Brussels, 29/06/2004 (Agence Europe) - On Friday, the European Commission published an urban audit in response to demand for an assessment of the quality of life in European towns and cities. The audit looks at 258 cities (more than 250,000 inhabitants) and towns (between 50,000 and 250,000 inhabitants) in the EU25, along with cities in Bulgaria and Romania. Data was compared for 2001, covering areas like demography, housing, health, the job market, the economy, education, the environment, transport and culture.
Among the 258 cities studied, there were 18 cities with a population of over 1 million persons in 2001, 16 in the EU and one each in Bulgaria and Romania. The largest city in Europe is Greater London (population 7.2 million), followed by Paris “petite couronne” (6.2 million), Berlin (3.4 million), Madrid (3.0 million), Rome (2.7 million), Bucharest (1.9 million) and Budapest (1.8 million).
Of the 209 cities for which population growth data between 1996 and 2001 are available, the fastest growing city in the EU was Palma de Mallorca (+2.6%), followed by Pamplona/Iruña (+2.3%) and Badajoz (+2.2%), all in Spain. The city with the largest relative fall in population was Maribor in Slovenia (-3.1%), followed by three cities in Germany, Halle an der Saale (-3.0%), Frankfurt (Oder) and Schwerin (both -2.7%). The total population of the 258 cities was 107 million inhabitants, covering more than 20% of the population of these 27 countries.
Among the 210 cities for which data are available, there were 16 cities with unemployment rates of more than 20% in 2001: twelve in Poland, and one each in Germany, France, Slovakia and Romania. The highest unemployment rate was recorded in Suwalki in Poland (25.6%). Fifteen cities had rates of 4% or less: five in the Netherlands, four in the United Kingdom, two in Sweden and one each in Germany, Spain, Cyprus and Luxembourg. The lowest unemployment rate was registered in Utrecht in the Netherlands (3.0%).
Luxembourg City (48 seats per 1000 residents) had the highest proportion of cinema seats among the 204 cities for which data are available, followed by Poitiers in France (46), Liège in Belgium (45), Athina in Greece (44) and Manchester and Belfast in the United Kingdom (both 40). At the other end of the scale, Venezia (3) and Reggio di Calabria (4), both in Italy, Ruse in Bulgaria (4), Zory, Bydgoszcz, Katowice and Szczecin in Poland (all 5) had the lowest number of seats.