This is alist 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 termtätort (urban settlement),Statistics Finland also usestätort in Swedish andtaajama in Finnish, Statistics Denmark usesbyområde (city), whileStatistics Norway usestettsted (urban settlement).

A common statistical definition between theNordic 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.^[a]

The Nordic definition is unique to these countries and should not be confused with international concepts ofmetropolitan area orurban 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 byEurostat, whereas the population of a Finnish 'taajama' is usually around 80% of the respective 'functional urban area' as defined by Eurostat. For example, in 2013 the 'functional urban area' ofAarhus had a population of 845,971, while the 'functional urban area' ofTampere had a population of 364,992. However, according to official statistics, the "taajama" of Tampere is larger than the "byområde" of Aarhus (eurostat.ec). This suggests that direct comparisons between Finland and the other Nordic countries may be problematic.

Rank	City / urban settlement	Urban area	Metropolitan / Eurostat Functional Urban Area	Notes	Image	Country
1	Stockholm	1,611,776	2,417,124[3]	Capital of Sweden. Municipality: 978,770.		Sweden
2	Helsinki	1,396,899[4]	1,738,375	Capital of Finland. Municipality: 689,758.		Finland
3	Copenhagen	1,366,301[5]	2,135,634[6] (see notes)	Capital of Denmark. Municipality: 660,842 (2023).		Denmark
4	Oslo	1,110,887	1,588,457[7][8] 1,278,827 (Eurostat, 2013, latest available)	Capital of Norway. Municipality: 723 196. TheGreater Oslo Region (metropolitan) area has a population of 1,546,706.		Norway
5	Gothenburg	674,529[9]	1,080,980[10]	Municipality: 600,559.		Sweden
6	Aarhus	367,095[11]	845,971	Municipality: 367,095.[12]		Denmark
7	Malmö	357,377	707,120[3] Eurostat: 658,050, 2017.	Municipality: 328,494.		Sweden
8	Tampere	347,470[13]	440,372 Eurostat: 369,525.	Municipality: 260,646. Most populous inland city in the Nordic countries.		Finland
9	Turku	291,230[13]	337,751[14]	Municipality: 206,655.		Finland
10	Bergen	273,626	420,000[citation needed]395,338 (2013, Eurostat)[10]	Municipality: 285 911. Metropolitan area: 377,116.		Norway
11	Oulu	257,670[13]	258,241	Municipality: 216,066		Finland
12	Reykjavík	249,054[15]		Capital of Iceland. Municipality: 138,772.[16] Urban area includes all or most of the population of 5 additional municipalities in theCapital region.		Iceland
13	Stavanger/Sandnes	241,644	365,347 (2025)[17]	Municipality: 150 663. Metropolitan area:* 365,347[17] Conurbation includes the neighbouring municipalitiesSandnes,Randaberg andSola.		Norway
14	Trondheim	200,652	310,052 (2022)[18] 264,396 (2013, Eurostat)	Municipality: 211,246		Norway
15	Odense	178,210[19]	485,672	Municipality: 213,558		Denmark
16	Uppsala	168,096	253,704[20] 288,203	Municipality: 225,164		Sweden
17	Aalborg	134,672[19]	580,272	IncludesNørresundby; Municipality: 205,809		Denmark
18	Jyväskylä	143,420[13]	212,500	Municipality: 148,744		Finland
19	Drammen	125,680		Includes parts ofØvre Eiker,Lier andRøyken.		Norway
20	Fredrikstad/Sarpsborg	122,704		Fredrikstad: 83 220 Sarpsborg: 57 483		Norway
21	Lahti	119,068[13]	191,460	Municipality: 121,622		Finland
22	Västerås	110,877	173,322[20] 195,675	Municipality: 137,207		Sweden
23	Örebro	107,038	208,241[20]	Municipality: 135,460		Sweden
24	Linköping	104,232	177,308[20]	Municipality: 146,416		Sweden
25	Helsingborg	97,122	272,873[20]	Municipality: 129,177		Sweden
26	Porsgrunn/Skien	97,043		IncludesPorsgrunn andSkien and a part ofBamble.		Norway
27	Jönköping	112,766		Municipality: 127,382		Sweden
28	Kuopio	88,520[13]	167,753[20]	Municipality: 125,462		Finland
29	Norrköping	87,247	183,100[20]	Municipality: 130,050		Sweden
30	Pori	84,190[13]		Municipality: 83,157		Finland
31	Lund	82,800		Municipality: 110,488 Included inStormalmö (Malmö Metropolitan Area).[20]		Sweden
32	Umeå	79,594		Municipality: 115,473		Sweden
33	Esbjerg	72,398		Municipality: 116,032		Denmark
34	Gävle	71,033	184,346[20]	Municipality: 95,055 Metropolitan area together withSandviken[20]		Sweden
35	Kristiansand	67,920		Municipality: 88,320		Norway
36	Joensuu	67,811[13]		Municipality: 78,398		Finland
37	Vaasa	67,690[13]		Municipality: 69,819		Finland
38	Borås	66,273		Municipality: 103,294		Sweden
39	Eskilstuna	64,679	209,028[20]	Municipality: 96,311		Sweden
40	Södertälje	64,619	-	Municipality: 86,246 No independent area, part of Greater Stockholm[20]		Sweden
41	Randers	62,687		Municipality: 98,265		Denmark
42	Karlstad	61,685	179,486[20]	Municipality: 85,753		Sweden
43	Växjö	60,887	156.629[20]	Municipality: 83,005		Sweden
44	Täby	61,272	-	Municipality: 63,789 No independent area, part of Greater Stockholm		Sweden
45	Kolding	60,508		Municipality: 92,515		Denmark
46	Halmstad	58,577	134,156[20]	Municipality: 91,800		Sweden
47	Vejle	56,567		Municipality: 114,140		Denmark
48	Horsens	55,884		Municipality: 85,662		Denmark
49	Lappeenranta	55,743[13]		Municipality: 72,909		Finland
50	Rovaniemi	52,753[13]		Municipality: 65,670		Finland
51	Kotka	51,704[13]		Municipality: 50,157		Finland
52	Sundsvall	50,712	125,812[20]	Municipality: 96,977		Sweden

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), but Statistics Sweden only releases the figures every five years. The Norwegian data is from 2013^[21] and 2018,^[22] the Danish data is from 2014,^[23] the Swedish is from 2010^[24] and the Finnish is from 2017.^[13]

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.

• Urban areas in the Nordic countries
• List of the most populated municipalities in the Nordic countries
• List of metropolitan areas in Sweden
• List of urban areas in Sweden by population
• List of urban areas in Denmark by population
• List of urban areas in Norway by population
• List of urban areas in Finland by population
• List of cities in Iceland
• List of cities in the Baltic states
• List of metropolitan areas by population

• Nordic countries
• Lists of urban areas
• Lists of cities in Scandinavia
• Cities and towns in Denmark
• Cities and towns in Finland
• Cities and towns in Norway
• Populated places in Sweden
• Lists of populated places in Denmark
• Lists of populated places in Finland
• Lists of populated places in Norway
• Lists of populated places in Sweden

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• CS1 Norwegian-language sources (no)
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• CS1 Finnish-language sources (fi)
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• Articles with unsourced statements from December 2017