Thanks. At first I thought most of the population was on the Asian side, but apparently 2/3rds is on the European side. I added Istanbul to the list, dividing their GDP figure by 2/3rds.
If I'm reading http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/Research/Files/Reports/2012/11/30%20global%20metro%20monitor/30%20global%20monitor%20appendixc.pdf right, "Karlsruhe" is what Brookings now calls the Rhein-Neckar metro area, which is weird because https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhine-Neckar omits Karlsruhe from that metro area.
What's in Karlsruhe anyway? A federal court and a pretty park. If I think about economy, Ludwigshafen comes to mind with its giant BASF plant... Mannheim maybe.
The region of Mannheim/Ludwigshafen/Heidelberg, including some smaller surrounding towns, is usually considered as the Rhine-Neckar metropolitan area. There are historical ties connecting the region, and the public transit network reflects the strong bond between the major cities of the area.
Karlsruhe is usually not considered as part of the area, though it is close and economically successful. Including Karlsruhe is probably not wrong, but I would not choose it as a representative due to its "outlier" status (less historical ties, geographical distance from and public transit connections to the region's core of Mannheim/Ludwigshafen/Heidelberg).
And once again I forgot that the Netherlands and Belgium existed. This is getting sad...especially since there was a Dutch foreign exchange student in my choir class all year one time, and also I have some Dutch ancestors.
I got Birmingham but I was surprised to see the vestiges of the industrial revolution here. London is of course the center of everything - effectively, it's the UK/European equivalent of NYC's financial power plus the political center of DC plus the entertainment industry of LA and the transportation hub of Chicago, all in one place. Really, it's a little surprising to me that more economic activity doesn't spill over into the secondary cities of the UK.
That is one of the big political issues in Britain at the moment. It hasn't always been this way, but since about the 1950s Britain's political focus has been very much on Europe, which has entailed as much as possible happening in the south-east of England. That might change now if the focus moves away to the outside world - in the 19th century places like Manchester, Liverpool and Glasgow, the big north-western ports, were where a lot of the action was, as they were our gateway to the outside world. They have largely been replaced by Dover and Felixstowe, as they face Europe.
What is urban area? In a different quiz, it was about population. In that quiz Rotterdam was put together with The Hague, outranking Amsterdam. Now in this quiz Amsterdam and Rotterdam are put together. You might aswell just put the Netherlands there, as it's one big urban area then.
Yes, it's weird. I'm also very unconvinced about Vienna and Bratislava being counted as one. They're a good way apart, arguably no more "an" urban area than Manchester and Liverpool, which it seems would be on this list if considered as one.
You've just offended the majority of the city's population. Brussels is bilingual, but by native language of its inhabitants, it is majority French-speaking, though not by a landslide. Either way, it is indeed 'Brussel' in Dutch, and 'Bruxelles' in French.
Why has Copenhagen and Malmö been put together as one? Copenhagen is Denmarks capital and Malmö is a city in southern Sweden. It's two different cities in two different countries.
Karlsruhe is usually not considered as part of the area, though it is close and economically successful. Including Karlsruhe is probably not wrong, but I would not choose it as a representative due to its "outlier" status (less historical ties, geographical distance from and public transit connections to the region's core of Mannheim/Ludwigshafen/Heidelberg).