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Europe comprises 52 countries with a total land area of 10.2 million square kilometers (3.9 million sq mi), representing 6.6% of our planet’s habitable surface. Europe’s shorelines have a combined length of 112,484 kilometers (69,909 miles). About 750 million people live in Europe (9.3% of the global population), increasing from 550 million to 750 million in these seventy years. They account for about 25% of global economic output.
The total number of cities in Europe is over 900. Which cities are the biggest?
While in 2020, Istanbul was the largest city in Europe, with an assessed urban agglomeration of 15.9 million people; Moscow (Russia) was the most populous European capital city of 12.6 million, followed by the capitals of France and the UK, with Paris at 11 million and London at 9.3 million people.
If we do not consider micro-states, Iceland and the Baltic countries such as Estonia and Latvia have the highest percentage of the population living in the capitals.
Percentage of inhabitants of European countries living in the capital
But if we consider a metropolitan area, the situation may look different.
The metropolitan area of a city is the city itself, plus the area encircling the city that is closely economically tied to the city. It is also frequently called the “commuter belt” because it is commonly described as the area near a city where it is practical for people to commute to work in that city.
Russian Moscow, with over 17 million residents in its metropolitan area, is the largest capital European city. While the highest percentage of the population living in capitals have Reykjavík (Islandia), Riga (Latvia), Copenhagen (Denmark), Tbilisi (Georgia), and Dublin (Ireland).
Percentage of inhabitants of European countries living in the capital (fixed for metro-area)
