Largest cities of the European Union by population within city limits

[Grumpy]

According to Wikipedia:

City and country Population Date of census/estimate
1. London, UK 7,517,700 June 30, 2005 (official)
2. Berlin, Germany 3,399,511 June 30, 2006 (official)
3. Madrid, Spain 3,128,600 January 1, 2006 (official)
4. Rome, Italy 2,545,243 March 31, 2006 (official)
5. Paris, France 2,153,600 January 1, 2005 (official)
6. Bucharest, Romania 1,924,959 July 1, 2005 (official)
7. Hamburg, Germany 1,751,656 August 30, 2006 (official)
8. Warsaw, Poland 1,700,536 June 30, 2006 (official)
9. Budapest, Hungary 1,698,106 January 1, 2006 (official)
10. Vienna, Austria 1,660,534 October 1, 2006 (official)
11. Barcelona, Spain 1,605,602 January 1, 2006 (official)
12. Munich, Germany 1,325,697 November 30, 2006 (official)
13. Milan, Italy 1,305,808 March 31, 2006 (official)
14.Sofia, Bulgaria 1,246,791 September 15, 2006 (official)
15. Prague, Czech Rep. 1,186,618 September 30, 2006 (official)
16. Birmingham, UK 1,001,200 June 30, 2005 (official)
17. Cologne, Germany 986,168 June 30, 2006 (official)
18. Naples, Italy 981,353 March 31, 2006 (official)
19. Turin, Italy 898,979 March 31, 2006 (official)
20. Marseille, France 820,900 January 1, 2005 (official)
21. Valencia, Spain 805,304 January 1, 2006 (official)
22. Stockholm, Sweden 780,817 September 30, 2006 (official)
23. Łódź, Poland 767,628 December 31, 2005 (official)
24. Kraków, Poland 756,629 December 31, 2005 (official)
25. Athens, Greece 745,514 March 18, 2001 (official)
26. Amsterdam, Netherlands 743,393 December 31, 2005 (official)
27. Riga, Latvia 727,578 January 1, 2006 (official)
28. Sevilla, Spain 704,414 January 1, 2006 (official)
29. Palermo, Italy 668,843 March 31, 2006 (official)
30. Frankfurt, Germany 659,928 September 30, 2006 (official)
31. Zaragoza, Spain 649,181 January 1, 2006 (official)
32. Wrocław, Poland 635,932 December 31, 2005 (official)
33. Genoa, Italy 618,438 March 31, 2006 (official)
34. Stuttgart, Germany 591,528 April 30, 2006 (official)
35. Rotterdam, Netherlands 588,500 December 31, 2005 (official)
36. Dortmund, Germany 587,717 June 30, 2006 (official)
37. Essen, Germany 583,892 June 30, 2006 (official)
38. Glasgow, UK 578,790 June 30, 2005 (official)
39. Düsseldorf, Germany 575,727 June 30, 2006 (official)
40. Poznań, Poland 567,882 December 31, 2005 (official)
41. Helsinki, Finland 560,905 December 31, 2005 (official)
42. Málaga, Spain 560,631 January 1, 2006 (official)
43. Vilnius, Lithuania 553,553 January 1, 2006 (official)
44. Bremen, Germany 546,852 December 31, 2005 (official)
45. Lisbon, Portugal 529,485 2004 (official)
46. Sheffield, UK 520,700 June 30, 2005 (official)
47. Hannover, Germany 515,559 June 30, 2006 (official)
48. Dublin, Ireland 505,739 April 23, 2006 (official)
49. Leipzig, Germany 505,069 June 30, 2006 (official)
50. Copenhagen, Denmark 501,158 January 1, 2006 (official)
51. Duisburg, Germany 500,142 June 30, 2006 (official)
52. Dresden, Germany 500,068 June 30, 2006 (official)
53. Nuremberg, Germany 499,222 August 31, 2006 (official)
54. Gothenburg, Sweden 489,425 September 30, 2006 (official)
55. The Hague, Netherlands 475,197 December 31, 2005 (official)
56. Lyon, France 466,400 January 1, 2005 (official)
57. Antwerp, Belgium 461,496 January 1, 2006 (official)
58. Gdańsk, Poland 458,053 December 31, 2005 (official)
59. Edinburgh, UK 457,830 June 30, 2005 (official)
60. Liverpool, UK 447,500 June 30, 2005 (official)
61. Leeds, UK 443,247 June 30, 2005 (official)
62. Manchester, UK 441,200 June 30, 2005 (official)
63. Toulouse, France 435,000 January 1, 2005 (official)
64. Bratislava, Slovakia 425,459 December 31, 2005 (official)
65. Murcia, Spain 416,996 January 1, 2006 (official)
66. Szczecin, Poland 411,119 December 31, 2005 (official)
67. Bristol, UK 398,300 June 30, 2005 (official)
68. Tallinn, Estonia 396,193 January 1, 2006 (official)
69. Bochum, Germany 384,492 June 30, 2006 (official)
70. Las Palmas, Spain 377,056 January 1, 2006 (official)
71. Palma de Mallorca, Spain 375,048 January 1, 2006 (official)
72. Bologna, Italy 374,142 March 31, 2006 (official)
73. Florence, Italy 367,268 March 31, 2006 (official)
74. Brno, Czech Republic 366,757 June 30, 2006 (official)
75. Bydgoszcz, Poland 366,074 December 31, 2005 (official)
76. Thessaloniki, Greece 363,987 March 18, 2001 (official)
77. Kaunas, Lithuania 360,637 January 1, 2006 (official)
78. Wuppertal, Germany 358,746 June 30, 2006 (official)
79. Lublin, Poland 354,967 December 31, 2005 (official)
80. Bilbao, Spain 354,145 January 1, 2005 (official)
81. Nice, France 347,900 January 1, 2005 (official)
82. Plovdiv, Bulgaria 341,873 December 31, 2005 (official)
83. Bari, Italy 326,333 March 31, 2006 (official)
84. Bielefeld, Germany 326,268 June 30, 2006 (official)
85. Córdoba, Spain 322,867 January 1, 2006 (official)
86. Alicante, Spain 322,431 January 1, 2006 (official)
87. Valladolid, Spain 319,943 January 1, 2006 (official)
88. Cardiff, UK 319,700 June 30, 2005 (official)
89. Iaşi, Romania 317,812 July 1, 2004 (official)
90. Katowice, Poland 317,220 December 31, 2005 (official)
91. Bonn, Germany 312,996 June 30, 2006 (official)
92. Varna, Bulgaria 311,796 December 31, 2005 (official)
93. Ostrava, Czech Republic 310,078 June 30, 2006 (official)
94. Mannheim, Germany 307,772 June 30, 2006 (official)
95. Constanţa, Romania 307,447 July 1, 2004 (official)
96. Timişoara, Romania 307,265 July 1, 2004 (official)
97. Coventry, UK 304,200 June 30, 2005 (official)
98. Catania, Italy 303,785 March 31, 2006 (official)
99. Vila Nova de Gaia, Portugal 300,868 2004 (official)
100. Galaţi, Romania 298,941 July 1, 2004 (official)


Other notable cities

* Since this table covers only the European Union, cities in non-member countries are omitted, such as Moscow, Oslo, Reykjavík, Bern and Zürich.
* Brussels – the capital city of Belgium and unofficially referred to as the capital of the European Union is nowhere near the top 100 list, as the relatively small municipality has a total population of only 141,312 (Census estimate 2004). The greater Brussels-Capital Region has a population of over 1 million.
* Århus, Denmark - the city with 296,368 inhabitants is growing by about 2,500 inhabihants every year and will soon enter the Top 100.
* Bordeaux, France – the city in Aquitaine is not on the list because most people in the Bordeaux Metropolitan Area live in the suburbs, outside of the city limits. Population within the city proper: 230,600 (January 1, 2005).
* Ljubljana – the Slovenian capital has a total population of 258,873 and its population is currently declining.
* Luxembourg - the capital city of Luxembourg has a total population of 77,325 (Census Estimate 2004).
* Nantes, France – the city in Brittany is not on the list because most people in the Nantes Metropolitan Area live in the suburbs, outside of the city limits. Population within the city proper: 281,800 (January 1, 2005).
* Nicosia – the capital of Cyprus has a population of 47,832 (Census 2001). It is the third largest municipality in Cyprus.
* Lille, France – the city in French Flanders is not on the list because most people in the Lille Metropolitan Area live in the suburbs, outside of the city limits. Population within the city proper: 225,100 (January 1, 2005).
* Nottingham, United Kingdom, 273,863 (2003 est.) – the famous English city lost over 20,000 of its inhabitants between 1991 and 2001, owing mostly to migration from the inner city to suburbs outside the city limits.
* Porto, Portugal - 263,131 (2001 est.) - the second city in Portugal. One of the biggest metropolitan areas on the European Atlantic coast. Plans of an union with Vila Nova de Gaia could mean the formation of a city with 400,000 inhabitants.
* Strasbourg, France – another important city in terms of the European Union is just short of the list, with a population of 264,115 as of 1999, but the January 1, 2005 estimate suggests that it is now closer with a population of 272,700.
* Valletta, Malta – the capital city has a total population of only 7,199 (Census Estimate 2001). The largest city in Malta is Birkirkara, with a population just under 25,000.
* Venice, Italy – the famous Italian city was constantly losing population for over 20 years until 2003 when the influx of immigrant population gave Venice a net gain of 3417 citizens in comparison to 2002. The city may be back in the top 100 soon. Its current population is 271,663 (Census Estimate 2004-01-01).
* Cork, Ireland - the second city of the republic of Ireland with a population of roughly 186,000. The Cork City limits are very restrictive.The Greater Cork area is currently 370,000 and predicted to grow to 450,000 by 2020.
* Almere, Netherlands - did not have a population until 1976, has a pop. of 176,000 in 2006 and is forecast to have a pop. of 214,000 by 2010.

Cities likely to enter the top 100 in the near future

* L'Hospitalet de Llobregat, Spain - Barcelona suburb. The EU's biggest suburb currently has a total population of 250,536 and growing. The Catalan city is likely to enter the top 100 within five years.
* Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Spain - this city in the Canary Islands had a net gain of population of over 7,000 people between 2001 and 2005 according to Spanish Census estimates. This gain is due to a large influx of population from other EU countries. As of 2005 the city had a total population of 221,567 and with such growth the city is likely to crack the top 100 within the next decade.
* Münster, Germany - the city where the Peace of Wesphalia was signed is currently 101st largest in the EU and its population keeps on growing.
* Utrecht, the Netherlands. Utrecht has a population of 276,000 at this moment and is about to get a new area Leidsche Rijn, in which around 80,000 people can live.
* Sunderland a metropolitian borough, United Kingdom, an upcoming city in the United Kingdom which is slowly increasing in trade with the European Union with its newly built business park, it has an estimated population of 285,000, which is increasing quickly after a short decline.

Cities likely to lose their top 100 status in the future

* Bari and Catania, Italy - massive population losses for all Italian cities are especially large in the cities of southern part of Italy like these two.
* Belfast, United Kingdom - contrary to popular perceptions, Northern Ireland's migration rate has shown a net increase since 1995 - but this is countered by population movement from Belfast into the suburbs outside the city boundary. However, the planned reorganization of local government boundaries in Northern Ireland in 2009 should see the city limits extended and take the population back above 300,000, and back into the top 100.
* Wuppertal, Germany as other industrial cities in the Ruhr area has had a declining population for many years, and looking at the current demographic tendency it is all but certain that some of them will disappear from the top 100 list in the farer future as did another Ruhr area city Gelsenkirchen which was included in the top 100 until 2004.
* Katowice, Poland - this industrial city is losing its population quickly. In three years the city is unlikely to figure among the 100 largest EU cities.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Largest...in_city_limits

[Swede]

Shows how far City Limits usually is from the size of the Metro Areas and even the size of the Urban Areas. Not that it's not interesting as there are dis/advantages to having vast municipalities. I know there are two cities that could have been annexed into Stockholm at one point, and those 2 today have a combined population somewhere around 100k iirc. But that's not all that would have been changed - school districts, fire department set-up, urban planning and the big one: who would have been voted into City Hall (affects everything).
Stockholm City: 782 344 (2006.11.01)
Stockohlm UA: 1 252 020 (2005.12.31)
Stockholm Metro: 1 872 900 (2005.01.01)

[Metropolitan]

Grumpy, thanks for this little list.
I've found though funny figures which put things in perspective.

- If London would be 105 km² (size of Paris), it would have a population of 1,233,200 inhabitants.
- If Paris would be 1,579 km² (size of London), it would have a population of 9,237,900 inhabitants.

These figures are not estimates. Actually, they simply represent the populations of respectively the central 105 km² of the London urban area and the central 1,579 km² of the Paris urban area.

By the way, I thought the status of the "Bruxelles-Capitale" region was very similar to the one of the Greater London. Why Bruxelles-Capitale doesn't appear in the list ??

As far as I know, Brussels capital represent more than 1 million people over 164 km².
I would like to know why on this table Brussels is only considered as the small "City of Brussels" (and not as Brussels capital), while London is considered as the large "Greater London" (and not the City of London). As far as I know, their status are similar.

[South]

The "Greater London" boundary is the official London city limit. The 'City of London' acts as one of the 32 boroughs of London.

The density figures you posted would probably be correct, as a large proportion of London is green-space.

[FREKI]

He he.. gotta love the useless city numbers which in fact is just a broken comparison of large municipals...


... In Copenhagen's case we have a "city" inside the Copenhagen municipal city borders called Frederiksberg with 90.000+ people giving us a real spot at 34... but ocause if you look at single municipals only you'll get wierd numbers like that - funny enough they didn't do that with stuff like the City of London which actually have a population of only 9,200
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_of_London

And let's forget all about the metro population despite it being an unbroken urban area... ( add another mil+ to Copenhagen )


Sorry to bitch like that, but the numbers are so far from the real city sizes... and municipal sizes varies greatly in different countries... to put it into perspective to you Yanks it would be like taking the population of Downtown LA and writing that figue for the entire city ( 3,957,875 ) fair or realistic - I think not!

[vid]

Originally Posted by Metropolitan

By the way, I thought the status of the "Bruxelles-Capitale" region was very similar to the one of the Greater London. Why Bruxelles-Capitale doesn't appear in the list ??

As far as I know, Brussels capital represent more than 1 million people over 164 km².
I would like to know why on this table Brussels is only considered as the small "City of Brussels" (and not as Brussels capital), while London is considered as the large "Greater London" (and not the City of London). As far as I know, their status are similar.

Well, I think Greater London has a government body doesn't it? It would act like a city itself, even though it is made up of cities? While Brussels is still independent cities. The two countries could also have different ways of defining urban areas. There is a similar difference between Canada and the US, which gives them a large number of municipalities, whereas Canada is more keen on amalgamation and would make large conurbations one unit instead of the 10-100 like they are in America.

It's the definition.

[Mercutio]

City limit population is meaningless - especially in Europe. Metro population is the true measure of a city's size.

[Minato Ku]

Urban area is better.

[909]

This list is more interesting:

This is a list of all the urban areas of the European Union which have more than 750,000 inhabitants in 2005.

This list is an attempt to present a consistent list of population figures for urban areas in the European Union. Many of the figures here have been compiled by a research group at the University of Avignon, France, using a uniform definition but a considerable part of the figures have different sources, therefore one has to be careful when using this list to make comparisons between urban areas. The list was designed in 2000, and some of the figures for 2005 presented here have been calculated by grossing up the 2000 figures using the respective 1990-2000 population growth rates and some figures for 2005 come from different sources. It is possible that a few urban areas may have experienced a different growth pattern since 2000, and more importantly that because of urban sprawl some urban areas have become connected since, therefore the "2005 update" of this list should be interpreted with the necessary care.

(...)

more information

Urban areas of the European Union above 750,000 inhabitants

Rank Urban Area Population (2005 est.) Change p.a. (1990s avg.)

1 Paris, France 10 136 000 0.21%
2 London, United Kingdom 8 505 000 0.68%
3 Madrid, Spain[1] 5 561 748 0.32%
4 Ruhr area, Germany 5.317.565 – 0.14%
5 Barcelona, Spain[2] 5 082 126 0.95%
6 Milan, Italy 4 282 000 0.00%
7 Berlin, Germany 3 675 000
8 Upper Silesian Metropolitan Area, Poland 3 487 000 – 0.95%
9 Rotterdam-The Hague, Netherlands 3 345 000 0.50%
10 Athens, Greece 3 247 000 0.37%
11 Naples, Italy 2 905 000 0.00%
12 Lisbon, Portugal 2 760 000 0.27%
13 Rome, Italy 2 628 000 – 0.85%
14 Cologne-Bonn, Germany 2 475 000 0.63%
15 South Ruhr-Düsseldorf-Wuppertal, Germany 2 382 000 0.14%
16 Bucharest, Romania 2 300 000 0.16%
17 Hamburg, Germany 2 293 000 0.54%
18 Birmingham-Wolverhampton (West Midlands), United Kingdom 2 275 000 – 0.10%
19 Greater Manchester, United Kingdom 2 237 000 – 0.09%
20 Budapest, Hungary 2 228 000 – 0.60%
21 Vienna, Austria 2,165,357 0.25%
22 Warsaw, Poland 2 069 000 0.01%
23 Brussels, Belgium 1 975 000 0.52%
24 Porto, Portugal 1 801 000 0.71%
25 Glasgow, United Kingdom 1,749,154 – 0.26%
26 Munich, Germany 1 656 000 0.20%
27 Leeds-Bradford (Leeds-Bradford) (West Yorkshire), United Kingdom 1 520 000 0.35%
28 Frankfurt, Germany 1 489 000 0.29%
29 Lyon, France 1 465 000 0.46%
30 Copenhagen, Denmark 1 417 000 0.39%
31 Sofia, Bulgaria 1,377,761
32 Marseille, France 1 374 000 0.29%
32 Lille-Kortrijk, France & Belgium 1 368 000 [3] 0.19%
34 Valencia, Spain 1 362 000 0.10%
35 Stockholm, Sweden 1 273 000 1.08%
36 Stuttgart, Germany 1 239 000 0.30%
37 Amsterdam, Netherlands 1 196 000 0.64%
38 Bielefeld, Germany 1 184 000 0.65%
39 Turin, Italy 1 182 000 – 0.95%
40 Prague, Czech Republic 1 161 000 – 0.36%
41 Liverpool-Birkenhead (Merseyside), United Kingdom 1 119 000 – 0.34%
42 Helsinki, Finland 1 104 000 1.46%
43 Antwerp, Belgium 1 094 000 0.27%
44 Seville, Spain 1 072 000 0.56%
45 Newcastle-Sunderland (Tyne and Wear), United Kingdom 1 056 000 – 0.16%
46 Trójmiasto (Tricity), Gdansk-Sopot-Gdynia, Poland 1 041 066 [4] 0.05%
47 Dublin, Republic of Ireland 1 032 000 0.89%
48 Łódź, Poland 972 000 – 0.59%
49 Bilbao, Spain 919 000 – 0.35%
50 Nice, France 912 000 0.42%
51 Mannheim, Germany 907 000 0.29%
52 Riga, Latvia 893 000 – 1.36%
53 Florence, Italy 874 000 – 0.54%
54 Malaga, Spain 865 000
55 Toulouse, France 863 000 1.47%
56 Bremen, Germany 861 000 0.27%
57 Thessaloniki, Greece 828 000 0.67%
58 Bordeaux, France 811 000 0.63%
59 Genoa, Italy 803 000 – 1.01%
60 Braga, Portugal 798 137 1.27%
61 Cracow, Poland 794 000 0.37%
62 Hannover, Germany 768 000 0.25%
63 Nuremberg, Germany 765 000 0.24%


EFTA countries

Two European Free Trade Association countries have urban areas that would be included in the list if they were EU member states.

Rank Urban Area Population Annual change (1990s)
1 (47) Zürich, Switzerland 1 011 000 0.19%
2 (58) Oslo, Norway 810 000 1.09%


Five fastest growing urban areas of the European Union

Rank Urban Area Annual change (1990s)
1 Toulouse, France 1.47%
2 Helsinki, Finland 1.46%
3 Braga, Portugal 1.27%
4 Stockholm, Sweden 1.08%
5 Dublin, Republic of Ireland 0.89%


Five fastest declining urban areas of the European Union

Rank Urban Area Annual change (1990s)
1 Riga, Latvia – 1.36%
2 Genoa, Italy – 1.01%
3 Katowice, Poland – 0.95%
3 Turin, Italy – 0.95%
5 Rome, Italy – 0.85%

[Mercutio]

Originally Posted by Minato Ku

Urban area is better.

LOL that's just because you're desperate to prove that Paris is in the same league as London and urban area is the only possible measure that could put Paris ahead. However even that's open to dispute:

[Metropolitan]

Originally Posted by South

The density figures you posted would probably be correct, as a large proportion of London is green-space.

Those figures are not about density. They are about actual population.

- If you take the central 105 km² of London urban area, the population is indeed 1,233,200 inhabitants.
- If you take the central 1,579 km² of the Paris urban area, the population is indeed 9,237,900 inhabitants.

Originally Posted by Mercutio

LOL that's just because you're desperate to prove that Paris is in the same league as London and urban area is the only possible measure that could put Paris ahead. However even that's open to dispute

Here's a graph showing the population of 5 cities according to their land area. We start with the population of the central 50 km² and we continue this way untill 1,500 km². And here's what we got:

[Mercutio]

^ What does that prove? That Paris is denser? Yes Paris is more densely populated. But London is bigger.

[Metropolitan]

Originally Posted by Mercutio

^ What does that prove? That Paris is denser? Yes Paris is more densely populated. But London is bigger.

Actually, the Paris urban area is more populous and wider than the London urban area. The Paris urban area represented 10.1 million people in 2005 for 2,700 km² while the London urban area represented 8.5 million people for 1,600 km².

Actually,there's only one thing which is more populated in London than in Paris. It is the surrounding countryside.

[Mercutio]

^ I already showed you maps disputing your urban population figure and also your claim that Paris's urban area covers a larger area (it clearly doesn't). You Parisians are just loathe to admit that London is bigger.

[Metropolitan]

Originally Posted by Mercutio

^ I already showed you maps disputing your urban population figure and also your claim that Paris's urban area covers a larger area (it clearly doesn't). You Parisians are just loathe to admit that London is bigger.

Oh sorry, I didn't realize you were a kid. I'm sorry about having bothered you with figures then.

[wjfox2004]

Oh God, not this argument AGAIN.

Who honestly cares?

Life's too short.

[brisavoine]

^^Aparently Mercutio (also known as Monkey on another forum) does care. Life is too short indeed.

[Xelebes]

Man, it's just like an Edmonton-Calgary duel!

Edmonton has more suburbs but Calgary still has more people!

[FREKI]

Originally Posted by 909

Urban areas of the European Union above 750,000 inhabitants

Much better list thanks!

While the actual urban areas can be debated ( especially how far the distance between houses can max be and stuff like that ) this is no doubt much closer to the real numbers and size...

[SHiRO]

Guys, cut the London vs Paris crap!