Larger urban zone


The larger urban zone, or Functional Urban Area, is a measure of the population and expanse of metropolitan areas in Europe. It consists of a city and its commuting zone.
The definition was introduced in 2004 by Eurostat, the statistical agency of the European Union, in agreement with the national statistics offices in the member states. Eurostat data is provided on cities in the EU, its candidate countries and EFTA countries. Several cities were excluded by definition from the 2004 list of LUZs on technical, definitional grounds, such as the coincidence of the metropolitan area with the urban zone.
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.
In 2006 LUZ definitions were changed significantly, improving the comparability of LUZ definitions across different countries, and allowing for almost all cities to be included.

List of larger urban zones

This is a list of larger urban zones. The Urban Audit also includes cities from EFTA countries and EU candidate countries. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development uses a similar definition of Functional Urban Area to represent population sizes of cities in OECD countries. This data is also included.
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.
Larger urban zoneCountryOECD Population Eurostat Population Eurostat Population
Amsterdam metropolitan areaNetherlands245265924970002771661
AntwerpBelgium108190414060001100139
AthensGreece353505537610003863763
Barcelona metropolitan areaSpain384669740820005445616
BerlinGermany43995424016000
BilbaoSpain1013805947000
Birmingham United Kingdom195707837011072332629
BordeauxFrance1175699No data1244264
BremenGermany102719210770001244363
BristolUnited Kingdom83662110410001090080
Brussels-Capital RegionBelgium258810226390002625525
Bucharest metropolitan areaRomaniaNo data21585582403107
Budapest metropolitan areaHungary287960125230002993948
CardiffUnited Kingdom66486110970001085526
CopenhagenDenmark202517118810001893010
Dublin Metropolitan Area183611912613321263035
Frankfurt/Rhine-Main RegionGermany253331127640002573745
GdańskPoland1105467No data1141954
Greater GlasgowUnited Kingdom96710113950001789003
Metropolitan GothenburgSweden1015974No data1006548
The HagueNetherlands90689714040001070027
Hamburg Metropolitan RegionGermany300884129830003173871
HanoverGermany1217511No data1300687
Helsinki Metropolitan AreaFinland149805012850001532309
Katowice metropolitan areaPoland258934930290002743929
Kraków metropolitan areaPoland136274012360001276438
West Yorkshire United Kingdom177455223020002238127
Lille–Kortrijk–TournaiFrance/
Belgium		136346513790002572374
Lisbon metropolitan areaPortugal288666225910002839908
Liverpool/BirkenheadUnited Kingdom95418122410001352000
ŁódźPoland93956811650001116660
London metropolitan areaUnited Kingdom117012361310900012250000
LyonFrance196084716690002188759
Madrid metropolitan areaSpain707917352630006378297
Greater ManchesterUnited Kingdom193555925560002615144
MannheimGermany1230276No data1172821
MarseilleFrance177350315300001750885
Milan metropolitan areaItaly415985441360004267946
MunichGermany296587126650002808581
Naples metropolitan areaItaly447568246542594127390
NiceFrance86519510820001017307
Nottingham-Derby86391816140001927550
Nuremberg Metropolitan RegionGermany116936714430001301504
Greater OsloNorway129995510370001144883
OstravaCzech Republic no data no data
Paris metropolitan areaFrance1203788913975000
Porto Metropolitan AreaPortugal131382912450001286111
Portsmouth-SouthamptonUnited Kingdom59445515470001498402
PragueCzech Republic19103961669000
Rhein-Nord Germany142782330730001527176
Rhein-Süd Germany192607330700003023545
RigaLatviaNo data11950001089767
Rome metropolitan areaItaly414936443537383700000
RotterdamNetherlands150937319040001818563
Ruhr areaGermanyNo data53760005045784
Saarbrücken - ForbachGermany/
France		5704791102000822128
SevilleSpain150064411800001877060
SofiaBulgariaNo data1260120
Metropolitan StockholmSweden201820821710002034354
South Yorkshire United Kingdom92012815690001596298
Stuttgart Metropolitan RegionGermany196594222890002678795
Thessaloniki metropolitan areaGreece97543910520001166914
ToulouseFrance1309149No data1388978
Turin metropolitan areaItaly177450716010002302353
Newcastle-SunderlandUnited Kingdom108272915990001141879
ValenciaSpain166815313980002516818
ViennaAustria279363125840002339807
Warsaw metropolitan areaPoland303789027850003304641
ZagrebCroatiaNo data11071151123374
Zürich metropolitan areaSwitzerland124696816150001984534

List of larger urban zones by population as of 2004

This is a list of larger urban zones by population as of 2004. The 2004 Urban Audit also includes cities from EFTA countries and EU candidate countries, although the only candidate country for which there is available data is Turkey. Some cities, including Marseille, Lille, Nice, Cordoba, Badajoz, Toulon and Montpellier were excluded from the 2004 list on technical, definitional grounds, such as the coincidence of the metropolitan area with the urban zone.
RankLarger urban zoneCountryPopulationArea
1ParisFrance11,217,00012,079.87
2IstanbulTurkey 11,154,928
3LondonUnited Kingdom 10,345,1248,900
4MadridSpain5,804,8298,022
5Ruhr AreaGermany5,302,1794,435
6BerlinGermany4,971,33117,385
7NaplesItaly4,475,682564.95
8BarcelonaSpain4,233,6381,796.64
9AthensGreece4,013,3683,806.92
10AnkaraTurkey 3,736,359
11RomeItaly3,457,6903,666.66
12HamburgGermany3,134,6207,304
12MilanItaly3,076,6431,348.32
13Área Metropolitana de LisboaPortugal3,010,3972,650.65
14StuttgartGermany2,663,6603,654
15WarsawPoland2,660,4065,198.52
16ManchesterUnited Kingdom 2,539,1001,280
17MunichGermany2,531,7065,504
18FrankfurtGermany2,517,5614,305
19IzmirTurkey 2,459,474
20LisbonPortugal2,435,8371,432.49
21BudapestHungary2,393,8462,538
22LeedsUnited Kingdom 2,393,3005,114
23BirminghamUnited Kingdom 2,357,1001,598
24ViennaAustria2,179,7694,610.93
25BucharestRomania2,140,194662
26PragueCzech Republic1,964,7506,977
27CologneGermany1,873,5801,626
28StockholmSweden1,860,8726,519
29CopenhagenDenmark1,806,6672,759
30BrusselsBelgium1,800,6631,613.91
31GlasgowUnited Kingdom 1,747,1003,346
32TurinItaly1,745,2211,878.97
33LyonFrance1,717,3005,997.68
34BelgradeSerbia 1,683,962514
35ValenciaSpain1,564,1451,440.58
36Dublin1,535,446
37DüsseldorfGermany1,525,0291,201
38BursaTurkey 1,474,482
39AmsterdamNetherlands1,443,258859.28
40AdanaTurkey 1,394,130
41LiverpoolUnited Kingdom 1,365,900821
42BielefeldGermany1,297,8762,921
43HanoverGermany1,294,4472,966
44NurembergGermany1,288,7972,934
45SheffieldUnited Kingdom 1,277,1001,846
46KrakówPoland1,264,3222,988.65
47SofiaBulgaria1,263,8073,424.2
48SevilleSpain1,249,3463,081.9
49BremenGermany1,249,2915,885
50HelsinkiFinland1,224,1072,969.94
51RotterdamNetherlands1,186,818611.75
52ŁódźPoland1,163,5162,857.51
53OstravaCzech Republic1,153,8763,889.6
54ZurichSwitzerland 1,110,4781,086.14
55TricityPoland1,105,2033,457.32
56PortoPortugal1,099,040562.32
57OsloNorway 1,090,5136,920
58Newcastle upon TyneUnited Kingdom 1,055,6003,385
59GaziantepTurkey 1,052,795
60ToulouseFrance1,052,4974,706.93
61WrocławPoland1,031,4394,582.2
62PoznańPoland1,018,5113,719.2
63GothenburgSweden1,015,9743,694.86
64BristolUnited Kingdom 1,006,6001,635
65RigaLatvia1,003,9495,382.5

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: