The Madrid metropolitan area is a monocentric metropolitan area in the centre of the Iberian peninsula, around the

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality' ...

Madrid Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...

, Spain. It is not related to any sort of administrative delimitation, and thus, its limits are ambiguous. According to data from the

OECD The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD; , OCDE) is an international organization, intergovernmental organization with 38 member countries, founded in 1961 to stimulate economic progress and international trade, wor ...

it has an estimated 2021 population of 6,980,646 people and covers an area of . It is considered the largest

metropolitan area A metropolitan area or metro is a region consisting of a densely populated urban area, urban agglomeration and its surrounding territories which share Industry (economics), industries, commercial areas, Transport infrastructure, transport network ...

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

, the 2nd largest in the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

and the 54th largest in the world. Two distinct zones of urbanisation can be distinguished extending further than the municipality of Madrid: * Inner ring (): Alcorcón, Leganés,

Getafe Getafe () is a municipalities in Spain, municipality and a city in Spain belonging to the Community of Madrid. , it has a population of 180,747, the region's sixth most populated municipality. Getafe is located 13 km south of Madrid's city c ...

Móstoles Móstoles () is a municipalities of Spain, municipality of Spain located in the Community of Madrid. With over 200,000 inhabitants, it is the region's second most populated municipality after Madrid. Móstoles was a small town for a long time, but ...

, Fuenlabrada, Coslada, Alcobendas,

Pozuelo de Alarcón Pozuelo de Alarcón () is a municipality in the Community of Madrid, Spain. Bordering the Moncloa-Aravaca district of Madrid proper to its west, Pozuelo de Alarcón is surrounded by large Mediterranean pine-tree forests: the Casa de Campo, the M ...

, San Fernando de Henares * Outer ring (): Villaviciosa de Odón,

Parla Parla () is a municipality in the Community of Madrid, Spain. It is located in the southern part of the region, approximately 20 km from the capital, Madrid. History Origins Earliest evidence of human occupation includes stone tools m ...

, Pinto,

Valdemoro Valdemoro is a municipal district, located in the Southern zone of the Madrid (autonomous community), autonomous community of Madrid, Spain. Located 27 kilometers from the Madrid, capital, Valdemoro is officially part of the comarca of La Sagra, ...

, Rivas-Vaciamadrid, Torrejón de Ardoz,

Alcalá de Henares Alcalá de Henares () is a Spanish municipality of the Community of Madrid. Housing is primarily located on the right (north) bank of the Henares River, Henares. , it has a population of 193,751, making it the region's third-most populated Municip ...

, San Sebastián de los Reyes,

Tres Cantos Tres Cantos () is a Municipalities of Spain, municipality of Spain located in Community of Madrid. Originally belonging to Colmenar Viejo, it seceded from the latter municipality in 1991, becoming the youngest municipality in the region. The urban ...

, Las Rozas de Madrid,

Majadahonda Majadahonda () is a municipality in Spain, situated northwest of Madrid, in the Community of Madrid. It lies alongside the motorway A6 Madrid- A Coruña. The Puerta de Hierro university (public) hospital was relocated to Majadahonda from the ...

, Boadilla del Monte, Collado Villalba. According to the issue 39 of the Economic Barometer of the City of Madrid, which divides a Madrid "metropolitan region" in 5 areas, the 3rd area exceeds the administrative limits of the Community of Madrid. The largest

suburb A suburb (more broadly suburban area) is an area within a metropolitan area. They are oftentimes where most of a metropolitan areas jobs are located with some being predominantly residential. They can either be denser or less densely populated ...

s are to the south, and in general along the main motorways leading out of Madrid. The GDP of the metropolitan area of Madrid was estimated to be €210 billion in 2020 and represents over 95% of the GDP of the region of Madrid. The GDP per capita was 37,758 euros in the metropolitan area while it reached 30,453 euros for the Madrid region, the

Community of Madrid The Community of Madrid (; ) is one of the seventeen autonomous communities and 50 provinces of Spain, provinces of Spain. It is located at the heart of the Iberian Peninsula and Meseta Central, Central Plateau (); its capital and largest munici ...

. In regard to the Madrid functional urban area (FUA), that is, the wider commuting zone, the territory has experienced by the turn of the 21st century an increase of extensive suburbanisation with a larger share of inhabitants living more than 25km away from the functional urban centre as well as the deepening of the traditional NW-SE socio-spatial segregation pattern. Another challenge is the lack of

environmental sustainability Sustainability is a social goal for people to co-exist on Earth over a long period of time. Definitions of this term are disputed and have varied with literature, context, and time. Sustainability usually has three dimensions (or pillars): env ...

of the current mobility model.

References

AUDES5 project.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Madrid Metropolitan Area Geography of the Community of Madrid Metropolitan areas of Spain