347); Essen (585,430); Dusseldorf (574,514)
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	Upper Silesian Metropolitan Area		2,566,339	315,996 (2006)
23	Copenhagen-Malmö	/	2,379,237	Copenhagen 503,699 (2007); Malmö 279,915 (2007)
24	Stuttgart Region		2,344,365	592,569 (2005)
25	Munich		2,324,646	1,259,677 (2005)
26	Brabantse Stedenrij		2,300,000	Eindhoven (210,860); Tilburg (200,975 ); Breda (170.451); 's-Hertogenbosch (100,850 )
27	Warsaw		2,250,836	1,700,536 (2006)
28	Bucharest		2,209,108	1,921,751 (2002)
29	Brussels		2,129,024	144,784 (2006)
30	Alma (Aachen, Liège, Maastricht)		2,128,092	Aachen (258,208); Liege (187,086); Maastricht (120,175)
31	Vienna		2,081,714	1,651,365 (2006)
32	Stockholm		1,942,233	792,593 (2007)
33	Lille-Kortrijk	/	1,882,688	Lille (225,100)
34	Nizhniy Novgorod		1,829,923	1,283,553 (2006)
35	Lyon		1,773,319	466,400 (2005)
36	Belgrade		1,764,650	1,120,092 (2002)
37	Valencia		1,759,485	805,304 (2006)
38	Minsk		1,753,245	1,765,800 (2005)
39	Greater Glasgow		1,750,000(August 2007)	632,000 (August 2007)
40	Turin		1,699,308	900,608 (2006)
41	Donetsk		1,640,854	999,975 (2005)
42	Kharkiv		1,606,448	1,464,740 (2005)
43	Marseille		1,604,505	820,900 (2005)
44	Porto		1,581,694 (2006)	227,790
45	West Yorkshire		1,580,032	Leeds (448,000); Bradford (477,770); Wakefield (320,600)
46	Rhine Neckar Area		1,515,640	Mannheim (307,900); Ludwigshafen (163,560); Heidelberg (142,993)
47	Douai-Lens-Bethune-Valenciennes		1,476,159	Douai (43,200)
48	Bielefeld		1,448,403	326,925 (2005)
49	Samara		1,441,868	1,143,346 (2006)
50	Volgograd		1,441,160	991,643 (2006)
51	Prague		1,417,844	1,181,610 (2006)
52	Dnipropetrovsk		1,414,772	1,056,497 (2005)
53	Halle-Leipzig		1,395,721	Halle (237,198); Leipzig (502,651)
54	Rostov-on-Don		1,354,851	1,054,865 (2006)
55	Seville		1,293,275	704,414 (2006)
56	South Yorkshire		1,253,179	Sheffield (446,300); Doncaster (289,600); Rotherham (253,200)
57	Helsinki		1,248,122	560,905 (2005)
58	Sofia		1,217,465	1,138,950 (2004)
59	Tyne and Wear		1,194,652	Sunderland (280,807); Newcastle (276,400)
60	Nürnberg		1,182,563	499,237 (2005)
61	Bremen		1,180,530	546,852 (2005)
62	Chemnitz-Zwickau		1,167,946	Chemnitz (246,587); Zwickau (97,382)
63	Bilbao		1,132,343	354,145 (2006)
64	Odessa		1,130,921	1,007,131 (2005)
65	Antwerp		1,128,828	461,496 (2006)
66	Hannover		1,108,897	515,729 (2005)
67	Toulouse		1,107,995	435,000 (2005)
68	Kazan		1,105,083	1,112,673 (2006)
69	Saarbrucken-Forbach		1,104,869	Saarbrucken (178,914)
70	Saratov		1,101,639	850,086 (2006)
71	Tricity		1,098,379	754,960 (2006)
72	Zagreb		1,088,841 (2001)	783,500 (2005 est.
73	Dresden		1,076,433	495,181 (2005)
74	Dublin		1,036,724	506,211 (2006)
75	Ufa		1,027,645	1,029,616 (2006)
76	Zürich		1,024,089	347,517 (2006)
77	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'.

Largest European cities and metropolitan areas

References and notes

See also