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This is a list of the largest 100 cities in the European Union ranked according to the population within their city limits. It deals exclusively with the areas within city administrative boundaries as opposed to urban areas or larger urban zones (metropolitan areas), which are generally larger in terms of population than the main city.
As some cities have very narrow city limits and others very wide, the list may not give an accurate view of the comparative magnitude of different places, and the figures in the list should be treated with caution. For example, Paris and Madrid constitute the most populous urban areas in the European Union, but the strict definition of the administrative limits of Paris results in a far lower population shown in the table below.
Cities by population within city limits
Note: The cities are sorted by the column labelled Official population (actual). Cities in bold are capital cities of their respective countries; Brussels (italics) is the capital of both Belgium and the EU.