This list ranks

metropolitan area A metropolitan area or metro is a region that consists of a densely populated urban agglomeration and its surrounding territories sharing industries, commercial areas, transport network, infrastructures and housing. A metro area usually com ...

s in

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

by their population according to three different sources; it includes metropolitan areas that have a population of over 1 million.

Sources

List includes metropolitan areas according only studies of

ESPON Interreg is a series of programmes to stimulate cooperation between regions in and out of the European Union (EU), funded by the European Regional Development Fund. The first Interreg started in 1989. Interreg IV covered the period 2007–2013. I ...

Eurostat Eurostat ('European Statistical Office'; DG ESTAT) is a Directorate-General of the European Commission located in the Kirchberg, Luxembourg, Kirchberg quarter of Luxembourg City, Luxembourg. Eurostat's main responsibilities are to provide statis ...

, and

OECD The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD; french: Organisation de coopération et de développement économiques, ''OCDE'') is an intergovernmental organisation with 38 member countries, founded in 1961 to stimulate e ...

. For this reason some metropolitan areas, like Italian Genoa Metropolitan Area (population is over 1.510.000 as of 2012 according ''"CityRailway" Official Report''), aren't included in this list, with data by other statistic survey institutes. Figures in the first column come from the

project, "Study on Urban Functions", which defines cities according to the concept of a functional urban area (core urban area defined morphologically on the basis of population density, plus the surrounding labour pool defined on the basis of commuting). Figures in the second column come from

's Urban Audit and correspond to

Larger Urban Zone The larger urban zone (LUZ), or functional urban area (FUA), is a measure of the population and expanse of metropolitan and surrounding areas which may or may not be exclusively urban. It consists of a city and its commuting zone outside it. Th ...

s (LUZ). Figures in the fourth column come from the

Territorial Reviews and correspond to "metropolitan regions". Further information on how the areas are defined can be found in the source documents. These figures should be seen as an interpretation, not as conclusive fact.

Metropolitan areas

Polycentric metropolitan areas in the
European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...

List of largest cities in the European Union by population within city limits This is a list of the largest cities in the European Union according to the population within their city boundary. The cities listed all have populations over 300,000. The list deals exclusively with the areas within city administrative boundari ...

List of 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.List of European Union cities proper by population density The population, population density, and land area for the cities of the European Union listed below are based on the entire city proper, the defined boundary or border of a city or the city limits of the city. See also *List of cities by popu ...

List of metropolitan areas by population The United Nations uses three definitions for what constitutes a city, as not all cities in all jurisdictions are classified using the same criteria. Cities may be defined as the cities proper, the extent of their urban area, or their metropo ...

for the world *

World's largest cities The United Nations uses three definitions for what constitutes a city, as not all cities in all jurisdictions are classified using the same criteria. Cities may be defined as the cities proper, the extent of their urban area, or their metrop ...

Regional and country-specific lists

* Largest metropolitan areas in the Nordic countries *

List of metropolitan areas in the United Kingdom A metropolitan area is generally defined as consisting of an urban area, conurbation or agglomeration, together with the surrounding area to which it is closely economically and socially integrated through commuting. The European Union's ESPON ...

List of metropolitan areas in Belgium National statistics differ between five Metropolitan areas in Belgium.De Belgische Stadsgewesten 2001< ...

List of metropolitan areas in France A ''list'' is any set of items in a row. List or lists may also refer to: People * List (surname) Organizations * List College, an undergraduate division of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America * SC Germania List, German rugby unio ...

List of metropolitan areas in Germany There are eleven metropolitan regions in Germany consisting of the country's most densely populated cities and their catchment areas. They represent Germany's political, commercial and cultural centres. The eleven metropolitan regions in Germany w ...

List of metropolitan areas in Italy The metropolitan cities of Italy (Italian: ''città metropolitane d'Italia'') are administrative divisions of Italy, operative since 2015, which are a special type of sub-provinces (''province''). The metropolitan city, as defined by law, include ...

List of metropolitan areas in Spain This is a list of the largest metropolitan areas in Spain by population. Estimates are from the following sources: * the "Functional Urban Areas" (FUAs) of the Study on Urban Functions of the European Spatial Planning Observation Network (ESPON, ...

List of metropolitan areas in Sweden Sweden has three metropolitan areas consisting of the areas surrounding the three largest cities, Stockholm, Gothenburg and Malmö. The statistics have been retrieved from Statistics Sweden and the statistics released on 10 November 2014. The ...

* List of metropolitan areas in Poland

Notes

References

External links

Geopolis
research group, university of Paris-Diderot, France - Population of urban areas of 10,000 or more {{Urban pop list *Metropolitan areas by population

Metropolitan areas A metropolitan area or metro is a region that consists of a densely populated urban agglomeration and its surrounding territories sharing industries, commercial areas, transport network, infrastructures and housing. A metro area usually ...

Europe, metropolitan areas