In 2025, Moscow was the largest city in Europe with an estimated urban agglomeration of 12.74 million people. The French capital, Paris, was the second largest city in 2025 at 11.35 million, followed by the capitals of the United Kingdom and Spain, with London at 9.84 million and Madrid at 6.81 million people. Istanbul, which would otherwise be the largest city in Europe in 2025, is excluded as it is only partially in Europe, with a sizeable part of its population living in Asia. Europe’s population is almost 750 million Since 1950, the population of Europe has increased by approximately 200 million people, increasing from 550 million to 750 million in these seventy years. Before the turn of the millennium, Europe was the second-most populated continent, before it was overtaken by Africa, which saw its population increase from 228 million in 1950 to 817 million by 2000. Asia has consistently had the largest population of the world’s continents and was estimated to have a population of 4.6 billion. Europe’s largest countries Including its territory in Asia, Russia is by far the largest country in the world, with a territory of around 17 million square kilometers, almost double that of the next largest country, Canada. Within Europe, Russia also has the continent's largest population at 145 million, followed by Germany at 83 million and the United Kingdom at almost 68 million. By contrast, Europe is also home to various micro-states such as San Marino, which has a population of just 30 thousand.

In 2024, Russia had the largest population among European countries at ***** million people. The next largest countries in terms of their population size were Turkey at **** million, Germany at **** million, the United Kingdom at **** million, and France at **** million. Europe is also home to some of the world’s smallest countries, such as the microstates of Liechtenstein and San Marino, with populations of ****** and ****** respectively. Europe’s largest economies Germany was Europe’s largest economy in 2023, with a Gross Domestic Product of around *** trillion Euros, while the UK and France are the second and third largest economies, at *** trillion and *** trillion euros respectively. Prior to the mid-2000s, Europe’s fourth-largest economy, Italy, had an economy that was of a similar sized to France and the UK, before diverging growth patterns saw the UK and France become far larger economies than Italy. Moscow and Istanbul the megacities of Europe Two cities on the eastern borders of Europe were Europe’s largest in 2023. The Turkish city of Istanbul, with a population of 15.8 million, and the Russian capital, Moscow, with a population of 12.7 million. Istanbul is arguably the world’s most famous transcontinental city with territory in both Europe and Asia and has been an important center for commerce and culture for over 2,000 years. Paris was the third largest European city with a population of ** million, with London being the fourth largest at *** million.

When using this data set, it should be bibliographically referred to as 'Urban Audit, 2004'.

The Urban Audit (UA) provides European urban statistics for a representative sample of large and medium-sized cities across 30 European countries. It enables an assessment of the state of individual EU cities and provides access to comparative information from other EU cities.

This spatial dataset will support the study and dissemination of the UA data. It allows the visualisation of participating cities at three conceptual levels: - UA City - the core city, using an administrative definition - UA City Kernel - a concept introduced to improve comparability between large cities - Larger Urban Zone (LUZ) - approximating the functional urban region

In addition, this spatial dataset allows visualisation of a 285 participating cities at two hierarchical sublevels to analyse the disparities within cities: - Sub City Districts level 1 (SCD L1) - Sub City Districts level 2 (SCD L2)

The extent of this dataset is the EU-27 plus Croatia (HR), Norway (NO) and Switzerland (CH).

The URAU_2004 dataset contains a polygonal feature class for UA Cities, UA City Kernels and Large Urban Zones, derived from the geometry of the GISCO COMM_2004 dataset (based on EuroBoundary Map 2004). Polygonal feature classes for Sub City Districts are derived from the geometry of the GISCO COMM_2004 dataset (based on EuroBoundary Map 2004) or spatial data supplied by URAU delegates which has been made coincident with UA City geometry.

A generalised version of each feature class allows for visualisation at the scale of 1:3 Million. UA Cities are also represented by a point topology that are derived from and synchronised with the GISCO STTL_V3 dataset of European Settlements. The UA city points are, when possible, synchronised to an Urban Fabric class in Corine Land Cover 2000.

London was by far the largest urban agglomeration in the United Kingdom in 2025, with an estimated population of *** million people, more than three times as large as Manchester, the UK’s second-biggest urban agglomeration. The agglomerations of Birmingham and Leeds / Bradford had the third and fourth-largest populations, respectively, while the biggest city in Scotland, Glasgow, was the fifth largest. Largest cities in Europe Two cities in Europe had larger urban areas than London, with Istanbul having a population of around **** million and the Russian capital Moscow having a population of over **** million. The city of Paris, located just over 200 miles away from London, was the second-largest city in Europe, with a population of more than **** million people. Paris was followed by London in terms of population size, and then by the Spanish cities of Madrid and Barcelona, at *** million and *** million people, respectively. The Italian capital, Rome, was the next largest city at *** million, followed by Berlin at *** million. London’s population growth Throughout the 1980s, the population of London fluctuated from a high of **** million people in 1981 to a low of **** million inhabitants in 1988. During the 1990s, the population of London increased once again, growing from ****million at the start of the decade to **** million by 1999. London's population has continued to grow since the turn of the century, and despite declining between 2019 and 2021, it reached *** million people in 2023 and is forecast to reach almost *** million by 2047.

When using this data set, it should be bibliographically referred to as 'Urban Audit, 2004'. The Urban Audit (UA) provides European urban statistics for a representative sample of large and medium-sized cities across 30 European countries. It enables an assessment of the state of individual EU cities and provides access to comparative information from other EU cities. This spatial dataset will support the study and dissemination of the UA data. It allows the visualisation of participating cities at three conceptual levels: - UA City - the core city, using an administrative definition - UA City Kernel - a concept introduced to improve comparability between large cities - Larger Urban Zone (LUZ) - approximating the functional urban region In addition, this spatial dataset allows visualisation of a 285 participating cities at two hierarchical sublevels to analyse the disparities within cities: - Sub City Districts level 1 (SCD L1) - Sub City Districts level 2 (SCD L2) The extent of this dataset is the EU 27 (2007) plus Croatia (HR), Norway (NO) and Switzerland (CH). The URAU_2004 dataset contains a polygonal feature class for UA Cities, UA City Kernels and Large Urban Zones, derived from the geometry of the GISCO COMM_2004 dataset (based on EuroBoundary Map 2004). Polygonal feature classes for Sub City Districts are derived from the geometry of the GISCO COMM_2004 dataset (based on EuroBoundary Map 2004) or spatial data supplied by URAU delegates which has been made coincident with UA City geometry. A generalised version of each feature class allows for visualisation at the scale of 1:3 Million. UA Cities are also represented by a point topology that are derived from and synchronised with the GISCO STTL_V3 dataset of European Settlements. The UA city points are, when possible, synchronised to an Urban Fabric class in Corine Land Cover 2000.

Rome is the most populous city in Italy. With 2.75 million inhabitants, the capital of the country put ahead Milan and Naples. Compared to the number of citizens in 2012, the resident population of Rome increased by over 140,000 individuals. Regional data Rome is located in the center of Italy in the Lazio region. Lazio is the second-largest region in terms of population size after Lombardy. In 2024, the region counts roughly 5.7 million inhabitants, whereas Lombardy has over ten million individuals. The third-largest region is Campania, with 5.6 million people. Naples, the major center of Campania, has around 910,000 inhabitants at the beginning of 2024. Nevertheless, this city was, back in the 19th century, one of the largest cities in Western Europe. Tourism in Rome The Eternal City is also the main tourist destination in Italy and was the eighth most-visited city in Europe. The largest groups of international visitors in Rome came from the United States of America, Japan, and the United Kingdom. Every year, more and more tourists also enjoy the best-known tourist attractions in Rome, like the Colosseum, the Roman Forum, and the Palatine Hill, which together recorded almost ten million visitors in 2022.

The four Nordic countries Sweden, Iceland, Norway, and Denmark are between the five countries with the highest rate of reported sexual violence in Europe in 2023. Almost 200 cases per 100,000 inhabitants were reported in Sweden.Please note that reporting varies from country to country, and the willingness of victims to come forward can vary across regions and cultures, therefore a comparison between the countries should be taken with caution.

In Europe, the Baltic countries of Latvia and Lithuania had the highest and third highest homicide rates respectively in 2023. Latvia had the highest rate at over four per 100,000 inhabitants. Meanwhile, the lowest homicide rate was found in Liechtenstein, with zero murders The most dangerous country worldwide Saint Kitts and Nevis is the world's most dangerous country to live in in terms of murder rate. The Caribbean country had a homicide rate of 65 per 100,000 inhabitants. Nine of the 10 countries with the highest murder rates worldwide are located in Latin America and the Caribbean. Whereas Celaya in Mexico was listed as the city with the highest murder rate worldwide, Colima in Mexico was the city with the highest homicide rate in Latin America, so the numbers vary from source to source. Nevertheless, several Mexican cities rank among the deadliest in the world when it comes to intentional homicides. Violent conflicts worldwide Notably, these figures do not include deaths that resulted from war or a violent conflict. While there is a persistent number of conflicts worldwide, resulting casualties are not considered murders. Partially due to this reason, homicide rates in Latin America are higher than those in countries such as Ukraine or the DR Congo. A different definition of murder in these circumstances could change the rate significantly.

Spain had the highest prevalence of cannabis use among adults in Europe as of 2024, with 12.6 percent of its population consuming cannabis in the preceding twelve months. This was followed closely by France and Italy, with 10.8 percent of the population in each country using cannabis.Student use of cannabis in Italy As of 2022, over 40 percent of male students aged 19 years were users of cannabis, while 35 percent of female students of this age were also users. Among 15-year-olds, around ten percent of both boys and girls this age used cannabis.Other drug use in the EU Cannabis is by far the most used drug across the population of the European Union, with over 31 percent using it at some point in their lifetime. This is followed by cocaine, which 6.3 percent have used in their life, and then MDMA, with five percent of individuals having used.