Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region Metropolregion Rhein-Ruhr | |
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 The Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region ofGermany | |
| Coordinates:51°27′N6°53′E / 51.450°N 6.883°E /51.450; 6.883 | |
| Country |  Germany |
| State |  North Rhine-Westphalia |
| Largest cities | Cologne Düsseldorf Dortmund Essen Duisburg Bochum Wuppertal Bonn |
| Area | |
| • Metro | 7,110 km2 (2,750 sq mi) |
| Highest elevation | 494 m (1,621 ft) |
| Lowest elevation | 20 m (70 ft) |
| Population (2021) | |
| • Metro | 11,300,000 |
| • Metro density | 1,600/km2 (4,100/sq mi) |
| GDP | |
| • Metro | €536.431 billion (2021) |
| Time zone | UTC+1 (CET) |
TheRhine-Ruhr metropolitan region (German:Metropolregion Rhein-Ruhr) is thelargest metropolitan region inGermany, with over ten million inhabitants.[2] Apolycentricconurbation with several major urban concentrations, the region covers an area of 7,110 square kilometres (2,750 sq mi), entirely within the federal state ofNorth Rhine-Westphalia. The Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region spreads from theRuhr area (Dortmund-Bochum-Essen-Duisburg) in the north to the urban areas of the cities ofMönchengladbach,Düsseldorf (the state capital),Wuppertal,Leverkusen,Cologne (the region's largest and Germany's fourth largest city), andBonn in the south. The location of the Rhine-Ruhr at the heart of the EuropeanBlue Banana makes it well connected to other major European cities and metropolitan areas such as theRandstad, theFlemish Diamond and theFrankfurt Rhine Main Region.
The metropolitan area is named after theRhine andRuhr rivers, which are the region's defining geographical features and historically its economic backbone.
The largest cities in the Rhine-Ruhr area areCologne, with over one million inhabitants, followed byDüsseldorf,Dortmund andEssen, each of which has slightly more than 580,000.
Many unofficial compositions of the Rhine-Ruhr area differ from one another, while the officially defined border of the metropolitan area itself comprisesHamm in the east,Mönchengladbach in the west,Bonn in the south, with the small city ofWesel as its northernmost point. The northern border is similar to that of theRuhr Area.
This first unofficial table here characterizes the Rhine-Ruhr area as comprising three regions, which together constitute an area much larger than officially defined.
| Region | Major cities | Population | Area |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ruhr Metropolitan Region[3] | 5,172,745 | 4,435 km2 | |
| Dortmund | 587,696 | 280 km2 | |
| Essen | 588,375 | 210 km2 | |
| Duisburg | 495,885 | 233 km2 | |
| Bochum | 385,626 | 145 km2 | |
| Gelsenkirchen | 268,102 | 105 km2 | |
| Oberhausen | 212,568 | 77 km2 | |
| Düsseldorf Metropolitan Region | 2,944,700 | 2,404 km2 | |
| Düsseldorf | 644,280 | 217 km2 | |
| Neuss | 152,731 | 99 km2 | |
| Mönchengladbach | 274,090 | 170 km2 | |
| Wuppertal | 351,050 | 168 km2 | |
| Cologne Bonn Region[4] | 2,818,178 | 2,920 km2 | |
| Cologne | 1,089,879 | 405 km2 | |
| Bonn | 335,975 | 141 km2 | |
| Leverkusen | 160,819 | 79 km2 | |
| Rhine-Ruhr | 10,935,623 | 9,759 km2 | |
Eurostat'sUrban Audit splits the Rhine-Ruhr region into sixLarger Urban Zones (LUZ). None of these six Urban Zones includes the cities ofRemscheid andSolingen or the district ofRhein-Kreis Neuss.
| Larger Urban Zone | Major cities | Population | Area |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ruhr Larger Urban Zone[5][6] | 5,172,745 | 4,434 km2 | |
| Dortmund | 587,696 | 280 km2 | |
| Essen | 588,375 | 210 km2 | |
| Duisburg | 495,885 | 233 km2 | |
| Düsseldorf Larger Urban Zone[7][8] | 1,525,774 | 1,200 km2 | |
| Düsseldorf | 644,280 | 217 km2 | |
| Neuss | 152,731 | 99 km2 | |
| Ratingen | 91,722 | 67 km2 | |
| Mönchengladbach Larger Urban Zone[9][10] | 415,729 | 400 km2 | |
| Mönchengladbach | 274,090 | 170 km2 | |
| Viersen | 78,315 | 91 km2 | |
| Korschenbroich | 34,324 | 55 km2 | |
| Wegberg | 29,000 | 84 km2 | |
| Wuppertal Larger Urban Zone[11][12] | 625,565 | 333 km2 | |
| Wuppertal | 351,050 | 168 km2 | |
| Remscheid | 112,970 | 75 km2 | |
| Solingen | 161,545 | 90 km2 | |
| Cologne Larger Urban Zone[13][14] | 1,899,930 | 1,627 km2 | |
| Cologne | 1,089,879 | 405 km2 | |
| Bonn Larger Urban Zone[15][16] | 918,248 | 1,295 km2 | |
| Bonn | 335,975 | 141 km2 | |
| Rhine-Ruhr | 10,542,152 | 9,289 km2 | |
Historically, most of theRuhr area was for the most part characterized by heavy industry since the age of industrialisation in the late 19th and early 20th century. Since the Middle Ages, Cologne, Dortmund, and other cities were important regional trading cities, but during the 19th century the city of Düsseldorf grew to become the administrative center of the region and since 1945, its political capital.
Today, the Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region accounts for roughly 15% of theGDP of theGerman economy, which would place it as the2nd largest metropolitan area GDP in the European Union after theParis region. Despite this size, the Rhine-Ruhr region as a whole often lacks international competitiveness because it lacks a unified presentation. Cities and urban areas within it often pursue separate investment policies against each other.[17]
From within, Düsseldorf, Essen, and Cologne are by far the largest economic centers,[18] with specialisation in financial/high tech and insurance/multi media services respectively. Other major economic centers are Bonn and Dortmund. The region is home to twelveFortune Global 500 companies,[19] among themE.ON AG (Essen),Deutsche Post AG (Bonn),Metro AG (Düsseldorf),Deutsche Telekom AG (Bonn),ThyssenKrupp AG (Essen),RWE AG (Essen),Bayer AG (Leverkusen),Franz Haniel & Cie. GmbH (Duisburg),Evonik Industries (Essen),Hochtief AG, (Essen), and theHenkel Group, (Düsseldorf).
The Rhine-Ruhr area's climate is characterized by having the warmest winters in Germany, especially its western part at theLower Rhine area. Classified byKöppen-Geiger climate classification to beoceanic (Cfb).
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| Cologne | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Dortmund | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The area has four international commercial airports, and several smalleraerodromes forgeneral aviation.
| Airport | IATA code | ICAO code | annual passenger traffic |
|---|---|---|---|
| Düsseldorf Airport | DUS | EDDL | 25.51M. (2019) |
| Cologne Bonn Airport | CGN | EDDK | 12.39 M. (2019) |
| Dortmund Airport | DTM | EDLW | 2.72 M. (2019) |
The network ofAutobahns in North Rhine-Westphalia is the most dense in all of Germany.
The rail, S-Bahn, U-Bahn and bus companies are administered through a consortium of local and regional transport lines, theVerkehrsverbund Rhein-Ruhr. It offers arapid transit system which interconnects all cities and their respective local buses, trams, U- and S-Bahn systems, partly under the umbrella of Deutsche Bahn. Their systems are highly integrated where even some subway lines continue from one city to the next (for example between Düsseldorf and Duisburg or Bochum and Herne, which is unique in Germany, as the city border is crossed underground). The region is divided into several urban zones and fares are paid according to the amount of urban areas (or zones) passed through. Tickets include door to door transportation with all forms covered in one ticket with the exception of high speed rail (which only stops in the major cities). Some excursions, theatre and opera tickets as well as museums offer free transportation from any point in the Rhine Ruhr area to the venue and return.
Duisburg Inner Harbour (Duisport) andDortmund Port are large industrial inland ports and serve as hubs along the Rhine and the German inland water transport system.
The region is host to numerous large events, comprising fun fairs and cultural events like theCologne and Düsseldorf carnivals (carnival is however a public event in almost all cities and towns of the area), theCologne Comedy Festival,Ruhrfestspiele Recklinghausen, and theRuhrTriennale, as well asGamescom and other trade fairs at Koelnmesse—Cologne Trade Fair andMesse Düsseldorf; andEssen Motor Show in Essen. With a capacity of up to 20,000 people, theLanxess Arena andWestfalenhallen are amongst the largest indoor arenas in Germany.
The region is home to a total of 13Bundesliga football clubs, of which five are active in the season of 2017–18.The most successful among them areBorussia Dortmund,Borussia Mönchengladbach,1. FC Köln,FC Schalke 04 andBayer 04 Leverkusen. TheRevierderby is the rivalry between Borussia Dortmund and Schalke 04, one of the most significant in German football.Westfalenstadion, the stadium of Borussia Dortmund, is the biggest stadium in Germany. The area had plans to bid for the 2032 Summer Olympics, before the IOC declaredBrisbane to be the host.[24]
Several tourist destinations within the region attract over 12 million tourists per year.Cologne Cathedral,Augustusburg and Falkenlust Palaces atBrühl and theZollverein Coal Mine Industrial Complex at Essen areUNESCO World Heritage Sites. Other sights includeSchloss Benrath in Düsseldorf and several anchor points of theEuropean Route of Industrial Heritage.
NRW Forum,Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen,Kunsthalle Düsseldorf,Museum Koenig,Museum Ludwig,Romano-Germanic Museum,Wallraf-Richartz Museum,Neanderthal Museum,Museum Folkwang,Museum Ostwall,Lehmbruck Museum,German Mining Museum andDeutsches Museum Bonn are some of the most famous examples.
The Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region is home tonine universities and over 30 partly postgraduate colleges, with a total of over 300.000 students. The largest and oldest university is theUniversity of Cologne(Universität zu Köln), founded in 1388 AD. Other universities include:
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The following register lists all municipalities that officially belong to Rhine-Ruhr area. Demographically, these municipalities include 20 cities (German:Kreisfreie Städte) eachwith more than 100,000 inhabitants, and 11 districts (German:Kreis), each with a population of more than 250,000 inhabitants. Some districts only belong partly to Rhine-Ruhr area. In such a case only the municipalities that belong to the metro area are listed.
| Cities independent of a Kreis | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Municipality | Inhabitants 31 December 2009[25] | Surface km2 | Inhabitants per/ km2 |
| Bochum (BO) | 376,319 | 145.44 | 2,587.45 |
| Bonn (BN) | 319,841 | 141.22 | 2,264.84 |
| Bottrop (BOT) | 117,241 | 100.61 | 1,165.3 |
| Dortmund (DO) | 581,308 | 280.39 | 2,073.21 |
| Duisburg (DU) | 491,931 | 232.81 | 2,113.01 |
| Düsseldorf (D) | 586,217 | 217.01 | 2,701.34 |
| Essen (E) | 576,259 | 210.38 | 2,739.13 |
| Gelsenkirchen (GE) | 259,744 | 104.86 | 2,477.06 |
| Hagen (HA) | 190,121 | 160.36 | 1,185.59 |
| Hamm (HAM) | 181,741 | 226.26 | 803.24 |
| Herne (HER) | 165,632 | 51.41 | 3,221.79 |
| Cologne (K) | 998,105 | 405.15 | 2,463.54 |
| Krefeld (KR) | 235,414 | 137.76 | 1,708.87 |
| Leverkusen (LEV) | 160,593 | 78.85 | 2,036.69 |
| Mönchengladbach (MG) | 258,251 | 170.45 | 1,515.11 |
| Mülheim an der Ruhr (MH) | 167,471 | 91.29 | 1,834.49 |
| Oberhausen (OB) | 214,024 | 77.04 | 2,778.09 |
| Remscheid (RS) | 111,422 | 74.60 | 1,493.59 |
| Solingen (SG) | 160,992 | 89.46 | 1,799.6 |
| Wuppertal (W) | 351,050 | 168.39 | 2,084.74 |
| total/average | 6,503,676 | 3,163.74 | 2,055.69 |
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{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
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