The European Union is a collection of 27 different member states that originate from areas all over Europe. The total population of the European Union is 501,064,211 (2010 estimate). The sizes of the countries and cities within the EU vary however. For example, there are very large countries like France or the United Kingdom with major cities such as Paris and London and very small countries like Malta whose largest city, Birkirkara, has a population of less than 50,000 people.
The European Union is also made up of a number of different metropolitan areas. These are usually defined as regions that consist of a dense urban core as well as the surrounding territory that supports the urban core through things like commuting workers. However because the EU is a collection of different nations, a single definition for the metropolitan areas of the region was difficult to come up with so the EU's statistical agency, Eurostat, developed the Larger Urban Zone (LUZ). The LUZ has essentially the same definition as the metropolitan area.
The following is a list of the 10 largest LUZ cities in the European Union based on the city population. For reference, the country of which the city is a part and the area of the LUZ has also been included. All population figures were obtained from Wikipedia.org.
1) London
Population: 12,300,000 to 13,945,000 (2007 estimate)
Country: United Kingdom
2) Paris
Population: 11,836,970 (2007 estimate)
Country: France
3) Ruhr
Population: 7,300,000 (2008 estimate)
Country: Germany
4) Madrid
Population: 5,843,031 (2009 estimate)
Country: Spain
5) Barcelona
Population: 5,000,000 (2009 estimate)
Country: Spain
5) Hamburg
Population: 4,300,000 (2010 estimate)
Country: Germany
7) Berlin
Population: 4,429,847 (2010 estimate)
Country: Germany
8) Athens
Population: 4,013,368 (2004 estimate)
Country: Greece
9) Rome
Population: 2,754,440 (2010 estimate)
Country: Italy
10) Milan
Population: 1,317,882 (2010 estimate)
Country: Italy
References
Briney, Amanda. (1 February 2011). "The European Union: A History and Overview." Geography at About.com. Retrieved from: http://geography.about.com/od/geographyintern/a/euoverview.htm
Wikipedia.org. (20 March 2011). European Union - Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Union
Wikipedia.org. (18 March 2011). Metropolitan Areas - Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metropolitan_area
Wikipedia.org. (6 March 2011). Larger Urban Zones - Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larger_Urban_Zone