Redefining urban: a new way to measure metropolitan areas. Functional Urban Areas in OECD countries. For more information on OECD's urban development work see www.oecd.org/regional/regional-policy/urbandevelopment.htm

1. Redefining urban: a new way to
measure metropolitan areas
Functional Urban Areas in OECD countries
www.oecd.org/gov/regional/measuringurban

2. 1. Policies need reflect the reality of where people live and work
(functional economic areas), as do the institutions that design
and implement such policies.
2. Individual cities are interested in comparing their
performance with “similar peers” around the world.
3. The connections between cities and with surrounding areas
can lead to important changes in how and where economic
production takes place, affecting national growth
performance and quality of life.
Why do we need to redefine urban areas
consistently across countries?

3. 3 billion and counting of the world’s population live in some form of
urban area. But around the world we don’t have the same definitions or
understandings of what these urban areas are.
1. The new OECD classification, developed with the European
Commission and member countries, identifies urban areas
beyond city boundaries, as integrated labour market areas.
2. It is applied to 28 countries and identifies 1 148 urban areas
of different size: small urban, medium-sized urban, metropolitan and
large metropolitan
3. It allows comparisons among the different forms that
urbanisation takes (densely populated centres and their
hinterlands, sprawling, polycentric connected cities, etc.)
The OECD has developed a new approach to
classifying urban areas

4. How does the new approach change
our views of cities?
Many cities don’t match the city boundaries
Source: OECD calculations based on population density disaggregated with Corine Land Cover.

5. Urban systems in a country comprise cities of different size
Korea
Old measurement method:
3 Large metropolitan regions
New measurement method:
45 Functional urban areas of different size
Seoul
Daegu
Busan

6. Urban areas can be organised around one or more densely populated
centres; the extension of the hinterlands varies greatly
Old measurement method:
4 Large metropolitan regions
New measurement method:
London
Seoul
Daegu
Busan
Urban cores
Hinterland
Leeds
Manchester
Birmingham
London

7. 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
Luxembourg
Slovak Republic
Finland
Norway
Switzerland
Ireland
Slovenia
Estonia
Netherlands
Poland
Germany
Spain
United Kingdom
Czech Republic
France
Belgium
Sweden
Italy
Mexico
Portugal
OECD 28
Canada
Austria
Hungary
United States
Japan
Greece
Denmark
Korea
Small urban areas Medium-sized urban areas Metropolitan areas Large metropolitan areas
Two-thirds of the OECD population live in urban areas,
but the urban experience is very different in each country
•Around 65% of the urban population in Korea live in large metropolitan areas;
•In most European countries around 25% of urban population live in medium-sized areas
Percentage of urban population by city size (2008)

8. 0.0%
0.5%
1.0%
1.5%
2.0%
2.5%
Small urban areas (pop
between 50,000 and 200,000)
Medium-sized urban areas
(pop between 200,000 and
500,000)
Metropolitan areas (pop
between 500,000 and 1.5 mln)
Large metropolitan areas (pop
above 1.5 mln)
Functional urban area Core Hinterland
Population growth 2000-2006 by city type and core/hinterland
(average yearly growth rates)
The urban population keeps growing, particularly in the
hinterlands of large metropolitan areas

9. Urban population density and total population in selected metro areas (2008)
• Tokyo (Japan) and Napoli (Italy) have the same urban population density (around 8 500 people
per m2 of urban area), even if Tokyo is 10 times bigger than Napoli in population size
Seoul Incheon
(KOR)
León (MEX)Bilbao (ESP)
Daegu (KOR)
Napoli (ITA)
Tokyo (JPN)
Nagoya (JPN)
Lisboa (PRT)
Lublin (POL)
Ottawa (CAN)
Berlin (DEU)
New York
(USA)
Los Angeles
(USA)
Liège (BEL)
Phoenix (USA)
Helsinki (FIN)
0 1,500 3,000 4,500 6,000 7,500 9,000 10,500 12,000 13,500 15,000
urban population density (people per km2 of urban area)
The extension of land for urban use differs greatly
and so does the urban population density

10. 47.9%
68.6%
52.3%
35.7%
53.4%
70.1%
57.9%
42.7%
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
264 46 105 113# of metro areas
POPULATION
POPULATION
POPULATION
POPULATION
GDP
GDP
GDP
GDP
OECD (28) Asia (2) North America (3) Europe (23)
Percentage of population and GDP in metro areas (2008)
48% of the OECD population live in the 264 urban areas with
a population of at least 500 000 (metro area) and these areas
account for 53% of OECD GDP

11. Metro areas tend to be wealthier than the rest of the economy
• GDP per capita premium is generally higher in metro areas (particularly in large
metropolitan areas)
•The GDP per capita premium varies by country (and continent)
11.1%
20.3%
4.7%
2.0%
32.1%
46.5%
31.9%
9.3%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
OECD (28) Europe (23) North America (3) Asia (2)
Metropolitan areas (pop between 500,000 and 1.5 mln)
Large Metropolitan Areas (pop above 1.5 mln)
Per capita GPD gap between metro areas and the rest of the economy (2008)

12. Population and GDP per capita growth in the 61 fastest -growing metro areas (with GDP
growth 25% higher than the country average GDP growth)
The most dynamic metro areas are driven by different growth models
Vancouver (CAN)
Praha (CZE)
Paris (FRA)
Lyon (FRA)
Athina (GRC)
Budapest (HUN)
Roma (ITA)
London (GBR)
Monterrey (MEX)
Portland (USA)
Denver (USA)
Phoenix (USA)
Dallas (USA)Fort Worth (USA)
Houston (USA)
San Antonio (USA)
Orlando (USA)
Edmunton (CAN)
Calgary (CAN)
Essen (DEU)
Leipzig (DEU)
Dresden (DEU)
Dortmund (DEU)
Bonn (DEU)
Karlsruhe (DEU)
Duisburg (DEU)
Münster (DEU)
Málaga (ESP)Helsinki (FIN)
Toulouse (FRA)
Rennes (FRA)
Palermo (ITA)
Edinburgh (GBR)
Portsmouth (GBR)
Naha (JPN)
Changwon (KOR)
Hermosillo (MEX)
San Luis Potosí (MEX)
Querétaro (MEX)
Veracruz (MEX)
Centro (MEX)
Salt Lake City (USA)
Las Vegas (USA)
Tulsa (USA)
Tucson (USA)
El Paso (USA)
Baton Rouge (USA)
Austin (USA)
New Orleans (USA)
Tampa (USA)
0%
1%
2%
3%
4%
5%
6%
-1% 0% 1% 2% 3% 4%
AnnualaverageGDPpercapitagrowthrate
(2000-2008)
Annual average population growth rate (2000-2008)
moderate
population
growth and high
GDP per capita
growth
high
population
and GDP per
capita growth
high population
growth and
moderate GDP
per capita
growth
moderate
population
and GDP per
capita
growth

13. • Build a dataset of economic, social and environmental
conditions for the 2 largest city types (Metro Areas Database)
• Adapt the definition of urban areas to emerging economies
• Explore other economic functions beyond commuting to
identify different typologies of areas
• Analysing links between urbanisation and development
• Opening up to further analysis on the potential of inclusive
growth in urban areas of different size and analysis of
governance structure
With the objectives of:
What future developments are expected?

14. On line report: “Redefining urban: a new way to measure
metropolitan areas” , OECD Publishing, 2012,
www.oecd.org/gov/regional/measuringurban
Interactive maps and data on metro areas
www.oecd.org/gov/regional/statisticsindicators/explorer
Find out more:
For more information on OECD work on regional and metropolitan statistics,
visit: www.oecd.org/gov/regional/statisticsindicators
For more information on OECD work on urban development,
visit: www.oecd.org/gov/urbandevelopment