Illustration showing the difference between the city, the functional urban area (Milan metropolitan area), and the metropolitan region of Milan.Illustration of the delimitation process for the functional urban area (red outline) of Genoa (red fill) and its commuting zone (pink fill).
The functional urban area (FUA), previously known as larger urban zone (LUZ),[1] is a measure of the population and expanse of metropolitan and surrounding areas which may or may not be exclusively urban.[2] It consists of a city and its commuting zone,[3] which is a contiguous area of spatial units that have at least 15% of their employed residents working in the city.[4]
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."[5] To ensure a good data availability, Eurostat adjusts the FUA boundaries to administrative boundaries that approximate the functional urban area.[6]
History
The definition was introduced under the name Larger urban zone (LUZ) in 2004 by Eurostat, the statistical agency of the European Union (EU), in agreement with the national statistics offices in the member states.[7][8] Eurostat data is provided only for zones in the EU countries, candidate countries and EFTA countries. Several cities were excluded by definition from the 2004 list of LUZs on technical, definitional grounds, such as the coincidence of the metropolitan area with the urban zone.[9][10][11]
In 2006 LUZ definitions were changed significantly, improving the comparability of LUZ definitions across different countries, and allowing for almost all cities to be included.[citation needed]
In 2011, the European Commission has developed a new definition of LUZ in cooperation with the OECD.[12] The term Larger urban zone (LUZ) was later renamed as the Functional urban area (FUA).[1]
List of functional urban areas by population as of 2017
This is a list of functional urban areas by population as of 2017. The 2004 Urban Audit also includes cities from EFTA countries (Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland) and EU candidate countries, although the only candidate country for which there is available data is Turkey. Some cities, including Marseille, Lille, Nice, Cordoba, Badajoz, Toulon and Montpellier were excluded from the 2004 list on technical, definitional grounds, such as the coincidence of the metropolitan area with the urban zone.
This is a list of functional urban areas. The Urban Audit also includes cities from EFTA countries (Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland) and EU candidate countries. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) uses a similar definition of Functional Urban Area to represent population sizes of cities in OECD countries.[15] This data is also included.
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.[16]
^ a b cPart of the Randstad polycentric urban region consisting of the metropolitan areas of Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague, and Utrecht (982,000). The total population of the region is 7,100,000.
^ a bThe Flemish Diamond metropolitan region, which consists of the metropolitan areas of Brussels, Antwerp, Gent, and Leuven, has a total population of 5,103,000.
^Total population is 4,251,000 if the metropolitan area of Mataro (169,000) is included.
^Part of the wider Öresund region, which includes the Swedish metropolitan area of Malmö (961,000). The total regional population is 2,842,000.
^Part of the Rhein-Main metropolitan region with a total population of 4,149,000, which additionally includes the metropolitan areas of Darmstadt (501,000), Wiesbaden (453,000), and Mainz (431,000).
^2014 data
^2017 data
^Part of the polycentric Upper Silesian urban region with a total population of 5,294,000. The region additionally includes the metropolitan areas of Ostrava (1,046,000), Bielsko-Biala (584,000) and Rybnik (526,000).
^Leeds and Bradford counted separately.
^Kortrijk not included.
^Part of the wider Lille-Bassin Minier region with a total population of 3,115,000.
^2014 data
^Part of a wider polycentric urban region with a population of 6,011,000.
^When combined with the Augsburg metropolitan area (606,000), the region has a total population of 3,271,000.
^Part of a wider polycentric urban region with a population of 3,714,000.
^2015
^Part of a wider polycentric urban region with a population of 1,778,000.
^Excludes Southampton
^2015
^ a bPolycentric metropolitan area
^Excludes Neuss.
^ a b cPart of the polycentric urban region of Rhein-Ruhr, which has a total population of 12,190,000.
^Excludes Bonn which has a population of 750,370
^Excludes Bonn
^Essen, Bochum, and Dortmund counted separately.
^Saarbrücken only
^Total population is 1,262,000 if the metropolitan area of Utrera (82,000) is included.
^Total population is 1,716,000 if the metropolitan of Pinerolo is included.
^Excludes Sunderland
^Total population is 1,499,000 if the metropolitan area of Sagunto is included.
References
^ a b"Territorial typologies manual - cities, commuting zones and functional urban areas". Eurostat. Within the Urban Audit, (...) functional urban areas were previously referred to as 'larger urban zones'.
^Position Statement on Cohesion Policy 2014–2020 Archived 2 July 2015 at the Wayback Machine, EuroMETREX. Retrieved 2 July 2015.
^"European cities – the EU-OECD functional urban area definition". Eurostat.
^European Union/FAO/UN-Habitat/OECD/The World Bank (2021). "Applying the Degree of Urbanisation — A methodological manual to define cities, towns and rural areas for international comparisons — 2021 edition". Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union. p. 52. doi:10.2785/706535. ISBN 978-92-76-20306-3.
^"What is the Urban Audit?". Urban Audit. Archived from the original on 12 February 2009.
^"Territorial typologies manual - cities, commuting zones and functional urban areas". Eurostat. The main building blocks are data for 1 km² population grid cells. […] The typology for functional urban areas is established at the level of local administrative units (LAUs). Once all grid cells have been classified and urban centres identified, the next step concerns overlaying these results onto LAUs […]
^"City statistics – Urban audit". Eurostat. 2006. Archived from the original on 6 February 2009.
^"The shift of Eurostat to Urban Statistics". Dr. Berthold Feldmann, Eurostat. March 2006. Archived from the original on 20 September 2006.
^www.statistiques-locales.insee.fr https://web.archive.org/web/20110727094822/http://www.statistiques-locales.insee.fr/Fiches/RS/AU1999/RS_AU1999003.pdf. Archived from the original (PDF) on 27 July 2011. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
^ https://web.archive.org/web/20110727094843/http://www.statistiques-locales.insee.fr/Fiches/RS/AU1999/RS_AU1999004.pdf. Archived from the original (PDF) on 27 July 2011. Retrieved 19 February 2016. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
^ https://web.archive.org/web/20110727094905/http://www.statistiques-locales.insee.fr/Fiches/RS/AU1999/RS_AU1999006.pdf. Archived from the original (PDF) on 27 July 2011. Retrieved 19 February 2016. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
^Lewis Dijkstra, Hugo Poelman (1 March 2012). Cities in Europe - The new OECD-EC definition (PDF) (Report). p. 2. Retrieved 8 June 2024. Until recently, there was no harmonised definition of 'a city' for European and other countries member of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). This undermined the comparability, and thus also the credibility, of cross-country analysis of cities. To resolve this problem, the OECD and the European Commission developed a new definition of a city and its commuting zone in 2011. […] Each city is part of its own commuting zone or a polycentric commuting zone covering multiple cities. These commuting zones are significant, especially for larger cities. The cities and commuting zones together (called Larger Urban Zones) account for 60 % of the EU population.
^European Union/FAO/UN-Habitat/OECD/The World Bank (2021). "Applying the Degree of Urbanisation — A methodological manual to define cities, towns and rural areas for international comparisons — 2021 edition". Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union. p. 3. doi:10.2785/706535. ISBN 978-92-76-20306-3.
^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m nData for 2001 (2004 data not yet available)
^ a b"OECD Populations in cities". OECD. Retrieved 2 April 2017.
^"Urban Audit Database". Urbanaudit.org. Archived from the original on 23 May 2011. Retrieved 29 April 2011.
