Larger urban zone

The Functional Urban Area (FUA) - formerly known as larger urban zone (LUZ) - is a measure of the population and expanse of metropolitan areas in Europe.^[1] It consists of a city and its commuting zone.^[2]

The definition was introduced in 2004 by Eurostat, the statistical agency of the European Union (EU), in agreement with the national statistics offices in the member states.^[3][4] Data is provided on cities in the EU, its candidate countries and EFTA countries.

In 2006 LUZ definitions were changed significantly, improving the comparability of LUZ definitions across different countries. Several cities, such as Marseille, Lille and Nice, are excluded by definition from the list of LUZs on technical, definitional grounds, such as the coincidence of the metropolitan area with the urban zone.^[5][6][7]

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 500,000. The LUZ represents an attempt at a harmonised definition of the metropolitan area. Eurostat's objective was to have an area from which a significant share of the residents 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.^[8]

List of larger urban zones 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. (Marseille, Lille, Nice, Cordoba, Badajoz, Toulon and Montpellier should be added on the updated 2004 list: see the French WorldHeritage page for the complete and updated 2004 list.) The 2008 updated data from Urban Audit IV^[9] has been partially published (still missing cities). The Urban Audit V with 2011 data was to be published from 2013 on,^[10] but as of May 2014 "the results of the 2011 data collection are being collected."^[11]

Rank	City name	Country	LUZ population	LUZ area (km²)	Population Density (per km²)
1	London	United Kingdom	12,208,100	8,920[12]	1,336
2	Paris	France	11,755,918	12,079.87[12]	918
3	Istanbul	Turkey	11,044,642	5,313	2,564
4	Madrid	Spain	6,569,530	8,022	724
5	Ruhr	Germany	5,302,179	4,435	1,196
6	Berlin	Germany	5,097,712	17,385	286
7	Barcelona	Spain	4,917,163	1,796.64	2,356
8	Athens	Greece	4,164,475	3,806.92	1,054
9	Greater Copenhagen	Denmark  Sweden	3,888,586	20,871.51	186.31
10	Ankara	Turkey	3,708,047
11	Rome	Italy	3,457,690	3,666.66	943
12	Hamburg	Germany	3,134,620	7,304	429
13	Milan	Italy	3,076,643	1,348.32	2,282
14	Katowice	Poland	2,710,397	2,650.65	1,023
15	Stuttgart	Germany	2,663,660	3,654	729
16	Warsaw	Poland	2,660,406	5,198.52	512
17	Munich	Germany	2,531,706	5,504	460
18	Budapest	Hungary	3,303,786	7,626	431,1
19	Frankfurt	Germany	2,517,561	4,305	585
20	Izmir	Turkey	2,440,902
21	Lisbon	Portugal	2,435,837	1,432.49	1,700
22	Birmingham	United Kingdom	2,284,093	1,598	1,475
23	Naples	Italy	2,253,964	564.95	3,990
24	Manchester	United Kingdom	2,732,854	1,280	1,984
25	Vienna	Austria	2,179,769	4,610.93[12]	473
26	Bucharest	Romania	2,140,194	662	3,233
27	Prague	Czech Republic	1,964,750	6,977[12]	282
28	Cologne	Germany	1,873,580	1,626	1,152
29	Stockholm	Sweden	1,860,872	6,519	285
30	Brussels	Belgium	1,800,663	1,613.91	1,116
31	Glasgow	United Kingdom	1,747,100	3,346	522
32	Turin	Italy	1,745,221	1,878.97	929
33	Lyon	France	1,717,300	5,997.68[12]	286
34	Valencia	Spain	1,564,145	1,440.58	1,086
35	Dublin	Ireland	1,535,446[12]	114.99	4,588
36	Düsseldorf	Germany	1,525,029	1,201	1,270
37	Leeds	United Kingdom	1,499,465	5,114[12]	468
38	Bursa	Turkey	1,458,067
39	Amsterdam	Netherlands	1,571,234	859.28	1,680
40	Adana	Turkey	1,384,680
41	Liverpool	United Kingdom	1,365,900	821	1,664
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	Sofia	Bulgaria	1,280,457	1,344	953
46	Sheffield	United Kingdom	1,277,100	1,846	692
47	Kraków	Poland	1,264,322	2,988.65	423
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	1,940
52	Łódź	Poland	1,163,516	2,857.51	407
53	Ostrava	Czech Republic	1,153,876	3,896[12]	296
54	Zagreb	Croatia	1,110,517	3,719	299
55	Zürich	Switzerland	1,110,478	1,086.14	1,022
56	Gdańsk	Poland	1,105,203	3,457.32	320
57	Porto	Portugal	1,099,040	562.32	1,954
58	Oslo	Norway	1,090,513	6,920	158
59	Newcastle upon Tyne	United Kingdom	1,055,600	3,385	312
60	Toulouse	France	1,052,497	4,706.93[12]	224
61	Gaziantep !	Turkey	1,042,732
62	Wrocław	Poland	1,031,439	4,582.2	225
63	Poznań	Poland	1,018,511	3,719.2	274
64	Bristol	United Kingdom	1,006,600	1,635	616
65	Riga	Latvia	1,003,949	5,382.5	187
66	Thessaloniki	Greece	995,766	1,455.62
67	Bordeaux	France	981,370
68	The Hague	Netherlands	978,161
69	Bilbao	Spain	939,994
70	Konya	Turkey	919,433
71	Antwerp	Belgium	915,258
72	Bonn	Germany	908,503
73	Leipzig	Germany	904,401
74	Dresden	Germany	902,067
75	Leicester	United Kingdom	887,000
76	Göteborg	Sweden	873,335
77	Saarbrücken	Germany	855,317
78	Palermo	Italy	855,285
79	Vilnius	Lithuania	850,300
80	Aarhus	Denmark	845,971[13]	5,400	157
81	Cardiff	United Kingdom	841,600
82	Nottingham	United Kingdom	825,600	4,073	202
83	Diyarbakir	Turkey	814,874
84	Antalya	Turkey	814,685
85	Genoa	Italy	800,709[14]
85	Edinburgh	United Kingdom	787,700
86	Szczecin	Poland	777,806
88	Nantes	France	751,085
89	Bologna	Italy	743,965
90	Brno	Czech Republic	728,101
91	Karlsruhe	Germany	712,475
92	Málaga	Spain	699,916
93	Florence	Italy	696,767
94	Zaragoza	Spain	685,873
95	Kayseri	Turkey	675,734
96	Lublin	Poland	652,642	2,883	226
97	Coventry	United Kingdom	651,000
98	Kiel !	Germany	641,905
99	Belfast	United Kingdom	641,638
100	Strasbourg	France	634,275
101	Augsburg	Germany	629,139
102	Liège	Belgium	626,357
103	Las Palmas de Gran Canaria	Spain	625,892
104	Bari	Italy	623,298
105	Freiburg im Breisgau	Germany	618,467
106	Venice	Italy	612,245
107	Padua	Italy	605,709
108	Izmit	Turkey	601,351
109	Bratislava	Slovakia	601,132
110	Palma	Spain	593,386
111	Magdeburg	Germany	588,875
112	Bydgoszcz	Poland	582,927
113	Kingston upon Hull	United Kingdom	573,300
114	Catania	Italy	572,302
115	Utrecht	Netherlands	564,485
116	Verona	Italy	563,952
117	Rennes	France	553,579
118	Vigo	Spain	548,799
119	Erfurt	Germany	543,226
120	Grenoble	France	541,888
121	Linz	Austria	532,995
122	Białystok	Poland	523,958
123	Tallinn	Estonia	521,410
124	Rouen	France	519,318
125	Santa Cruz	Spain	507,306
126	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:^[15][16]

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

See also

• List of largest cities in the European Union by population within city limits
• List of urban areas in the European Union
• List of metropolitan areas in Europe by population
• Largest metropolitan areas in the Nordic countries
• World's largest cities

References

External links

• GMES Urban Atlas: PDF files, ZIP files
• Eurostat: European cities
• Eurostat: Total population in Urban Audit cities, Larger Urban Zone

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