Larger Urban Zones

Eurostat, the European Union's statistical agency, has created the concept of Larger Urban Zone (LUZ) in an effort to harmonise definitions of urbanisation in the European Union and in countries outside the European Union (such as Turkey).cite web |publisher = Eurostat |date = 2006|url = http://www.urbanaudit.org/help.aspx|title = What is the Urban Audit?] These definitions were agreed between Eurostat and the National Statistics Offices of the different countries of the European Union at the occasion of the European Commission's Urban Audit of 2004.cite news |publisher = Dr. Berthold Feldmann, Eurostat|date = March 2006|url = http://www.urbanaudit.org/MarchMeetingResources/UA%20day_Eurostat%20focus.ppt#1|title = The shift of Eurostat to Urban Statistics ] LUZs have been criticised for their insufficient harmonisation of data, which are still collected by national governments within local administrative units, making it sometimes difficult to compare LUZs from different countries. In 2006, about a third of the LUZ definitions were changed, significantly improving the comparability of LUZ definitions across different countries. The latest round of the Urban Audit also added cities from candidate countries and EFTA countries.

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 1 million. The LUZ represents an attempt at a harmonised definition of the metropolitan area. Eurostat's objective was to have an area from a significant share of the resident 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. [ [http://www.urbanaudit.org/DataAccessed.aspx Urban Audit Database] ]

List of LUZs by population (EU + EFTA + Turkey)

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:cite news |publisher = European Commission |date = 2006|url = http://www.urbanaudit.org/index.aspx|title = Urban Audit ]

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

References

ee also

*Largest cities of the European Union by population within city limits
*Largest European metropolitan areas
*Largest urban areas of the European Union
*World's largest cities