Which European cities have seen the biggest growth in the past 5 years?
Like this map and want to support Landgeist? The best way to support Landgeist, is by sharing this map. When you share this map, make sure that you credit Landgeist and link to the source article. If you share it on Instagram, just tag @Land_geist. On Twitter tag @Landgeist.
This map shows some very interesting data. We can see here which cities are growing and which cities are shrinking. The population change can be the result of varying factors. Most likely a low or high birth rate or a high number of people moving in or out of the city.
Overall, we see that most European cities have seen their population grow over the past 5 years. Especially the largest cities and capital cities. We do however see a strong geographical pattern on this map. Most of the cities with a decrease in population, are located in south and eastern Europe. Poland, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Greece, Croatia, Italy, France, Spain and Portugal all have a significant number of cities with a 5-year decrease in population. Especially Italy has a very large share of metro areas with a decreasing population. Especially in Southern Italy, where al major cities have seen a population decrease larger than 2.5%. Although Northern Italy is doing better than the south, it still has a large number of cities with a decrease in population.
The city with the largest decrease in population in all of Europe is Messina (-4.9%) on Sicily in Italy. The next two cities are both in Romania, Ploiesti (-4.7%) and Galati (-4.6%).
The strongest increases can be found further up north. The vast majority of the major cities in the UK, Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, Belgium, Austria, Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland have seen an increase in its population. The biggest increase can actually be found in southern Europe. Valletta, the capital of Malta, saw a whopping 17.7% increase in its population. The 2nd and 3rd fastest growing cities are both in Sweden, Uppsala (10%) and Stockholm (8.1%).
Keep in mind that this map says nothing about increase/decrease of the nationwide population size. While major cities might be growing, smaller cities and the rural population might be shrinking. Which can even cause the total national population to drop. On the national level, no country reported a decrease in population size over the period from 2015 to 2020. The smallest growth was recorded in Lithuania (0.957%). The largest growth was recorded in Malta (1.170%).
Here’s a full list of all the cities on the map and their 5-year population change:
Austria
Vienna (+5.6%)
Graz (+4.6%)
Innsbruck (+4.5%)
Salzburg (+4.4%)
Belgium
Bruxelles/Brussel (+3.5%)
Ghent (+3.3%)
Antwerp (+2.9%)
Liège (+1.4%)
Charleroi (+0.4%)
Bulgaria
Sofia (-0.4%)
Varna (-0.8%)
Burgas (-1.2%)
Plovdiv (-1.3%)
Croatia
Zagreb (-0.3%)
Split (-1.3%)
Czech Republic
Praha (+5.2%)
Plzen (+2.6%)
Brno (+1.6%)
Ostrava (-1.4%)
Denmark
Århus (+4.7%)
København (+4.4%)
Odense (+2%)
Aalborg (+1.3%)
Estonia
Tallinn (+6.5%)
Finland
Helsinki (+5.4%)
Tampere (+2.8%)
Turku (+1.4%)
France
Montpellier (+5.7%)
Nantes (+5.7%)
Bordeaux (+5.7%)
Toulouse (+5.6%)
Rennes (+4.1%)
Lyon (+3.3%)
Clermont-Ferrand (+2.9%)
Strasbourg (+2.4%)
Pau (+2.3%)
Marseille (+1.9%)
Paris (+1.7%)
Perpignan (+1.7%)
Nimes (+1.5%)
Grenoble (+1.5%)
Orléans (+1.3%)
Besançon (+1.1%)
Angers (+1%)
Saint-Etienne (+0.8%)
Poitiers (+0.8%)
Tours (+0.6%)
Brest (+0.6%)
Nice (+0.5%)
Mulhouse (+0.3%)
Caen (0%)
Dijon (-0.1%)
Lille-Dunkerque-Valenciennes (-0.1%)
Rouen (-0.4%)
Nancy (-0.4%)
Amiens (-0.5%)
Le Mans (-0.9%)
Limoges (-1.2%)
Reims (-1.5%)
Germany
Berlin (+5.5%)
Regensburg (+5.4%)
Leipzig (+5%)
Heilbronn (+4.9%)
Augsburg (+4.8%)
Ingolstadt (+4.8%)
Frankfurt am Main (+4.7%)
Mainz (+4.5%)
Ulm (+4.5%)
Munich (+4.4%)
Hamburg (+4.4%)
Linz (+4.3%)
Oldenburg (+4.2%)
Freiburg im Breisgau (+4.2%)
Gießen (+4.2%)
Darmstadt (+4.1%)
Pforzheim (+4%)
Flensburg (+3.9%)
Rosenheim (+3.9%)
Konstanz (+3.8%)
Stuttgart (+3.7%)
Offenburg (+3.7%)
Nürnberg (+3.6%)
Karlsruhe (+3.5%)
Münster (+3.4%)
Bonn (+3.4%)
Reutlingen (+3.2%)
Köln (+3%)
Osnabrück (+3%)
Heidelberg (+3%)
Paderborn (+2.9%)
Mannheim-Ludwigshafen (+2.9%)
Wuppertal (+2.8%)
Bremen (+2.6%)
Kassel (+2.5%)
Hannover (+2.4%)
Düsseldorf (+2.3%)
Rostock (+2.1%)
Düren (+2.1%)
Koblenz (+2.1%)
Würzburg (+1.9%)
Wiesbaden (+1.8%)
Kiel (+1.7%)
Aachen (+1.7%)
Bocholt (+1.7%)
Mönchengladbach (+1.6%)
Braunschweig-Salzgitter-Wolfsburg (+1.6%)
Bremerhaven (+1.6%)
Schweinfurt (+1.4%)
Aschaffenburg (+1.4%)
Kaiserslautern (+1.3%)
Bielefeld (+1.3%)
Ruhrgebiet (+1.1%)
Lübeck (+1%)
Schwerin (+0.9%)
Halle an der Saale (+0.9%)
Dresden (+0.8%)
Wetzlar (+0.7%)
Erfurt (+0.7%)
Bayreuth (+0.5%)
Hildesheim (+0.5%)
Siegen (+0.4%)
Magdeburg (+0.3%)
Göttingen (+0.1%)
Saarbrücken (-0.1%)
Iserlohn (-0.9%)
Neubrandenburg (-1.4%)
Görlitz (-2.9%)
Zwickau (-3.1%)
Greece
Thessaloniki (-1.2%)
Athens (-2.5%)
Hungary
Budapest (+2.1%)
Székesfehérvár (+0.2%)
Debrecen (-2%)
Pécs (-3.2%)
Miskolc (-4.6%)
Ireland
Dublin (+7.8%)
Cork (+5%)
Italy
Parma (+2.1%)
Bologna (+1.7%)
Milan (+1.7%)
Prato (+1.6%)
Verona (+0.1%)
Bergamo (-0.1%)
Padova (-0.5%)
Reggio nell’Emilia (-0.7%)
Brescia (-0.8%)
Venice (-1.1%)
Florence (-1.6%)
Rome (-2%)
Cagliari (-2.3%)
Turin (-2.7%)
Naples (-2.7%)
Bari (-2.9%)
Catania (-4%)
Taranto (-4.1%)
Genova (-4.2%)
Palermo (-4.2%)
Messina (-4.9%)
Latvia
Riga (-0.7%)
Lithuania
Vilnius (+1.6%)
Kaunas (-3.5%)
Malta
Valletta (+17.7%)
Netherlands
The Hague (+5.2%)
Utrecht (+4.4%)
Amsterdam (+4.4%)
Eindhoven (+3.7%)
Leiden (+3.7%)
Zwolle (+3.6%)
Tilburg (+3.5%)
Rotterdam (+3.2%)
Arnhem-Nijmegen (+2.8%)
Breda (+1.9%)
Groningen (+0.8%)
Enschede (+0.8%)
Leeuwarden (+0.6%)
Norway
Oslo (+7.6%)
Bergen (+3.1%)
Poland
Warsaw (+4.1%)
Gdansk (+3.6%)
Poznan (+3.2%)
Kraków (+3.1%)
Rzeszów (+2.6%)
Wroclaw (+2.1%)
Bialystok (+0.7%)
Bydgoszcz-Torún (+0.7%)
Bielsko-Biala (+0.5%)
Lublin (+0.4%)
Tarnów (-0.3%)
Olsztyn (-1%)
Szczecin (-1%)
Opole (-1.1%)
Katowice (-1.8%)
Radom (-1.8%)
Lódz (-1.9%)
Kielce (-2%)
Czestochowa (-2.1%)
Portugal
Lisboa (+1.9%)
Porto (-0.2%)
Romania
Bucharest (+1.7%)
Timisoara (+1.5%)
Cluj-Napoca (+1.3%)
Iasi (+0.8%)
Brasov (+0.5%)
Constanta (-1.6%)
Craiova (-3.9%)
Galati (-4.6%)
Ploiesti (-4.7%)
Slovakia
Bratislava (+7.1%)
Kosice (+0.7%)
Slovenia
Ljubljana (+3.9%)
Maribor (+0.8%)
Spain
Palma de Mallorca (+7.5%)
Santa Cruz de Tenerife (+6.8%)
Madrid (+5.7%)
Barcelona (+3.7%)
Málaga-Marbella (+3.2%)
Pamplona/Iruña (+3.2%)
Vitoria/Gasteiz (+2.9%)
Murcia-Cartagena (+2.8%)
Alicante/Alacant-Elche/Elx (+2.4%)
Las Palmas (+1.8%)
Valencia (+1.8%)
Guipúzcoa (+1.3%)
Zaragoza (+1%)
Sevilla (+0.9%)
Granada (+0.7%)
Cádiz (+0.5%)
Bilbao (+0.5%)
Vigo (-0.5%)
A Coruña (-0.5%)
Santander (-0.5%)
Valladolid (-1.3%)
Córdoba (-1.4%)
Coimbra (-2.3%)
Oviedo-Gijón (-3%)
Sweden
Uppsala (+10%)
Stockholm (+8.1%)
Malmö (+6.9%)
Göteborg (+5.8%)
Switzerland
Zürich (+6.4%)
Lausanne (+5.7%)
Geneva (+5.6%)
Annecy (FR) / Genève (CH) (+4.8%)
Bern (+3%)
Basel (+2.7%)
United Kingdom
Coventry (+6.2%)
Nottingham (+6%)
Edinburgh (+5.6%)
Bristol (+5.4%)
Northampton (+5.3%)
London (+5.2%)
Colchester (+5.1%)
Leicester (+4.7%)
Brighton and Hove (+4.6%)
Exeter (+4.4%)
Sheffield (+3.9%)
West Midlands urban area (+3.9%)
Southampton (+3.8%)
Cambridge (+3.4%)
Manchester (+3.3%)
Medway (+3.3%)
Portsmouth (+3.2%)
Norwich (+3.2%)
Oxford (+3.1%)
Bournemouth (+3.1%)
Leeds (+3%)
Ipswich (+2.9%)
Derby (+2.8%)
Liverpool (+2.6%)
Doncaster (+2.6%)
Kirklees (+2.5%)
Belfast (+2.4%)
Glasgow (+2.3%)
Swansea (+2.1%)
Cardiff (+2%)
Cheshire West and Chester (+2%)
Newcastle upon Tyne (+2%)
Bradford (+1.9%)
Stoke-on-Trent (+1.9%)
Plymouth (+1.8%)
Aberdeen (+1.7%)
Middlesbrough (+1.3%)
Kingston upon Hull (+1.1%)
Blackburn-Blackpool-Preston (+0.9%)
Sunderland (+0.5%)
Landgeist 