There are a lot of cities with a population <1 million for a statistics about cities with a population of 1million plus
It's probably metro areas vs strict municipal limits.
For example Athens' actual municipality has ~700k official residents but the city itself has ~3m residents in 40 municipalities.
Considering most of the Netherlands is practically one large metropolitan area (15-30 minute train commute between different cities for example), this is probably reasonable.
Though some population estimates have Amsterdam at above 1m since 1999 (definitely not accurate), the real numbers are published by the CBS (central bureau for statistics). And Amsterdam was at 918 117 in 2023 at the time this statistic was published.
So, close enough?
How the h*ll does Stockholm score that high, there are only hipsters and muppets living here… and I ain’t no hipster.
Oscar the grouch running Spotify? Big bird working at H&M? Some södermalm hipster working in the headquarters of some mining firm, you have never heard of?
How is Munich at the top, like the average salary is like 3K Euro net, rents are shit expensive, 2-rooms for 1.3-1.5K etc. Yes there are some extremely rich people here but I assure you that the majority who haven't been born in riches are struggling to pay their tents and live decent lives.
Rich people being there doesn't do anything by just being there, as it's about the GDP. There are some massive companies in and around Munich, but for some reason the only one that comes to mind is BMW right now. But being flat number 1 in all of the EU is still surprising, yes.
There are really some large very productive firms having a high part of their workforce in and around Munich. Except for BMW you also have Siemens, Allianz, Munich RE and MTU Aero Engines as large employers in high value added industries.
note: this data is from 2015
this chart is really enlightening to showcase to people how the uk is a "two-speed" economy, where london and south-east england basically hog all the resources, and how actually, it's (in my belief) the underlying factor for why the brexit vote went the way it did
i.e, most places in the uk are at the bottom of the pack of european cities, yet as a whole, were still expected to be the 2nd biggest contributors to the eu, and pony up funds to cities higher on this list
this inequality might be the reason some voters were very, very salty when being pleaded to vote to remain in the eu
i know in practice, the contributions are chump change when compared to national budgets, but it provided a rare source of objective, indisputable ammo that was used to nudge the needle towards leaving. it was absolute loggerheads to try and explain to anyone why i could be okay with "my taxes in birmingham being siphoned off to budapest"
(for avoidance of doubt, i voted remain)
