Greater Malmö

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Greater Malmö (Swedish: Stor-Malmö) is the metropolitan area that includes Malmö, Sweden, and much of its surroundings. The area encompasses the south-eastern part of the Scandinavian Öresund Region.

According to the definition as used by Statistics Sweden and Øresund Statistics, Greater Malmö is divided into four areas, one each for the municipalities of Malmö, Lund, and Trelleborg, and a fourth area comprising the remaining municipalities:

The metropolitan area surrounding the cities of Malmö and Lund in the southern-most part of Sweden are usually denoted as South-Western Scania (Sydvästra Skåne), or more seldom Metropolitan Malmö.

Lund, that today is the smaller city, was historically the most important in Scania, with the Lund Cathedral (and Cathedral School) from the 11th century and the Lund University established in the 17th century. Today the city of Malmö is the largest due to its strong growth during the period of industrialization from the 19th century.

Clustered along the shore of The Sound, from the medieval town of Skanör in the South to Bjärred in the North, a set of villages and towns have in the latter half of the 20th century expanded to an almost continuous set of suburbs. The commuter belt in the inland consists of more separate towns and expanded villages.

Since the 1970s, improved highways and commuter train connections have meant that commuting area has grown to include Ystad, Skurup, Sjöbo, Eslöv, Höör, Landskrona and Helsingborg. It's not uncommon to live by Malmö and work either in Ystad or Helsingborg, or vice versa. Mentally, however, these towns have kept their allegiance with older divisions of Scania. Inhabitants of Eslöv and Höör consider themselves to live in Central Scania, like Landskrona still is grouped together with Helsingborg rather than Malmö–Lund.

[edit] Statistics

Municipality	Population	Area¹	Density²
Malmö Municipality	276,244	156	1770
Lund Municipality	103,286	430	240
Trelleborg Municipality	40,320	342	117
Vellinge Municipality	32,270	143	115
Eslöv Municipality	30,437	422	72
Kävlinge Municipality	27,369	154	177
Staffanstorp Municipality	20,840	108	192
Lomma Municipality	19,434	56	347
Svedala Municipality	18,988	219	86
Burlöv Municipality	15,662	19	822
Höör Municipality	14,777	321	46
Skurup Municipality	14,703	196	75
Total	614,330	2,566	239