Sweden has three

metropolitan area A metropolitan area or metro is a region consisting of a densely populated urban area, urban agglomeration and its surrounding territories which share Industry (economics), industries, commercial areas, Transport infrastructure, transport network ...

s consisting of the areas surrounding the three largest cities,

Stockholm Stockholm (; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, most populous city of Sweden, as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in the Nordic countries. Approximately ...

Gothenburg Gothenburg ( ; ) is the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, second-largest city in Sweden, after the capital Stockholm, and the fifth-largest in the Nordic countries. Situated by the Kattegat on the west coast of Sweden, it is the gub ...

, and

Malmö Malmö is the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, third-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm and Gothenburg, and the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, sixth-largest city in Nordic countries, the Nordic region. Located on ...

. The statistics have been retrieved from

Statistics Sweden Statistics Sweden ( ; SCB, ) is the Swedish government agency operating under the Ministry of Finance and responsible for producing official statistics for decision-making, debate and research. The agency's responsibilities include: * developin ...

and the statistics released on 10 November 2014. The official land areas for each municipality have also been retrieved from

, the agency that defines these areas.

Population centers

, Sweden had 2 metropolitan areas with a population of over 1,000,000 people each. The following table shows the populations of the top ten metropolitan areas.

Metropolitan Stockholm

GamlaStan from Katarinahissen Stockholm Swe

Metropolitan Stockholm (also known as Greater Stockholm or, in Swedish, ''Storstockholm''), is a

surrounding the Swedish capital of Stockholm. Since 2005, Metropolitan Stockholm is defined by official Swedish Statistics as all of Stockholm County.SCB Statistics Sweden – Regional Divisions in Sweden published in 2005
/ref> It is the largest of the three metropolitan areas in Sweden. Metropolitan Stockholm is divided into 5 areas: Stockholm City Centre, Söderort, Västerort of

Stockholm Municipality Stockholm Municipality () or the City of Stockholm () is a municipality in Stockholm County in east central Sweden. It has the largest population of the 290 municipalities of the country, but one of the smallest areas, making it the second most ...

; and the northern suburbs and southern suburbs, which consists of several municipalities. km²
Population per km²

Metropolitan Gothenburg

Metropolitan Gothenburg (''Storgöteborg'' or literally Greater Gothenburg), is a metropolitan area surrounding the city of

in Sweden. The metropolitan region is located in

Västra Götaland County Västra Götaland County () is a county or '' län'' on the western coast of Sweden. The county is the second most populous of Sweden's counties and it comprises 49 municipalities (''kommuner''). Its population of 1,616,000 amounts to 17% of S ...

, except for the

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality' ...

of Kungsbacka, which is located to the south in

Halland County Halland County (, ) is a county ('' län'') on the western coast of Sweden. It corresponds roughly to the cultural and historical province of Halland. The capital is Halmstad. Prince Julian, the son of Prince Carl Philip, is Duke of Halland. ...

. As of 2005, the municipalities of Alingsås and Lilla Edet were added to the region. The region is often used for statistical measures, and estimates in the 1960s predicted that the region would have about one million inhabitants in the year 2000. The region is the second largest metropolitan area in Sweden after Metropolitan Stockholm. km²
Population per km²

Metropolitan Malmö

Greater Malmö (''Stormalmö''), also known as Metropolitan Malmö is the

in Sweden. The area is located in Southwestern

Scania Scania ( ), also known by its native name of Skåne (), is the southernmost of the historical provinces of Sweden, provinces () of Sweden. Located in the south tip of the geographical region of Götaland, the province is roughly conterminous w ...

(''Sydvästra Skåne''), which is often considered synonymous with Greater Malmö, and it is part of the wider transnational Öresund Region. Besides Malmö, large towns in Greater Malmö includes

Lund Lund (, ;"Lund"
(US) and ) is a city in the provinces of Sweden, province of Scania, southern Swed ...

and

Trelleborg Trelleborg () is a town in Skåne County, Sweden, with 43,359 inhabitants as of 31 December 2015. It is the southernmost town in Sweden located some west from the Smygehuk, southernmost point of Sweden and the Scandinavian Peninsula. It is one ...

, the former of which was the seat of the historical Catholic Archdiocese of Lund. Since the 1970s, improvements in highways and the

regional In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as areas, zones, lands or territories, are portions of the Earth's surface that are broadly divided by physical characteristics (physical geography), human impact characteristics (human geography), and ...

and InterRegio train networks means the commuting area has grown to include Ystad, Skurup, Sjöbo, Eslöv, Höör, Landskrona and

Helsingborg Helsingborg (, , ), is a Urban areas in Sweden, city and the seat of Helsingborg Municipality, Scania County, Scania (Skåne), Sweden. It is the second-largest city in Scania (after Malmö) and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, ninth ...

, though only some of these are included in official definitions of Greater Malmö. It's not uncommon to live in Malmö and work either in Ystad or Helsingborg, or vice versa, but these towns have kept their mental allegiance with older divisions of Scania. Commuting across the Öresund has become more common, both through the Øresund Bridge and the HH Ferry route, at which car ferries departs every 12 minutes in summer (every 15 minutes in winter).

, which sets the official definitions for all metropolitan areas in Sweden, has changed which

municipalities A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality' ...

are included in Greater Malmö over time. The most recent change to the definition came in 2006, when Eslöv, Höör, and Skurup Municipalities became part of Greater Malmö, bringing the number of municipalities included from 9 to 12.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Metropolitan Areas Of Sweden Gothenburg

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...