The Upper Silesian metropolitan area is a

metropolitan area A metropolitan area or metro is a region that consists of a densely populated urban agglomeration and its surrounding territories sharing industries, commercial areas, transport network, infrastructures and housing. A metro area usually ...

in southern

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...

and northeastern

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The ...

, centered on the cities of

Katowice Katowice ( , , ; szl, Katowicy; german: Kattowitz, yi, קאַטעוויץ, Kattevitz) is the capital city of the Silesian Voivodeship in southern Poland and the central city of the Upper Silesian metropolitan area. It is the 11th most popu ...

and

Ostrava Ostrava (; pl, Ostrawa; german: Ostrau ) is a city in the north-east of the Czech Republic, and the capital of the Moravian-Silesian Region. It has about 280,000 inhabitants. It lies from the border with Poland, at the confluences of four riv ...

Silesia Silesia (, also , ) is a historical region of Central Europe that lies mostly within Poland, with small parts in the Czech Silesia, Czech Republic and Germany. Its area is approximately , and the population is estimated at around 8,000,000. S ...

and has around 5 million inhabitants. Located in the three administrative units ( NUTS-2 class): mainly Silesian Voivodeship, a small western part of

Lesser Poland Voivodeship Lesser Poland Voivodeship or Lesser Poland Province (in pl, województwo małopolskie ), also known as Małopolska, is a voivodeship (province), in southern Poland. It has an area of , and a population of 3,404,863 (2019). It was created on 1 ...

and a small east part of Moravian-Silesian Region. The Polycentric metropolitan area lies within the

Upper Silesian Coal Basin The Upper Silesian Coal Basin ( pl, Górnośląskie Zagłębie Węglowe, GZW, cs, Hornoslezská uhelná pánev) is a coal basin in Silesia, in Poland and the Czech Republic.Kraków metropolitan area Kraków Metropolitan Area (pl. ''Krakowski Obszar Metropolitalny'') is a peculiar functional region including a big city - Kraków and neighbouring complex of settling units, connected with the metropolis by different interactive relations. Area ...

(1.3 million

European Spatial Planning Observation Network The European Observation Network for Territorial Development and Cohesion, ESPON for short, is a European funded programme under the objective of "European Territorial Cooperation" of the Cohesion Policy of the European Union. It is co-funded by the ...

(ESPON
"''ESPON project 1.4.3. Study on Urban Functions''"
– Final report, March 2007,

Eurostat Eurostat ('European Statistical Office'; DG ESTAT) is a Directorate-General of the European Commission located in the Kirchberg, Luxembourg, Kirchberg quarter of Luxembourg City, Luxembourg. Eurostat's main responsibilities are to provide stati ...

Urban Audit database
, accessed on 2009-03-12. Data for 2004."''Społeczne i polityczne zróżnicowanie aglomeracji w Polsce"'' – Paweł Swianiewicz, Urszula Klimska
;

University of Warsaw The University of Warsaw ( pl, Uniwersytet Warszawski, la, Universitas Varsoviensis) is a public university in Warsaw, Poland. Established in 1816, it is the largest institution of higher learning in the country offering 37 different fields of ...

2005 people) and

Częstochowa Częstochowa ( , ; german: Tschenstochau, Czenstochau; la, Czanstochova) is a city in southern Poland on the Warta River with 214,342 inhabitants, making it the thirteenth-largest city in Poland. It is situated in the Silesian Voivodeship (adm ...

metropolitan area (0.4 million people) create a great metropolitan area covering 7 million people.

Statistics

Upper

n metropolitan area has a population of 5,294,000, with 4,311,000 (81.43%) in Poland (the Upper Silesian polycentric metropolitan area) and 982,000 (18.57%) in the Czech Republic (Ostrava Functional Urban Area). According to Polish Scientific Publishers (PWN) area is 5,400 km², with 4,500 km² (83.33%) in Poland and 900 km² (16.67%) in the Czech Republic."''Górnośląskie Zagłębie Węglowe''"
– PWN Encyclopedia According to the

Brookings Institution The Brookings Institution, often stylized as simply Brookings, is an American research group founded in 1916. Located on Think Tank Row in Washington, D.C., the organization conducts research and education in the social sciences, primarily in e ...

, area has a population of 5,008,000. The area consists of several Functional Urban Areas (FUA), each of which is defined as a core Morphological Urban Area (MUA) based on population density plus the surrounding labour pool, i.e. a

. This area contains the following FUAs: *Katowice FUA: 3,029,000 (see also

Katowice urban area The Katowice urban area ( pl, Konurbacja katowicka, ), also known as the Upper Silesian urban area ( pl, Konurbacja górnośląska, ), is an urban area/conurbation in southern Poland, centered on Katowice. It is located in the Silesian Voi ...

); within Upper Silesian Industrial Region *

Bielsko-Biała Bielsko-Biała (; cs, Bílsko-Bělá, german: Bielitz-Biala, szl, Bjylsko-Bjoło) is a city in southern Poland, with a population of approximately 168,319 as of December 2021, making it the 22nd largest city in Poland, and an area of . It is a ...

FUA and Cieszyn FUA: 647,000 (584,000 + 63,000); within north of Cieszyn Silesia and Bielsko Industrial Region * Rybnik FUA,

Wodzisław Śląski Wodzisław Śląski (; german: Loslau, cs, Vladislav, la, Vladislavia, yi, וואידסלוב, Voydislav, szl, Władźisłůw) is a city in Silesian Voivodeship, southern Poland with 47,992 inhabitants (2019). It is the seat of Wodzisław Cou ...

and Racibórz FUA: 634,000 (526,000 + 109,000); within Rybnik Coal Area * Ostrava FUA: 982,000; within Ostrava-Karviná Coal Area Data may vary depending on the source, example for same the Katowice city exist sources for 3.5 million people;"''Górnośląski Okręg Przemysłowy''"
– PWN Encyclopedia for the Rybnik – 507,000, while for the Ostrava – 1,153,876.

Economy

Historically, most of the area was characterized by heavy industry since the age of industrialisation in the late 19th and early 20th century. In addition to coal, Upper Silesia also contains a number of other minable resources (methane, cadmium, lead, silver and zinc). Resources of coal to a depth to 1000 meters – about 70 billion tons, the conditions for the extraction – good.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Silesian Metropolitan Area Metropolitan areas of Poland Geography of Silesian Voivodeship Moravian-Silesian Region Transborder agglomerations

Statistics

Economy

See also

References