Budapest is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is Hungary's primate city with 1.7 million inhabitants and its greater metro area has a population of about 3.3 million, representing one-third of the country's population and producing above 40% of the country's economic output. Budapest is the political, economic, and cultural center of the country, among the ten largest cities in the European Union and the second largest urban area in Central and Eastern Europe. Budapest stands on the River Danube and is strategically located at the center of the Pannonian Basin, lying on ancient trade routes linking the hills of Transdanubia with the Great Plain.
Budapest is a global city, consistently ranked among the 50 most important cities in the world, belongs to the narrow group of cities with a GDP over US$100 billion, named a global cultural capital as having high-quality human capital, and is among the 35 most liveable cities in the world. The city is home to over 30 universities with more than 150,000 students, most of them attending large public research universities that are highly ranked worldwide in their fields, such as Eötvös Loránd University in natural sciences, Budapest University of Technology in engineering and technology, MATE in life sciences, and Semmelweis University in medicine. Budapest also hosts various international organizations, including several UN agencies, the WHO Budapest Centre, IOM regional centre, the EU headquarters of EIT and CEPOL, as well as the first foreign office of China Investment Agency. Budapest opened the first underground transit line on the European continent in 1896, which is still in use as M1 Millennium Underground, and today the fixed-track metro and tram network forms the backbone of Budapest's public transport system and transports 2.2 million people daily, making it a significant urban transit system.
