The Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region (German: Metropolregion Rhein-Ruhr) is the largest metropolitan region in Germany, with over ten million inhabitants. A polycentric conurbation with several major urban concentrations, the region covers an area of 7,110 square kilometres (2,750 sq mi), entirely within the federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia. The Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region spreads from the Ruhr area (Dortmund-Bochum-Essen-Duisburg) in the north to the urban areas of the cities of Mönchengladbach, Düsseldorf (the state capital), Wuppertal, Leverkusen, Cologne (the region's largest and Germany's fourth largest city), and Bonn in the south. The location of the Rhine-Ruhr at the heart of the European Blue Banana makes it well connected to other major European cities and metropolitan areas such as the Randstad, the Flemish Diamond and the Frankfurt Rhine Main Region.

The metropolitan area is named after the Rhine and Ruhr rivers, which are the region's defining geographical features and historically its economic backbone.

The largest cities in the Rhine-Ruhr area are Cologne, with over one million inhabitants, followed by Düsseldorf, Dortmund and Essen, each of which has slightly more than 580,000.

Many unofficial compositions of the Rhine-Ruhr area differ from one another, while the officially defined border of the metropolitan area itself comprises Hamm in the east, Mönchengladbach in the west, Bonn in the south, with the small city of Wesel as its northernmost point. The northern border is similar to that of the Ruhr Area.

This first unofficial table here characterizes the Rhine-Ruhr area as comprising three regions, which together constitute an area much larger than officially defined.

Region	Major cities	Population	Area
Ruhr Metropolitan Region		5,172,745	4,435 km
	Dortmund	587,696	280 km
	Essen	588,375	210 km
	Duisburg	495,885	233 km
	Bochum	385,626	145 km
	Gelsenkirchen	268,102	105 km
	Oberhausen	212,568	77 km
Düsseldorf Metropolitan Region		2,944,700	2,404 km
	Düsseldorf	644,280	217 km
	Neuss	152,731	99 km
	Mönchengladbach	274,090	170 km
	Wuppertal	351,050	168 km
Cologne Bonn Region		2,818,178	2,920 km
	Cologne	1,089,879	405 km
	Bonn	335,975	141 km
	Leverkusen	160,819	79 km
Rhine-Ruhr		10,935,623	9,759 km

Eurostat's Urban Audit splits the Rhine-Ruhr region into six Larger Urban Zones (LUZ). None of these six Urban Zones includes the cities of Remscheid and Solingen or the district of Rhein-Kreis Neuss.

Larger Urban Zone	Major cities	Population	Area
Ruhr Larger Urban Zone		5,172,745	4,434 km
	Dortmund	587,696	280 km
	Essen	588,375	210 km
	Duisburg	495,885	233 km
Düsseldorf Larger Urban Zone		1,525,774	1,200 km
	Düsseldorf	644,280	217 km
	Neuss	152,731	99 km
	Ratingen	91,722	67 km
Mönchengladbach Larger Urban Zone		415,729	400 km
	Mönchengladbach	274,090	170 km
	Viersen	78,315	91 km
	Korschenbroich	34,324	55 km
	Wegberg	29,000	84 km
Wuppertal Larger Urban Zone		625,565	333 km
	Wuppertal	351,050	168 km
	Remscheid	112,970	75 km
	Solingen	161,545	90 km
Cologne Larger Urban Zone		1,899,930	1,627 km
	Cologne	1,089,879	405 km
Bonn Larger Urban Zone		918,248	1,295 km
	Bonn	335,975	141 km
Rhine-Ruhr		10,542,152	9,289 km

Historically, most of the Ruhr area was for the most part characterized by heavy industry since the age of industrialisation in the late 19th and early 20th century. Since the Middle Ages, Cologne, Dortmund, and other cities were important regional trading cities, but during the 19th century the city of Düsseldorf grew to become the administrative center of the region and since 1945, its political capital.

Today, the Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region accounts for roughly 15% of the GDP of the German economy, which would place it as the 2nd largest metropolitan area GDP in the European Union. Despite this size, the Rhine-Ruhr region as a whole often lacks international competitiveness because it lacks a unified presentation. Cities and urban areas within it often pursue separate investment policies against each other.

From within, Düsseldorf, Essen, and Cologne are by far the largest economic centers, with specialisation in financial/high tech and insurance/multi media services respectively. Other major economic centers are Bonn and Dortmund. The region is home to twelve Fortune Global 500 companies, among them E.ON AG (Essen), Deutsche Post AG (Bonn), Metro AG (Düsseldorf), Deutsche Telekom AG (Bonn), ThyssenKrupp AG (Essen), RWE AG (Essen), Bayer AG (Leverkusen), Franz Haniel & Cie. GmbH (Duisburg), Evonik Industries (Essen), Hochtief AG, (Essen), and the Henkel Group, (Düsseldorf).

The Rhine-Ruhr area's climate is characterized by having the warmest winters in Germany, especially its western part at the Lower Rhine area. Classified by Köppen-Geiger climate classification to be oceanic (Cfb).

Düsseldorf
Climate chart (explanation)
J F M A M J J A S O N D     55     6 2     56     8 2     50     11 3     27     16 5     43     20 9     69     24 14     54     25 14     66     25 15     44     21 11     37     15 9     46     10 5     54     8 4 █ Average max. and min. temperatures in °C █ Precipitation totals in mm Source: Weatheronline
Imperial conversion J F M A M J J A S O N D     2.2     43 35     2.2     47 35     2     52 38     1.1     60 40     1.7     67 47     2.7     75 56     2.1     78 58     2.6     77 58     1.7     70 52     1.5     60 47     1.8     51 41     2.1     47 39 █ Average max. and min. temperatures in °F █ Precipitation totals in inches

Essen
Climate chart (explanation)
J F M A M J J A S O N D     72     4 −1     52     5 0     65     9 2     57     14 5     71     18 8     85     21 11     81     23 13     75     22 13     67     19 10     66     14 7     71     8 3     81     5 1 █ Average max. and min. temperatures in °C █ Precipitation totals in mm Source: Climate-Data
Imperial conversion J F M A M J J A S O N D     2.8     40 31     2     41 31     2.6     49 36     2.2     57 40     2.8     65 47     3.3     70 52     3.2     73 56     3     72 55     2.6     67 51     2.6     58 44     2.8     47 38     3.2     42 33 █ Average max. and min. temperatures in °F █ Precipitation totals in inches

Cologne
Climate chart (explanation)
J F M A M J J A S O N D     58     5 −1     52     6 −1     52     10 2     53     14 5     66     19 8     83     22 11     78     24 13     83     23 13     63     20 10     55     15 7     66     9 3     65     5 1 █ Average max. and min. temperatures in °C █ Precipitation totals in mm Source: Climate-Data
Imperial conversion J F M A M J J A S O N D     2.3     40 31     2     42 31     2     50 35     2.1     58 40     2.6     66 47     3.3     72 52     3.1     74 56     3.3     74 55     2.5     68 50     2.2     58 44     2.6     48 38     2.6     42 33 █ Average max. and min. temperatures in °F █ Precipitation totals in inches

Dortmund
Climate chart (explanation)
J F M A M J J A S O N D     71     4 −1     52     5 −1     64     9 2     56     13 4     69     18 8     82     21 11     81     22 13     74     22 12     67     19 10     62     14 7     71     8 3     80     5 0 █ Average max. and min. temperatures in °C █ Precipitation totals in mm Source: Climate-Data
Imperial conversion J F M A M J J A S O N D     2.8     39 30     2     41 31     2.5     48 35     2.2     56 40     2.7     64 46     3.2     70 52     3.2     72 55     2.9     71 54     2.6     66 49     2.4     57 44     2.8     46 37     3.1     41 33 █ Average max. and min. temperatures in °F █ Precipitation totals in inches

The area has four international commercial airports, and several smaller aerodromes for general aviation.

Airport	IATA code	ICAO code	annual passenger traffic
Düsseldorf Airport	DUS	EDDL	25.51 M. (2019)
Cologne Bonn Airport	CGN	EDDK	12.39 M. (2019)
Dortmund Airport	DTM	EDLW	2.72 M. (2019)
Weeze Airport	NRN	EDLV	1.23 M. (2019)

The network of Autobahns in North Rhine-Westphalia is the most dense in all of Germany.

The rail, S-Bahn, U-Bahn and bus companies are administered through a consortium of local and regional transport lines, the Verkehrsverbund Rhein-Ruhr. It offers a rapid transit system which interconnects all cities and their respective local buses, trams, U- and S-Bahn systems, partly under the umbrella of Deutsche Bahn. Their systems are highly integrated where even some subway lines continue from one city to the next (for example between Düsseldorf and Duisburg or Bochum and Herne, which is unique in Germany, as the city border is crossed underground). The region is divided into several urban zones and fares are paid according to the amount of urban areas (or zones) passed through. Tickets include door to door transportation with all forms covered in one ticket with the exception of high speed rail (which only stops in the major cities). Some excursions, theatre and opera tickets as well as museums offer free transportation from any point in the Rhine Ruhr area to the venue and return.

Duisburg Inner Harbour (Duisport) and Dortmund Port are large industrial inland ports and serve as hubs along the Rhine and the German inland water transport system.

The region is host to numerous large events, comprising fun fairs and cultural events like the Cologne and Düsseldorf carnivals (carnival is however a public event in almost all cities and towns of the area), the Cologne Comedy Festival, Ruhrfestspiele Recklinghausen, and the RuhrTriennale, as well as Gamescom and other trade fairs at Koelnmesse—Cologne Trade Fair and Messe Düsseldorf; and Essen Motor Show in Essen. With a capacity of up to 20,000 people, the Lanxess Arena and Westfalenhallen are amongst the largest indoor arenas in Germany.

The region is home to a total of 13 Bundesliga football clubs, of which five are active in the season of 2017–18. The most successful among them are Borussia Dortmund, Borussia Mönchengladbach, 1. FC Köln, FC Schalke 04 and Bayer 04 Leverkusen. The Revierderby is the rivalry between Borussia Dortmund and Schalke 04, one of the most significant in German football. Westfalenstadion, the stadium of Borussia Dortmund, is the biggest stadium in Germany. The area had plans to bid for the 2032 Summer Olympics, before the IOC declared Brisbane to be the host.

Several tourist destinations within the region attract over 12 million tourists per year. Cologne Cathedral, Augustusburg and Falkenlust Palaces at Brühl and the Zollverein Coal Mine Industrial Complex at Essen are UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Other sights include Schloss Benrath in Düsseldorf and several anchor points of the European Route of Industrial Heritage.

NRW Forum, Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Kunsthalle Düsseldorf, Museum Koenig, Museum Ludwig, Romano-Germanic Museum, Wallraf-Richartz Museum, Neanderthal Museum, Museum Folkwang, Museum Ostwall, Lehmbruck Museum, German Mining Museum and Deutsches Museum Bonn are some of the most famous examples.

The Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region is home to nine universities and over 30 partly postgraduate colleges, with a total of over 300.000 students. The largest and oldest university is the University of Cologne (Universität zu Köln), founded in 1388 AD. Other universities include:

• the Ruhr University Bochum,
• the University of Bonn,
• the German Sport University Cologne,
• the Technical University of Dortmund,
• the University of Duisburg-Essen,
• the University of Düsseldorf,
• the FernUniversität Hagen and
• the University of Wuppertal.

The following register lists all municipalities that officially belong to Rhine-Ruhr area. Demographically, these municipalities include 20 cities (German: Kreisfreie Städte) each with more than 100,000 inhabitants, and 11 districts (German: Kreis), each with a population of more than 250,000 inhabitants. Some districts only belong partly to Rhine-Ruhr area. In such a case only the municipalities that belong to the metro area are listed.

Cities independent of a Kreis
Municipality	Inhabitants 31 December 2009	Surface km	Inhabitants per/ km
Bochum (BO)	376,319	145.44	2,587.45
Bonn (BN)	319,841	141.22	2,264.84
Bottrop (BOT)	117,241	100.61	1,165.3
Dortmund (DO)	581,308	280.39	2,073.21
Duisburg (DU)	491,931	232.81	2,113.01
Düsseldorf (D)	586,217	217.01	2,701.34
Essen (E)	576,259	210.38	2,739.13
Gelsenkirchen (GE)	259,744	104.86	2,477.06
Hagen (HA)	190,121	160.36	1,185.59
Hamm (HAM)	181,741	226.26	803.24
Herne (HER)	165,632	51.41	3,221.79
Cologne (K)	998,105	405.15	2,463.54
Krefeld (KR)	235,414	137.76	1,708.87
Leverkusen (LEV)	160,593	78.85	2,036.69
Mönchengladbach (MG)	258,251	170.45	1,515.11
Mülheim an der Ruhr (MH)	167,471	91.29	1,834.49
Oberhausen (OB)	214,024	77.04	2,778.09
Remscheid (RS)	111,422	74.60	1,493.59
Solingen (SG)	160,992	89.46	1,799.6
Wuppertal (W)	351,050	168.39	2,084.74
total/average	6,503,676	3,163.74	2,055.69

Kreise (districts) Municipality/Kreis (district) Inhabitants 31 December 2009 Surface per km Kreis Mettmann (ME) Erkrath 46,084 26.89 Haan 29,156 24.22 Heiligenhaus 26,818 27.47 Hilden 55,551 25.96 Langenfeld (Rheinland) 59,038 41.10 Mettmann 39,374 42.52 Monheim am Rhein 43,065 23.10 Ratingen 91,306 88.72 Velbert 84,633 74.90 Wülfrath 21,420 32.23 Kreis Unna (UN) Bergkamen 51,149 44.80 Bönen 18,630 38.02 Fröndenberg/Ruhr 22,135 56.21 Holzwickede 17,264 22.36 Kamen 44,803 40.93 Lünen 87,783 59.18 Schwerte 48,523 56.20 Selm 27,123 60.34 Unna 66,652 88.52 Werne 29,994 76.08 Ennepe-Ruhr-Kreis (EN) Ennepetal 30,778 57.42 Gevelsberg 31,651 26.29 Hattingen 55,817 71.39 Herdecke 24,794 22.40 Schwelm 29,012 20.50 Sprockhövel 25,512 47.79 Wetter 28,221 31.47 Witten 98,601 72.37

Kreise (districts) Municipality/Kreis (district) Inhabitants 31 December 2009 Surface per km Märkischer Kreis (MK) Hemer 37,459 67.56 Iserlohn 95,232 125.50 Menden 56,078 86.06 Kreis Recklinghausen (RE) Castrop-Rauxel 75,752 51.66 Datteln 35,757 66.08 Dorsten 77,308 171.19 Gladbeck 75,520 35.91 Herten 62,639 37.32 Marl, North Rhine-Westphalia 88,202 87.63 Oer-Erkenschwick 30,499 38.69 Recklinghausen 119,050 66.43 Waltrop 29,837 46.99 Rhein-Erft-Kreis (BM) Bergheim 62,143 96.33 Brühl 44,259 36.12 Erftstadt 50,754 119.88 Frechen 49,752 45.11 Hürth 57,501 51.17 Kerpen 64,669 113.94 Wesseling 35,144 23.37 Rhein-Kreis Neuss (NE) Dormagen 62,924 85.41 Grevenbroich 64,039 102.46 Kaarst 41,841 37.40 Korschenbroich 33,116 55.26 Meerbusch 54,190 64.38 Neuss 151,280 99.48

Kreise (districts) Municipality/Kreis (district) Inhabitants 31 December 2009 Surface per km Rhein-Sieg-Kreis (SU) Alfter 22,895 34.77 Bornheim 48,544 82.71 Niederkassel 37,402 35.79 Sankt Augustin 55,524 34.23 Siegburg 39,654 23.46 Troisdorf 75,150 62.17 Rheinisch-Bergischer Kreis (GL) Bergisch Gladbach 105,699 83.12 Burscheid 18,771 27.38 Leichlingen 27,476 37.33 Kreis Viersen (VIE) Kempen 36,040 68.81 Tönisvorst 30,084 44.33 Viersen 75,475 91.07 Willich 51,962 67.77 Kreis Wesel (WES) Dinslaken 69,687 47.67 Kamp-Lintfort 38,724 63.16 Moers 105,929 67.69 Neukirchen-Vluyn 27,627 43.48 Rheinberg 31,648 75.15 Voerde 37,668 53.48 Wesel 60,958 122.53 total 3,609,212 3,946.69

• History of the Ruhr
• List of metropolitan areas in Europe by population
• List of metropolitan areas in Germany
• Ruhr Valley
• Katowice-Ostrava metropolitan area

• Knapp, Wolfgang (1998). The Rhine-Ruhr area in transformation: Towards a European metropolitan region?. European Planning Studies.
• Dieleman, Frans M. (1998). Randstad, Rhine-Ruhr and Flemish diamond as one polynucleated macro-region?. Blackwell Publishing.
• Blotevogel, Hans H. (1998). The Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region: Reality and discourse. European Planning Studies.

• Megacities, University of Cologne
• Die Zukunft gehört der Metropolregion Rhein-Ruhr, Düsseldorf Regional Government
• Rhein-Ruhr, Europäische Metropolregionen in Deutschland
• Metropolregion Rhein-Ruhr - ein Kunstprodukt, Bundesamt für Bauwesen und Raumordnung (BBR)