Europe's Largest Cities Aren't What Wikipedia Says
Video Overview & Insights
Base Map Reference: © EuroGeographics for the administrative boundaries
I recommend setting the quality to 1440p, as some of the city lables are pretty small.
This video is not a critique of Wikipedia, Wikipedia editors are doing their job, citing credible sources, and most available sources just happen to use different definitions. One solution could be for Eurostat to publish their data in a more accessible way, and more frequently.
But I don't mean to bash on Eurostat either. I don't know this for sure, but I think Eurostat just isn't given enough resources to make data publications meant for the general public a major focus. They do occasionally publish more accessible versions of their data, but I think Eurostat data is mostly meant for agencies and companies with their own data analysts who can process it themselves.
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Whats the largest city centres?
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This is incredible work. Thanks so much for putting the time into this. I personally found this data a little bit shocking. I'm very familiar with US metro area populations. The EU + UK combined are half a billion people to the United States' 340 million, but none of the metro areas are as populated as NYC and barely surpass LA at best? The metro areas in the bottom half of the top ten are smaller than those in the US? I can only conclude that much more of the population of Europe must live in small cities and towns, and that US cities must centralize their regions' population more than Europe does even as they are more sprawling and car-dependent in their immediate built environments. Is this an accurate hypothesis, do you think?
Data Sources & Attribution:
Functional Urban Areas (EU): Eurostat GISCO [https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/gisco/geodata/statistical-units/cities-functional-urban-areas], accessed [08/May/2026].
Your Birmingham area is visibly not including Coventry... Which is incredibly arbitrary since they're both in the same legal metropolitan area iirc
LAU Municipalities with Population (EU): Eurostat GISCO [https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/gisco/geodata/statistical-units/local-administrative-units], accessed [08/May/2026].
Population Grid: Copernicus GHSL [https://human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu/ghs_pop2023.php], accessed [08/May/2026].
In terms of geographic area, Rovaniemi in Finland is the largest city in Europe by definition with 8017 km2 land area and 64,000 inhabitants. Noting that Rovaniemi is Santa Claus' hometown and that 1,1 million passengers passed through Rovaniemi airport last year. Direct flights land there from E.g. London, New York, Paris and Rome.
Urban Centres Database: Copernicus GHSL [https://human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu/ghs_ucdb_2024.php], accessed [08/May/2026].
Disclaimer: The original statistical and geospatial data has been independently processed, customized, and visualized using QGIS and Photoshop for educational purposes. Eurostat bears no responsibility for the modifications, reuse, or subsequent interpretation of the data presented in this video.
If we talk administrative, then its the very small town of kiruna, who just happens to administer a stupidly big area of nothing up in lappland
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What is Europe’s biggest city, Paris or London? What is Britain’s true second city, Manchester or Birmingham? And is Stockholm really the largest city in the Nordics?
very good data
If you look up European city populations on Wikipedia, you get a mess of inconsistent data, arbitrary administrative boundaries, and conflicting definitions. To solve this, I dove into the complex world of Eurostat GIS data to finally create a standardized, fair comparison of Europe’s major cities.
In this video, we break down Europe’s biggest city rivalries using three standardized metrics: Urban Centres, Urban Areas, and Metropolitan Areas (Functional Urban Areas).
Manchester and Liverpool aren't a city between preston and southport, is all farm land there no way that's a city.
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Keywords:
Then you make it better
Europe's biggest city, London vs Paris, Manchester vs Birmingham, Stockholm vs Copenhagen, European city populations, Eurostat data, urban geography, metropolitan areas, GIS mapping, largest cities in Europe.
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Europe’s largest cities are Moscow and Istanbul.
Timestamps:
00:00 - The Comparison Problem
Denmark mentioned with no jokes?
Only a dane could have made this.
00:45 - Solving the Problem
02:07 - Urban Centres
can i suggest for you to create more on the 31st century content especially the planets outside the solar system? i really love your space content!!!!
02:25 - Urban Areas
02:56 - Metropolitan Areas
Birmingham is over twice the size of Manchester.
03:29 - Combined Metropolitan Areas
03:54 - Rival Cities
lol im not listening to a fucking american about europe
08:16 - Conclusion
08:32 - Outro
The part of the city that contains continious shops and restaurants on the ground floor, so as museums and not repeating architecture is the city. The rest of it can be at any size, but it wont make any city bigger, it just has more people (eg most of the cities in both Americas). Any neighbourhoods (sleeping areas) and industrial areas should be excluded.
More User Perspectives
Vilnius and Riga metropolitan area covers third of a country. That's to tal bs, that area is mosly grass with few towns (that have own metropolitan area?).
@a_l_i_o_k_a_sDont Call it Sweden again
@HPMICHAELYou have to live in a city before you can estimate how big it actually is. The metro system normally tells a story how interconnected the urban area is.
@Jon-d6u8v1. Urban centers: >1500 / km2. 2. Urban clusters: >300 / km2. 3. Metropolitan: urban + commute. 4. Combined metropolitan.
@monowheelingБлин, я включил это видео только чтобы увидеть Москву (
@An95INo Belgrade :(
@VukovatzTVFor stockholm u left out some places like åkersberga and västerhaninge tungelsta upplands väsby- märsta stockhol arlanda airport
@OusmanJobarteh-w7gcan we get one on China
@dman-v1vGood research! London and Paris are similar in all metrics but it is clear from a map that Paris is much more densely populated because London covers a much bigger area. Conversely there are massive cities in the US like Houston which have a smaller population than London but cover a bigger area again because almost everybody lives in detached houses with gardens.
@jamiebedwell2391I would've guessed Birmingham.
@nathanpollard1223What about the size based on area of those definitions rather than population?
@2feetsandamushroomLol, for Bucharest you include half the country. 😂
@ROForeverMantbf, malmö is practically danish with more legible speech
@zpydd_08:15 you also have that in France with Marseille metropolitan area being linked to Aix-En-Provence making it the 3rd city of France where actually it can be Toulouse or Bordeaux
@takeo3606Now I'm more confused about this than I was before. Thanks. 😏
@HardRight0101If we including Malmö in öresund then Uppsala will surely be part of the Stockholm one 👀 öresund still wins but you know
@furbees2662Its Berlin
@localareakoboldThe biggest city/town or moore comunity in Sweden by are Kiruna!
@MrSoreno66Im from Spain, and I think that the Moscow metropolitan area of 21 million people is the largest in €urope without any doubt. The €uropean side of Istambul, París or London are much smaller.
@ahoraya1047The UK is not part of the €uropean Union. If you include thr UK, you should include Russia. Moscow and Saint Petersburg are among the largest €uropean cities.
@ahoraya1047This was brilliant! Maybe you can do a part 2 with additional cities and countries. 😊
@sepiseta69It would be interesting to combine this data with the size of these zones economies to see where the biggest markets are
@upsidewalksI think it is unfair that you included Swedish towns to make Copenhagen larger than it is. Öresund includes both Copenhagen and Malmö and more smaller towns in Sweden, so giving a point to Copenhagen for that is misleading and false.
@Helastor8Of course, Moscow is the biggest and largest city in Europe.
@petrsakko7827Which cities are borger
1. Gotenborg
2. Konigsborg
Swedish slang stockholm the last small town 4 a capital in the World. 4 street's at crossroads. 4 whether seasons in 1 aour 😂
@MaE113-l3pVideo aburrido en como trata el tema, nada pedagógico.....
@nachosighet167for having lublin and not having Bydgoszcz I must click the dislike, sorry mate
@rodzioh33957:50 I think that Poland would claim to be historical central Europe. In the old days Eastern Europe was Russia and Ukraine.
@anotherelvisi mean stockholm also have green areas forced upon itself? its whole western half is bordered in some areas by the the national park while the western parts are islands
@cia5649Looking at the night time satellite images you you a pretty good idea of the metropolitan areas by area.
BTW do the estimates include undocumented population. The UK as a whole is estimated at 2 million+
Londons the biggest city in Europe by far if ya dont include moscow which is 12 or 13 million,london is 9 million
@paulbayley5096Thank you, as a metropolitan area population nerd this has always frustrated me. Thank you for suffering for however many hours that you did on QGis (or whatever thing you used) for our sake.
@AilukWhat a stupid video. How convenient it is to ignore the countries of the former Yugoslavia and the USSR. Moscow is the largest city in Europe by population and area.
@mrq5361