European cities are vital to the future of Europe. As stated in the Leipzig Charter on Sustainable European Cities (European Union, 2007), cities ‘possess unique cultural and architectural qualities, strong forces of social inclusion and exceptional possibilities for economic development’. Moreover, cities are centres of power, knowledge, innovation and integration. It is also in cities that great strides towards sustainability can be made, as their density allows for more energy-efficient forms of housing, transport and service provision. Many cities in Europe show serious ambitions and efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. At the same time, however, these same cities often lack affordable housing and suffer from concentrations of unemployment and poverty. Furthermore, many cities have difficulties in dealing with traffic congestion, poor air quality and the effects of climate change (e.g. heat and heavy rainfall).

Cities in Europe contains 13 infographics that show facts and figures on recent urban developments in the context of the Europe 2020 strategy and the Urban Agenda for the EU, which aims to strengthen the urban dimension in the European Union. Based on the harmonised definition of urban areas by Eurostat and the OECD, European cities are compared with each other and recent trends are described, such as those in migration, risk of urban poverty and urban-rural divergence in employment growth. Furthermore, the following questions are being explored: which cities have shown strong growth in population, GDP and employment? Are the growth rates related to the size of the agglomerations? In which cities is the population showing high levels of satisfaction about quality of life? And which cities are falling behind? What types of territorial patterns can be distinguished?

This publication consists of two parts. In this part, Cities in Europe, we look at cities in a European context. The other part, Cities in the Netherlands, describes urban developments in the Netherlands in the context of the Dutch Agenda Stad, the national urban agenda for the Netherlands.