List of urban areas in the Nordic countries

This is a list of urban areas in the Nordic countries by population. Urban areas in the Nordic countries are measured at national level, independently by each country's statistical office. Statistics Sweden uses the term tätort (urban settlement), Statistics Finland also uses tätort in Swedish and taajama in Finnish, Statistics Denmark uses byområde (city), while Statistics Norway uses tettsted (urban settlement).

Population density in the Nordic countries.
The Stockholm urban area (in blue), the largest urban area in the Nordic countries. The area includes land both inside and outside of the municipality of Stockholm.

A common statistical definition between the Nordic countries was agreed in 1960,[1] which defines an urban area as a contiguous built-up area with a population of at least 200 and where the maximum distance between dwellings is 200 metres, excluding roads, car parks, parks, sports grounds and cemeteries - regardless of the boundaries of the municipality, district or county.[1][2] Despite the common definition, the different statistical offices have different approaches to carrying out these measurements, resulting in slight differences between countries.[lower-alpha 1]

The Nordic definition is unique to these countries and should not be confused with international concepts of metropolitan area or urban areas in general. In 2010, Finland (stat.fi) changed its definition. This means that, according to official statistics, the land area covered by urban areas is three times larger in Finland than in Norway, although the total urban population is about the same (ssb.no). It also means that the population of a Danish 'byområder' is usually less than half the population of the 'functional urban area' as defined by Eurostat, whereas the population of a Finnish 'tätort' is usually around 80% of the respective 'functional urban area' as defined by Eurostat. For example, in 2013 the 'functional urban area' of Aarhus had a population of 845,971, while the 'functional urban area' of Tampere had a population of 364,992. However, according to official statistics, the "tätort" Tampere is larger than the "byområde" Aarhus (eurostat.ec). This suggests that direct comparisons between Finland and the other Nordic countries may be problematic.

List
RankCity / urban settlementUrban area Metropolitan / Eurostat Functional Urban AreaNotesImage
1Sweden Stockholm1,611,776 2,417,124[3] Capital of Sweden. Municipality: 978,770.
2Finland Helsinki1,337,786[4] 1 738 375 Capital of Finland. Municipality: 673,011.
3Denmark Copenhagen1,320,629[5] 2,059,453[6] (see notes) Capital of Denmark. Municipality: 623,404 (2019).
4Norway Oslo1,036,059[7] 1,588,457[8][9] 1,278,827 (Eurostat, 2013, latest available) Capital of Norway. Municipality: 697 028. The Greater Oslo Region (metropolitan) area has a population of 1,546,706.
5Sweden Gothenburg607,882 [10] 1,070,935 [11] Municipality: 599,305. Masthuggskajen seen from Lindholmen
6Finland Tampere347,470[12] 440,372
Eurostat: 369,525.		 Municipality: 254,198. Most populous inland city in the Nordic countries.
7Sweden Malmö357 377 707,120[3]

Eurostat: 658,050, 2017.

 Municipality: 328,494.
8Finland Turku291,230[12] 337,751[13] Municipality: 201,085.
9Denmark Aarhus282,910[14] 845,971Municipality: 340,421.[15]
10Norway Bergen259,958[7] 420,000395,338 (2013, Eurostat) [11] Municipality: 285 911. Metropolitan area: 377,116.
11Finland Oulu257,670[12] 258,241Municipality: 214,008
12Iceland Reykjavík

242,995[16]

 Capital of Iceland. Municipality: 135,688.

Urban area includes all or most of the population of 5 additional municipalities in the Capital region.
13Norway Stavanger/Sandnes228,287[7] 319,822
Municipality: 144 223. Metropolitan area: 297,569.

Conurbation includes the neighbouring municipalities Sandnes, Randaberg and Sola.
14Norway Trondheim191,771[7] 310,052 (2022)[17]
264,396 (2013, Eurostat)		 Municipality: 211,246
15Denmark Odense178,210[18] 485,672 Municipality: 213,558
16Sweden Uppsala168,096 253,704[19] 288,203 Municipality: 225,164
17Denmark Aalborg134,672[18] 580,272 Includes Nørresundby; Municipality: 205,809
18Finland Jyväskylä143,420[12] 212,500Municipality: 147,360
19Finland Lahti119,068[12] 191,460Municipality: 120,599
20Norway Fredrikstad/Sarpsborg116,373[20] Fredrikstad: 83 220
Sarpsborg: 57 483
21Sweden Västerås110,877 173,322[19] 195,675 Municipality: 137,207
22Norway Drammen109,416[7] Includes parts of Øvre Eiker, Lier and Røyken.
23Sweden Örebro107,038 208,241[19] Municipality: 135,460
24Sweden Linköping104,232 177,308[19] Municipality: 146,416
25Sweden Helsingborg97,122 272,873[19] Municipality: 129,177
26Norway Porsgrunn/Skien92,753[20] Includes Porsgrunn and Skien and a part of Bamble.
27Sweden Jönköping112,766 Municipality: 127,382
28Finland Kuopio88,520[12] 167,753[19] Municipality: 123,818
29Sweden Norrköping87,247 183,100[19]Municipality: 130,050
30Finland Pori84,190[12] Municipality: 83,001
31Sweden Lund82,800 Municipality: 110,488

Included in Stormalmö (Malmö Metropolitan Area).[19]
32Sweden Umeå79,594 Municipality: 115,473
33Denmark Esbjerg72,398 Municipality: 116,032
34Sweden Gävle71,033 184,346[19] Municipality: 95,055

Metropolitan area together with Sandviken[19]
35Finland Joensuu67,811[12] Municipality: 77,958
36Finland Vaasa67,690[12] Municipality: 68,880
37Sweden Borås66,273 Municipality: 103,294
38Sweden Eskilstuna64,679 209,028[19] Municipality: 96,311
39Sweden Södertälje64,619 - Municipality: 86,246

No independent area, part of Greater Stockholm[19]
40Denmark Randers62,687 Municipality: 98,265
41Sweden Karlstad61,685 179,486[19]Municipality: 85,753
42Norway Kristiansand112 725 Municipality: 88,320
43Sweden Växjö60,887 156.629[19] Municipality: 83,005
44Sweden Täby61,272 - Municipality: 63,789

No independent area, part of Greater Stockholm
45Denmark Kolding60,508 Municipality: 92,515
46Sweden Halmstad58,577 134,156[19] Municipality: 91,800
47Denmark Vejle56,567 Municipality: 114,140
48Denmark Horsens55,884 Municipality: 85,662
49Finland Lappeenranta55,743[12] Municipality: 72,944
50Finland Rovaniemi52,753[12] Municipality: 65,088
51Finland Kotka51,704[12] Municipality: 50,538
52Sweden Sundsvall50,712 125,812[19] Municipality: 96,977

Note that the population numbers from the countries are from different years, as Statistics Finland, Statistics Norway and Statistics Denmark release the statistic yearly (albeit at different times of the year), Statistics Sweden only release the figures every five years. The Norwegian data is from 2013[20] and 2018,[7] the Danish data is from 2014,[21] the Swedish is from 2010[22] and the Finnish is from 2017.[12]

Also note that some of the statistics have been updated since the first note was made, so some statistics may be from 2018, while others from 2013, etc.

See also

Notes
  1. For example, Statistics Finland utilizes a 62,500 square metres (673,000 sq ft) grid system for analyzing population, resulting in slight measurement differences between it and the other Nordic statistical bureaus.

References
  1. "Nationalencyklopedin - Tätort". Nationalencyklopedin. Retrieved 21 July 2014. Translation: 'a for the Nordic countries shared statistical definition of built-up area with at least 200 residents, not more than 200 m between each other (without regard to the ward, municipal or county boundaries)'
  2. "Localities 2010: Population, age and gender" (PDF) (in Swedish and English). Statistics Sweden. Retrieved 21 July 2014. A densely built area includes any cluster of buildings with at least 200 inhabitants, unless the distance between the houses exceeds 200 metres. However, the distance may exceed 200 metres if the cluster of buildings is situated within the area of influence of a larger locality. [...] Even if the distance between buildings exceeds 200 metres, the locality should not be divided if the area between the buildings is used for public purposes such as roads, parking spaces, parks, sports grounds and cemeteries. The same applies to undeveloped areas such as storage sites, railways and docks.page=21
  3. "Folkmängden efter region, civilstånd, ålder och kön. År 1968 - 201" (in Swedish). Statistikmyndigheten SCB. Archived from the original on 5 April 2020. Retrieved 22 December 2017.
  4. Statistikcentralen, Finland; Tätorter efter folkmängd och folktäthet, 2019 Retrieved 27 november 2020.
  5. "BY1: Population 1. January by urban, rural areas, age and sex". statbank.dk.
  6. "Statistikbanken". www.statbank.dk. Retrieved 2020-01-09.
  7. Population and land area in urban settlements, December 2018
  8. regionaldepartementet, Kommunal- og (2003-05-09). "St.meld. nr. 31 (2002-2003)". Regjeringen.no (in Norwegian). Retrieved 2017-12-22.
  9. "Folketalet ved nyttår var 5 258 000". ssb.no (in Norwegian Nynorsk). Retrieved 2017-12-22.
  10. SCB, Statistikmyndigheten (2022-04-08). "Tätorter i Sverige".
  11. Folkmängd i Göteborgsregionen 2022
  12. "Urban settlements by population and population density, 31 Dec 2017". Archived from the original on 18 July 2018. Retrieved 11 February 2018.
  13. "Seutukuntien ennakkoväkiluku alueittain, elokuu 2013". Tiedote (in Finnish). Statistics Finland (Tilastokeskus). 31 August 2013. Archived from the original on 27 June 2013. Retrieved 2 October 2013.
  14. "Statistikbanken". www.statbank.dk.
  15. "Statistikbanken". www.statistikbanken.dk.
  16. "Population by localities, sex and age 1 January 1998-2023". www.hagstofa.is. Statistics Iceland. 1 January 2023.
  17. Kringstad, Hans (2022-03-31). "Vi har passert 310 000 innbyggere". Trondheimsregionen (in Norwegian). Retrieved 2022-06-30.
  18. "Population 1. January by urban, rural areas (DISCONTINUED) - StatBank Denmark - data and statistics". www.statistikbanken.dk.
  19. "table". www.statistikdatabasen.scb.se. Retrieved 2017-12-22.
  20. Citypopulation Norway Archived 2012-11-20 at the Wayback Machine
  21. "Denmark: Regions, Municipalities, Cities and Urban Areas - Population Statistics in Maps and Charts". www.citypopulation.de. Archived from the original on 2012-04-08. Retrieved 2011-09-30.
  22. "Sweden: Counties, Cities, Municipalities, Settlements and Metropolitan Areas - Population Statistics in Maps and Charts". www.citypopulation.de.
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