Metropolitan area in the context of Largest city

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. Demographia provides figures for urban areas (including conurbations), while the UN DESA figures are a mix agglomerations, cities proper and metropolitan areas. For comparison, Function Urban Area (FUA) population figures by Eurostat are also provided, however, these measure the wider metropolitan areas.

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, their metropolitan regions, or the extent of their urban area. A complicating factor is that many large cities in the world have not only homeless or the unhoused, but also vast slum communities. This leads to official census data being less accurate in representing the actual number of residents in a given area.

A city is a human settlement of a substantial size. The term "city" has different meanings around the world and in some places the settlement can be very small. Even where the term is limited to larger settlements, there is no universally agreed definition of the lower boundary for their size. In a narrower sense, a city can be defined as a permanent and densely populated place with administratively defined boundaries whose members work primarily on non-agricultural tasks. Cities generally have extensive systems for housing, transportation, sanitation, utilities, land use, production of goods, and communication. Their density facilitates interaction between people, government organizations, and businesses, sometimes benefiting different parties in the process, such as improving the efficiency of goods and service distribution.

Historically, city dwellers have been a small proportion of humanity overall, but following two centuries of unprecedented and rapid urbanization, more than half of the world population now lives in cities, which has had profound consequences for global sustainability. Present-day cities usually form the core of larger metropolitan areas and urban areas—creating numerous commuters traveling toward city centres for employment, entertainment, and education. However, in a world of intensifying globalization, all cities are to varying degrees also connected globally beyond these regions. This increased influence means that cities also have significant influences on global issues, such as sustainable development, climate change, and global health. Because of these major influences on global issues, the international community has prioritized investment in sustainable cities through Sustainable Development Goal 11. Due to the efficiency of transportation and the smaller land consumption, dense cities hold the potential to have a smaller ecological footprint per inhabitant than more sparsely populated areas. Therefore, compact cities are often referred to as a crucial element in fighting climate change. However, this concentration can also have some significant harmful effects, such as forming urban heat islands, concentrating pollution, and stressing water supplies and other resources.

The functional urban area (FUA), previously known as larger urban zone (LUZ), 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, which is a contiguous area of spatial units that have at least 15% of their employed residents working in the city.

The FUA 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 FUA boundaries to administrative boundaries that approximate the functional urban area.

Marseille (French: Marseille; Provençal Occitan: Marselha; see below) is a city in southern France, the prefecture of the department of Bouches-du-Rhône and of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Situated in the Provence region, it is located on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, near the mouth of the Rhône river. Marseille is the second-most populous city in France, after Paris, with 877,215 inhabitants in 2022 (Jan. census) over a municipal territory of 241 km (93 sq mi). Together with its suburbs and exurbs, the Marseille metropolitan area, which extends over 3,972 km (1,534 sq mi), had a population of 1,900,957 at the Jan. 2022 census. The cities of Marseille, Aix-en-Provence, and 90 suburban municipalities have formed since 2016 the Aix-Marseille-Provence Metropolis, an indirectly elected metropolitan authority now in charge of wider metropolitan issues, with a population of 1,922,626 at the Jan. 2022 census.

Founded c. 600 BC by Greek settlers from Phocaea, Marseille is the oldest city in France, as well as one of Europe's oldest continuously inhabited settlements. It was known to the ancient Greeks as Massalia and to Romans as Massilia. Marseille has been a trading port since ancient times. In particular, it experienced a considerable commercial boom during the colonial period and especially during the 19th century, becoming a prosperous industrial and trading city. Nowadays the Old Port still lies at the heart of the city, where the manufacture of Marseille soap began some six centuries ago. Overlooking the port is the Basilica of Notre-Dame-de-la-Garde or "Bonne-mère" for the people of Marseille, a Romano-Byzantine church and the symbol of the city. Inherited from this past, the Grand Port Maritime de Marseille (GPMM) and the maritime economy are major poles of regional and national activity and Marseille remains the first French port, the second Mediterranean port and the fifth European port. Since its origins, Marseille's openness to the Mediterranean Sea has made it a cosmopolitan city marked by cultural and economic exchanges with Southern Europe, the Middle East, North Africa and Asia. In Europe, the city has the third largest Jewish community after London and Paris.

A city proper is the geographical area contained within city limits. The term proper is not exclusive to cities; it can describe the geographical area within the boundaries of any given locality. The United Nations defines the term as "... the single political jurisdiction which contains the historical city centre."

City proper is one of the three basic concepts used to define urban areas and populations. The other two are urban agglomeration, and the metropolitan area. In some countries, city limits that act as the demarcation for the city proper are drawn very wide, in some very narrow. This can be cause for recurring controversy.

The Greater Tokyo Area is the most populous metropolitan area in the world, consisting of the Kantō region of Japan (including Tokyo Metropolis and the prefectures of Chiba, Gunma, Ibaraki, Kanagawa, Saitama, and Tochigi) as well as the prefecture of Yamanashi of the neighboring Chūbu region. In Japanese, it is referred to by various terms, one of the most common being Capital Region (首都圏, Shuto-ken).

As of 2016, the United Nations estimates the total population at 38,140,000. It covers an area of approximately 13,500 km (5,200 mi), giving it a population density of 2,642 people/km. It is the second-largest single metropolitan area in the world in terms of built-up or urban function landmass at 8,547 km (3,300 mi), behind only the New York City metropolitan area at 11,642 km (4,495 mi). With over US$2 trillion in GDP, Tokyo remains the second-largest metropolitan economy in the world, also behind New York.

Greater São Paulo (Portuguese: Grande São Paulo) is a nonspecific term for one of the multiple definitions of the large metropolitan area located in the São Paulo state in Brazil.

The Warsaw metropolitan area (known in Polish as: aglomeracja warszawska or Miejski Obszar Funkcjonalny Warszawy) is the metropolitan area of Warsaw, the capital of Poland. The metropolitan area covers ten counties in the Masovian Voivodeship, with an area of 6,100 km (2,400 sq mi) and a population of around 3.5 million in 2022. The area constitutes a separate NUTS 2 unit, as well as a separate police region with a dedicated Capital Metropolitan Police Headquarters, both of them carved out from the Masovian Voivodeship as an exception, as Polish NUTS 2 areas and police regions are in general identical to the territories of voivodeships.

The largest cities or towns within the metropolitan area are Warsaw, Pruszków, Legionowo, Otwock, Mińsk Mazowiecki, Piaseczno and Wołomin.

A suburb (more broadly suburban area) is an area within a metropolitan area. They are often where most of a metropolitan area's jobs are located, although some suburbs are predominantly residential. They can either be denser or less densely populated than a large city, and they can have a higher or lower rate of detached single family homes than the city as well. Suburbs can have their own political or legal jurisdictions, especially in the United States, but this is not always the case, especially in the United Kingdom, where most suburbs are located within the administrative boundaries of cities. In most English-speaking countries, suburban areas are defined in contrast to central city or inner city areas, but in Australian English and South African English, suburb has become largely synonymous with what is called a "neighborhood" in the U.S. Due in part to historical trends such as white flight, some suburbs in the United States have a higher population and higher incomes than their nearby inner cities.

In some countries, including India, China, Argentina, Brazil, New Zealand, Canada, the United Kingdom, and parts of the United States, new suburbs are routinely annexed by adjacent cities due to urban sprawl. In others, such as Morocco, France, and much of the United States, many suburbs remain separate municipalities or are governed locally as part of a larger metropolitan area such as a county, district or borough. In the United States, regions beyond the suburbs are known as "exurban areas" or exurbs; exurbs have less population density than suburbs, but still more than rural areas. Suburbs and exurbs are sometimes linked to the nearby city economically, particularly by commuters.

The Thessaloniki metropolitan area or larger urban zone (LUZ) is the complete area covered and directly influenced by Thessaloniki. The metropolitan area traditionally consisted of the municipality of Thessaloniki and its immediate surroundings, which is today referred to as the Thessaloniki urban area. However, since the mid to late 1990s, the areas surrounding the urban area have succumbed to urban sprawl and what used to be agrarian communities are rapidly urbanizing and being developed into suburbs or exurbs. This is creating new problems for a region already facing issues such as pollution, traffic congestion and social ills.

Thessalonians usually refer to 6 municipalities and 1 municipal unit as the "City of Thessaloniki" (or the Thessaloniki urban area); this is the contiguous densely built-up urban area of the city. However, the metropolitan area also includes the city's immediate surroundings, adjacent zone of influence and its low to medium density suburbs that surround the densely built-up urban area.

The Bosporus or Bosphorus Strait (/ˈbɒspərəs, ˈbɒsfərəs/ BOSS-pər-əs, BOSS-fər-əs; Turkish: İstanbul Boğazı, lit. 'Istanbul strait', colloquially Boğaz) is a natural strait and an internationally significant waterway located in Turkey which is straddled by the city of Istanbul. The Bosporus connects the Black Sea to the Sea of Marmara and forms one of the continental boundaries between Asia and Europe. It also divides Turkey by separating Asia Minor from Thrace. It is the world's narrowest strait used for international navigation.

Most of the shores of the Bosporus Strait, except for the area to the north, are heavily settled, with the city of Istanbul's metropolitan population of 17 million inhabitants extending inland from both banks.

The Randstad (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈrɑntstɑt] ; "Rim City" or "Edge City") is a roughly crescent- or arc-shaped conurbation in the Netherlands, that includes almost half the country's population. With a central-western location, it connects and comprises the Netherlands' four biggest cities (Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague, and Utrecht), their suburbs, and many towns in between, that all grew and merged into each other. Among other things, it includes the Port of Rotterdam (the world's busiest seaport outside Asia), the Port of Amsterdam (Europe's fourth-busiest seaport), and Amsterdam Airport Schiphol (Europe's fourth-busiest airport). With a population of approximately 8.4 million people it is one of the largest metropolitan regions in Europe, comparable in population size to the Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region or the San Francisco Bay Area, and covers an area of approximately 11,372 km (4,391 sq mi). The Randstad had a gross regional domestic product of €510 billion in 2022, making it the second most productive region in the European Union, only behind the Paris metropolitan area. It encompasses both the Amsterdam metropolitan area and Rotterdam–The Hague metropolitan area. It is part of the larger Blue Banana megalopolis.

The Randstad's main cities are Almere, Amsterdam, Delft, Dordrecht, Haarlem, The Hague, Leiden, Rotterdam, and Utrecht. Other cities and towns include Alkmaar, Alphen aan den Rijn, Amersfoort, Amstelveen, Capelle aan den IJssel, Gouda, Heerhugowaard, Hilversum, Hoofddorp, Hoorn, Lelystad, Nieuwegein, Purmerend, Rijswijk, Schiedam, Spijkenisse, Vlaardingen, Zaandam, Zeist, and Zoetermeer.

The Milan metropolitan area, also known as Grande Milano ("Greater Milan"), is the largest metropolitan area in Italy and the 54th largest in the world.

An exurb (or alternately: exurban area) is an area outside the typically denser inner suburban area, at the edge of a metropolitan area, which has some economic and commuting connection to the metro area, low housing density,and relatively high population growth.It shapes an interface between urban and rural landscapes, holding a limited urban nature for its functional, economic, and social interaction with the urban center, due to its dominant residential character. Exurbs consist of "agglomerations of housing and jobs outside the municipal boundaries of a primary city" and beyond the surrounding suburbs.

The New York metropolitan area, also called the Tri-State area and sometimes referred to as Greater New York or Metro New York, is the largest metropolitan economy in the world, with a gross metropolitan product of over US$2.6 trillion. It is also the largest metropolitan area in the world by urban landmass, encompassing 4,669.0 sq mi (12,093 km). Among the most populous metro areas in the world, New York is the largest metropolitan statistical area in the United States and the only one with more than 20 million residents, according to the 2020 U.S. Census.

The core of this vast area, the New York metropolitan statistical area, includes New York City and much of Downstate New York (Long Island as well as the mid- and lower Hudson Valley), northern and central New Jersey (including that state's eleven largest municipalities), and Southwestern Connecticut. The phrase Tri-State area is used to refer to the larger urbanized area of Downstate New York, northern New Jersey, and western Connecticut. The urban region's combined statistical area, the New York–Newark, NY–NJ–CT–PA combined statistical area, spans four states.

A core-based statistical area (CBSA) is a U.S. geographic area defined by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). It contains a large population nucleus, or urban area, and adjacent communities that have a high degree of integration with that nucleus.

On July 15, 2015, the OMB released new standards based on the 2010 census. These standards are used to replace the definitions of metropolitan areas from the 2010 United States census data.