A conurbation is a region consisting of a number of metropolises, cities, large towns, and other urban areas which, through population growth and physical expansion, have merged to form one continuous urban or industrially developed area. In most cases, a conurbation is a polycentric urbanised area in which transportation has developed to link areas. They create a single urban labour market or travel to work area.
Conurbations often emerged in coal-mining regions during the period of the Industrial Revolution., Final Report, p. 145 Patrick Geddes coined the term in his book Cities in Evolution (1915). He drew attention to the ability of the new technology at the time of electric power and motorised transport to allow cities to spread and agglomerate together, and gave as examples "Midlandton" in England, the Ruhr in Germany, Randstad in the Netherlands, and the Northeastern Seaboard in the United States.
For census purposes, the term as described is used in Britain, whereas in the United States a related concept of metropolitan area is used instead. Each polycentric "metropolitan area" may have its own common designation such as San Francisco Bay Area or the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. Internationally the term "urban agglomeration" is often used to convey a similar meaning to "conurbation".
A conurbation is different from a megalopolis in that the urban areas of a megalopolis are close but not physically contiguous, and labor markets have not yet merged. The region structure should also be contrasted with a megacity, as a megacity is hierarchical with a dominant urban core, whereas a conurbation is polycentric and no single urban centre has the dominant role over all other centres.
Africa
Algeria The capital city of Algiers forms a massive conurbation with the surrounding cities of Blida, Boumerdès, and Tipaza. This continuous urban area, often referred to as the Greater Algiers metropolitan region (Le Grand Alger), has merged through extensive suburban expansion, shared transportation networks, and industrial corridors along the Mitidja plain, creating an integrated economic hub with a population exceeding 8 million.
Congo-Democratic Republic of Congo The capital cities of Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Brazzaville in the Republic of the Congo form a conurbation.
Morocco In Rabat-Salé-Kénitra administrative region, the capital city of Rabat and the city of Salé, both located at the mouth of the river Bou Regreg, form a conurbation.
Nigeria Lagos is a conurbation formed through the merged development of the initial Lagos city area with other cities and towns including Ikeja and Ojo. Also various suburban communities such as Agege, Alimosho, Ifako-Ijaiye, Kosofe, Mushin, Oshodi, and Shomolu are included in the area.
South Africa Johannesburg, Ekurhuleni (East Rand), and Tshwane (greater Pretoria) merged to form a region that has a population of 14.6 million.
Asia
Bangladesh
The city of Dhaka is linked with Narayanganj and Gazipur; there are no gaps between Dhaka and the two cities. This conurbation which consists of the areas of the city of Dhaka and its surrounding cities and towns is collectively knowns as the Greater Dhaka City. The city of Dhaka is the core city of the conurbation and has a population of about 10 million. The satellite cities of the conurbation include Narayanganj, Gazipur, Tongi, Fatullah, Keraniganj, Tarabo, and Kaliganj.
China There are 3 well-known conurbations in China. The Yangtze River Delta consisting of Shanghai, Nanjing, Hangzhou, and Ningbo houses 150 million people and in 2016 it generated $2.76 trillion, 20 percent of China's national GDP. It is responsible for one-third of China's imports and exports. The Jingjinji, consisting of Tianjin, Beijing, Tangshan, and Qinhuangdao houses an estimated 130 million people and is responsible for a GDP of $1.1 trillion. The Pearl River Delta including Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Dongguan, Hong Kong, and Macau houses 60 million people and is responsible for a GDP of $1.5 trillion, 9% of China's national GDP.
India The Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) consists of Mumbai and its satellite towns. Developing over a period of about 20 years, it consists of seven municipal corporations and fifteen smaller municipal councils. The region has an area of 4,355 km2 and with a population of 20.5 million, and is among the top ten most populated urban agglomerations in the world. It is linked together through the Mumbai Suburban Railway system and a large network of roads.
The National Capital Region (NCR) is a name for the coordinated planning region which encompasses the entire National Capital Territory of Delhi as well as several surrounding districts in the neighbouring states of Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Rajasthan. However, the conurbation of Delhi is actually limited to the NCT of Delhi and the neighbouring contiguous urban areas comprising Gurgaon, Faridabad, Noida, Greater Noida and Ghaziabad. The area is officially known as the Central National Capital Region (CNCR), a small part of overall NCR. The population of this conurbation was estimated 21.7 million in 2011. It is the world's third most populous urban agglomeration.
The Amaravati Metropolitan Region (AMR) of Andhra Pradesh is a conurbation of three cities, namely Vijayawada, Eluru and Guntur and 11 other towns which include Mangalagiri, Tadepalle, Tenali, Ponnuru, Chilakaluripeta, Narasaraopeta, Sattenapally, Nandigama, Jaggayyapeta, Nuzividu, Gudivada and Vuyyuru. The new capital city of the state, Amaravati, is being developed between the cities of Vijayawada and Guntur at the center of the conurbation. The region holds a total population of 5.8 million.
The Jamshedpur Metropolitan Area has Greater Jamshedpur and it contains the area and city of Adityapur, Maango, and Jugsalai.
Indonesia Greater Jakarta or Jabodetabek comprises the largest urban area in Indonesia and the second-largest in the world with a population of around 30 million. The center and national capital, Jakarta, has a population of 10.3 million within its borders.
The second-most populated city in Indonesia, Surabaya, also forms a conurbation known as Gerbangkertosusila with a metropolitan population of about 10 million compared to the city proper of 3 million. Conurbations are also present around Bandung and Medan.
Europe
Germany The Ruhr region (Ruhrgebiet) is a major conurbation located in the federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It consists of several large cities of similar size — including Dortmund, Essen, Duisburg, Bochum, Gelsenkirchen, and Oberhausen — that have gradually grown together to form a continuous urban area. With no single dominant core city, the Ruhr represents a classical polycentric conurbation. It developed as a major coal and steel industrial center during the 19th and 20th centuries, and remains one of the most densely urbanized regions in Europe.
The Ruhr covers an area of approximately and has a population of around 5.1 million people as of 2023. Unlike the broader Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region, which includes both conurbations and monocentric metropolitan areas such as Cologne, the Ruhr region itself is specifically characterized by its polycentric, conurbation structure.
The Netherlands The Randstad ("Rim City" or "Edge City") is a roughly crescent- or arc-shaped conurbation in the Netherlands, that includes almost half the country's population. With a central-western location, it connects and comprises the Netherlands' four biggest cities (Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague, and Utrecht), their suburbs, and many towns in between, that all grew and merged into each other. Among other things, it includes the Port of Rotterdam (the world's busiest seaport outside Asia), the Port of Amsterdam (Europe's fourth-busiest seaport), and Amsterdam Airport Schiphol. With a population of approximately 8.4 million people it is one of the largest metropolitan regions in Europe, comparable in population size to the Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region or the San Francisco Bay Area, and covers an area of approximately . The Randstad had a gross regional domestic product of €510 billion in 2022, making it the second most productive region in the European Union, only behind the Paris metropolitan area. It encompasses both the Amsterdam metropolitan area and Rotterdam–The Hague metropolitan area.
United Kingdom
Industrial and housing growth in the United Kingdom during the 19th and early 20th centuries produced many conurbations. Greater London is by far the largest urban area and is usually counted as a conurbation in statistical terms, but differs from the others in the degree to which it is focused on a single central area. In the mid-1950s the Green Belt was introduced to stem the further urbanisation of the countryside in South East England.
Different organisations define conurbations in the UK differently for example, the Liverpool–Manchester or the Manchester–Liverpool conurbation is defined as one conurbation by AESOP in a comparison report published by the University of Manchester in 2005 found here. The Liverpool–Manchester Conurbation has a population of 5.68 million.
North America Canada Golden Horseshoe (Ontario) The Golden Horseshoe is a densely populated and industrialized region centred on the west end of Lake Ontario in Southern Ontario, Canada. The largest cities in the region are Toronto, Mississauga, Brampton, Hamilton, Oakville, Burlington, St. Catharines, and Niagara Falls. If metropolitan areas (which are somewhat distinct from the core urban area of the Golden Horseshoe by about 30 to 50 km of less developed and semi-rural land) are included (similar to Combined Metropolitan Statistical Areas in the United States as defined by United States Office of Management and Budget), the total population is 8.8 million people. This is slightly over a quarter (25.6%) of the population of Canada, approximately 75% of Ontario's population, and one of the largest metropolitan areas in North America.
The larger area is named the Greater Golden Horseshoe and includes the metropolitan areas of Kitchener (including adjacent cities it is often referred to as Waterloo Region), Barrie, Guelph, Peterborough, and Brantford. The Greater Golden Horseshoe is also part of the Windsor-Quebec Corridor and its southeastern boundary is across the Niagara River from the Buffalo–Niagara Falls metropolitan area in the United States.
The Golden Horseshoe in turn includes smaller conurbations. For example, Kitchener, Waterloo and Cambridge, the three cities in Southern Ontario (located halfway from London to Toronto), although administratively independent, have a unified urban transit system (including ION light rail transit) and multiple public services under the umbrella of the Waterloo Region, rather than each having their own. The region in turn has multiple connections with neighboring regions, reaching as far as to Guelph in the east and Stratford in the west (for example, the International Languages program in WCDSB is available to children from those neighboring cities, as they do not offer such programs of their own).
Greater Montreal (Quebec) Greater Montreal is Canada's second-largest conurbation. Statistics Canada defines the Census Metropolitan Area (CMA) as having and a population of 3,824,221 as of 2011, which represents almost half of the population of the province of Quebec. Slightly smaller, there are 82 municipalities grouped under the Montreal Metropolitan Community to coordinate issues such as land planning, transportation, and economic development.
Lower Mainland (British Columbia)