Population And Built-up Density - Cities And FUAs

This dataset provides indicators of population density and built-up area in FUAs and cities.

Data sources and methodology

FUA and city surfaces are calculated from FUA and city shapefiles, using GIS tools. Built-up data uses GHS built-up surface grids (European Commission, GHSL Data Package 2023). Population counts are extracted from the Population by age and sex - FUAs and cities dataset.

Defining FUAs and cities

The OECD, in cooperation with the EU, has developed a harmonised definition of functional urban areas (FUAs) to capture the economic and functional reach of cities based on daily commuting patterns (OECD, 2012). FUAs consist of:

1. A city – defined by urban centres in the degree of urbanisation, adapted to the closest local administrative units to define a city.
2. A commuting zone – including all local areas where at least 15% of employed residents work in the city.

The delineation process includes:

• Assigning municipalities surrounded by a single FUA to that FUA.
• Excluding non-contiguous municipalities.

The definition identifies 1 285 FUAs and 1 402 cities in all OECD member countries except Costa Rica and three accession countries.

Cite this dataset

OECD Regions, cities and local areas database (Population and built-up density - Cities and FUAs), http://oe.cd/geostats

Further information

• OECD Local Data Portal
• OECD Regions and Cities at a Glance

For questions and/or comments, please email CitiesStat@oecd.org