List of urban areas in the Nordic countries

This is a list of urban areas in the Nordic countries by population. The population is measured on a national level, independently by each country's statistical bureau. Statistics Sweden uses the term tätort (urban settlement), Statistics Finland also uses tätort in Swedish and taajama in Finnish, Statistics Denmark uses byområde (city), while Statistics Norway uses tettsted (urban settlement).

Population density in the Nordic countries.

The Stockholm urban area (in blue), the largest urban area in the Nordic countries. The area includes land both inside and outside of the municipality of Stockholm.

A uniform statistical definition between the Nordic countries was agreed upon in 1960,[1] which defines an urban area as a continuous built-up area whose population is at least 200 inhabitants and where the maximum distance between residences is 200 metres; discounting roads, parking spaces, parks, sports grounds and cemeteries – without regard to the ward, municipal or county boundaries.[1][2] Despite the uniform definition, the various statistical bureaus have different approaches in conducting these measurements, resulting in slight variation between the countries.[lower-alpha 1]

The Nordic definition is unique to these countries, and should not be confused with the international concepts of metropolitan area or urban areas in general. In 2010, Finland changed its definition (stat.fi). This means that according to official statistics, the land area covered by urban areas is three times larger in Finland than in Norway though the total urban population is roughly the same (ssb.no). It also means that while the population of Danish “byområder” is usually less than half of the population of the “functional urban area” defined by Eurostat, the population of a Finnish “tätort” is usually around 80% of the respective “functional urban area” defined by Eurostat. In 2013, the “functional urban area” of Aarhus thus had a population of 845,971 while the “functional urban area” of Tampere had a population of 364,992. According to official statistics, however, the “tätort” Tampere is larger than the “byområde” Aarhus (eurostat.ec). This suggests that direct comparison between Finland and the other Nordic countries may be problematic.