Larger Urban Zones

Eurostat, the European Union's statistical agency, has created the concept of Larger Urban Zone (LUZ) in an effort to harmonise definitions of urbanisation in the European Union and in countries outside the European Union.^[1] These definitions were agreed between Eurostat and the National Statistics Offices of the different countries of the European Union at the occasion of the European Commission's Urban Audit of 2004.^[2] LUZs have been criticised for their insufficient harmonisation of data, which are still collected by national governments within local administrative units, making it sometimes difficult to compare LUZs from different countries. In 2006, about a third of the LUZ definitions were changed, significantly improving the comparability of LUZ definitions across different countries. The latest round of the Urban Audit also added cities from candidate countries and EFTA countries.

Eurostat's urban definitions

The list below shows the population sizes of cities in the European Union as well as candidate countries and non-EU EFTA countries. The list is limited to those cities whose Larger Urban Zones (LUZ) have populations of at least 1 million. The LUZ represents an attempt at a harmonised definition of the metropolitan area. Eurostat's objective was to have an area from a significant share of the resident commute into the city, a concept known as the "functional urban region." To ensure a good data availability, Eurostat adjusts the LUZ boundaries to administrative boundaries that approximate the functional urban region.

Ranking methodology

The list below contains the cities in the European Union and associated countries that participated in the third round of the Urban Audit programme. The cities are ranked by the size of the population of the Larger Urban Zone. The figures in the Eurostat database are an attempt at a compromise between harmonised data for all of the European Union, and with availability of statistical data, making comparisons more accurate. The data used is from the 2006 Urban Audit III, which uses information collected for 2004.^[3]

List of LUZs by population

Although the latest round of the Urban Audit also added cities from EFTA countries (Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland) and EU candidate countries, the only candidate country for which there is available data is Turkey. Croatia and Macedonia, which are also current candidate countries, received that status in 2004 and 2005 respectively.

Rank	City name	Country	LUZ population	LUZ area (km²)	Population Density (Σ/km²)
1	London	United Kingdom	11,917,000	8,920[4]	1336
2	Paris	France	11,089,124	12,079.87[4]	918
3	Istanbul	Turkey	11,044,642
4	Madrid	Spain	5,804,829	8,022	724
5	Ruhr Area	Germany	5,302,179	4,435	1196
6	Berlin	Germany	4,971,331	17,385	286
7	Barcelona	Spain	4,233,638	1,796.64	2356
8	Athens	Greece	4,013,368	3,806.92	1054
9	Ankara	Turkey	3,708,047
10	Rome	Italy	3,457,690	3,666.66	943
11	Hamburg	Germany	3,134,620	7,304	429
12	Milan	Italy	3,076,643	1,348.32	2282
13	Katowice	Poland	2,710,397	2,650.65	1023
14	Stuttgart	Germany	2,663,660	3,654	729
15	Warsaw	Poland	2,660,406	5,198.52	512
16	Manchester	United Kingdom	2,539,100	1,280	1984
17	Munich	Germany	2,531,706	5,504	460
18	Frankfurt am Main	Germany	2,517,561	4,305	585
19	Izmir	Turkey	2,440,902
20	Lisbon	Portugal	2,435,837	1,432.49	1700
21	Budapest	Hungary	2,393,846	2,538[4]	943
22	Leeds-Bradford	United Kingdom	2,393,300	5,114[4]	468
23	Birmingham	United Kingdom	2,357,100	1,598	1475
24	Naples	Italy	2,253,964	564.95	3990
25	Vienna	Austria	2,179,769	4,610.93[4]	473
26	Bucharest	Romania	2,140,194	662	3233
27	Prague	Czech Republic	1,964,750	6,977[4]	282
28	Cologne	Germany	1,873,580	1,626	1152
29	Stockholm	Sweden	1,860,872	6,519	285
30	Copenhagen	Denmark	1,806,667[4]	2,759[4]	655
31	Brussels	Belgium	1,800,663	1,613.91	1116
32	Glasgow	United Kingdom	1,747,100	3,346	522
33	Turin	Italy	1,745,221	1,878.97	929
34	Lyon	France	1,717,300	5,997.68[4]	286
35	Valencia	Spain	1,564,145	1,440.58	1086
36	Dublin	Ireland	1,535,446[4]
37	Düsseldorf	Germany	1,525,029	1,201	1270
38	Bursa	Turkey	1,458,067
39	Amsterdam	Netherlands	1,443,258	859.28	1680
40	Adana	Turkey	1,384,680
41	Liverpool	United Kingdom	1,365,900	821	1664
42	Bielefeld	Germany	1,297,876	2,921	444
43	Hanover	Germany	1,294,447	2,966	436
44	Nuremberg	Germany	1,288,797	2,934	439
45	Sheffield	United Kingdom	1,277,100	1,846	692
46	Kraków	Poland	1,264,322	2,988.65	423
47	Sofia	Bulgaria	1,263,807[4]	3,424.2[4]	369
48	Seville	Spain	1,249,346	3,081.9	405
49	Bremen	Germany	1,249,291	5,885	213
50	Helsinki	Finland	1,224,107	2,969.94	412
51	Rotterdam	Netherlands	1,186,818	611.75	1940
52	Łódź	Poland	1,163,516	2,857.51	407
53	Ostrava	Czech Republic	1,153,876	3,896[4]	296
54	Zürich	Switzerland	1,110,478	1,086.14	1022
55	Gdańsk	Poland	1,105,203	3,457.32	320
56	Porto	Portugal	1,099,040	562.32	1954
57	Oslo	Norway	1,090,513	6,920	158
58	Newcastle upon Tyne	United Kingdom	1,055,600	3,385	312
59	Toulouse	France	1,052,497	4,706.93[4]	224
60	Gaziantep	Turkey	1,042,732
61	Wrocław	Poland	1,031,439	4,582.2	225
62	Poznań	Poland	1,018,511	3,719.2	274
63	Bristol	United Kingdom	1,006,600	1,635	616
64	Riga	Latvia	1,003,949	5,382.5	187
65	Thessaloniki	Greece	995,766
66	Bordeaux	France	981,370
67	The Hague	Netherlands	978,161
68	Bilbao	Spain	939,994
69	Konya	Turkey	919,433
70	Antwerpen	Belgium	915,258
71	Bonn	Germany	908,503
72	Leipzig	Germany	904,401
73	Dresden	Germany	902,067
74	Göteborg	Sweden	873,335
75	Saarbrücken	Germany	855,317
76	Palermo	Italy	855,285
77	Cardiff	United Kingdom	841,600
78	Nottingham	United Kingdom	825,600
79	Diyarbakir	Turkey	814,874
80	Antalya	Turkey	814,685
81	Edinburgh	United Kingdom	787,700
82	Córdoba	Spain	779,870[5]	13,771
83	Szczecin	Poland	777,806
84	Leicester	United Kingdom	772,400
85	Nantes	France	751,085
86	Bologna	Italy	743,965
87	Brno	Czech Republic	728,101
88	Genoa	Italy	718,896
89	Karlsruhe	Germany	712,475
90	Vilnius	Lithuania	709,870
91	Málaga	Spain	699,916
92	Florence	Italy	696,767
93	Zaragoza	Spain	685,873
94	Kayseri	Turkey	675,734
95	Badajoz	Spain	663,896[6]	21,766
96	Aarhus	Denmark	653,472
97	Lublin	Poland	652,642
98	Coventry	United Kingdom	651,000
99	Kiel	Germany	641,905
100	Belfast	United Kingdom	641,638
101	Strasbourg	France	634,275
102	Augsburg	Germany	629,139
103	Liège	Belgium	626,357
104	Las Palmas de Gran Canaria	Spain	625,892
105	Bari	Italy	623,298
106	Freiburg im Breisgau	Germany	618,467
107	Venice	Italy	612,245
108	Padua	Italy	605,709
109	Izmit	Turkey	601,351
110	Bratislava	Slovakia	601,132
111	Palma	Spain	593,386
112	Magdeburg	Germany	588,875
113	Bydgoszcz	Poland	582,927
114	Kingston upon Hull	United Kingdom	573,300
115	Catania	Italy	572,302
116	Utrecht	Netherlands	564,485
117	Verona	Italy	563,952
118	Rennes	France	553,579
119	Malmö	Sweden	550,289
120	Vigo	Spain	548,799
121	Erfurt	Germany	543,226
122	Grenoble	France	541,888
123	Linz	Austria	532,995
124	Bialystok	Poland	523,958
125	Tallinn	Estonia	521,410
126	Rouen	France	519,318
127	Malatya	Turkey	501,849

Urban Audit

Eurostat's Urban Audit is about much more than demographics. In order for it to be useful as a policy tool to the European Commission and other authorities it contains data for over 250 indicators across the following domains^[7][8]:

• Demography
• Social Aspects
• Economic Aspects
• Civic Involvement
• Training and Education
• Environment
• Travel and Transport
• Information Society
• Culture and Recreation

References

See also

• Largest cities of the European Union by population within city limits
• Largest European metropolitan areas
• Largest urban areas of the European Union
• World's largest cities