Frankfurt/Rhine-Main Metropolitan Region Metropolregion Frankfurt/Rhein-Main
map of the Frankfurt Rhine-Main metropolitan region
Country	Germany
States	Hesse  Rhineland-Palatinate  Bavaria
Largest Cities	Frankfurt am Main Darmstadt Mainz Offenbach Wiesbaden
Government [1]
- Type	Frankfurt/Rhine-Main Conurbation Planning Association
- Verbandsdirektor	Stephan Wildhirt (SPD)
Area
- Metro	14,800 km2 (5,714.3 sq mi)
Population
- Metro	5,800,000
- Metro Density	391.89/km2 (1,015/sq mi)
Time zone	CET (UTC+1)
GRP	2004
Nominal	€152.1 billion (6th in EU)
Website	http://www.planungsverband.de/

The Frankfurt/Rhine-Main Metropolitan Region, often simply referred to as Frankfurt Rhine-Main, Frankfurt Rhine-Main area or Rhine-Main area (German: Frankfurt/Rhein-Main, abbreviated FRM) is the second largest metropolitan region in Germany, with a total population exceeding 5.8 million. The metropolitan region is located in the central western part of Germany, and stretches over parts of three federal states: Hesse, Rhineland-Palatinate and Bavaria, as well as the cities of Frankfurt am Main, Wiesbaden, Offenbach, Mainz, Darmstadt and Aschaffenburg.

The polycentric region is named after its core city Frankfurt am Main and the two rivers Rhine and Main. The Frankfurt Rhine-Main area is officially designated as a European Metropolitan region by the German Federal Ministry of Transport, Building and Urban Affairs and covers an area of roughly 13,000 square kilometers (5,019.3 sq mi).

[edit] Subdivisions

Rhine-Main is a polycentric metropolitan region, but the economic size and political weight of the city of Frankfurt sets it into a very monocentric relation with her commuter belt. Since the early 1970s the Frankfurt am Main metropolitan area (German: Ballungsraum Frankfurt/Rhein-Main) is defined as an area encompassing the cities of Frankfurt and Offenbach and their directly neighboring districts. The Regierungsbezirk Darmstadt of the state of Hesse could be seen as the next administrative division, as it lies entirely within the metropolitan region and further includes the cities of Darmstadt and Wiesbaden and a number of larger districts. Only on a level further, the metropolitan region also includes the cities and districts of Mainz and Aschaffenburg in the two adjoing federal states of Rhineland-Palatinate and Bavaria.

[edit] Metropolitan area/metropolitan region

[edit] Larger Urban Zones

Eurostat's Urban Audit splits the Frankfurt/Rhine-Main region into four Larger Urban Zones (LUZ). These four Urban Zones do exclude a number of districts in the metropolitan area.

[edit] Cities and districts

Frankfurt is the most important city of the Rhein-Main area

Rheingau

Old town of Mainz

Castle of Johannisburg in Aschaffenburg

German House of Goldsmiths (German: Deutsches Goldschmiedehaus) in Hanau (old town hall)

city or district	area	population
Frankfurt am Main	248 km²	670,095
Offenbach am Main	45 km²	118,245
Landkreis Offenbach	356 km²	337,986
Main-Kinzig-Kreis
Wetteraukreis	122 km²	142,191
Hochtaunuskreis
Main-Taunus-Kreis	122 km²	142,191
Darmstadt	122 km²	142,191
Landkreis Darmstadt-Dieburg	659 km²	289,102
Landkreis Groß-Gerau
Wiesbaden	204 km²	275,489
Rheingau-Taunus-Kreis	98 km²	196,784
Subtotal Hesse	7,445 km²	3,778,689
Mainz	98 km²	196,784
Mainz-Bingen	606 km²	201,451
Subtotal Rhineland-Palatinate	704 km²	398,235
Aschaffenburg	63 km²	68,646
Landkreis Aschaffenburg	699 km²	173,946
Landkreis Miltenberg	716 km²	130,009
Subtotal Bavaria	1,478 km²	372,601
Frankfurt/Rhine-Main metropolitan region	14,800 km²	5,800,000

[edit] Traffic

The growth of the area is chiefly to be traced to the favorable communications, that promoted an early industrialization. Today however, the importance of productive industries are to a great extent substituted by banking, trade and logistics. Frankfurt lies within the populous blue banana, which runs along the Rhine valley and the city is also a stepping stone from and to various parts of Switzerland and Southern Germany. The Rhine-Ruhr is accessible via a one hour trip on the Cologne–Frankfurt high-speed rail line and the air route Frankfurt-Berlin is the busiest in German domestic air travel.

Frankfurt International Airport is the busiest airport by passenger traffic in Germany and one of the three busiest airports in Europe. Thereby, along with a strong railway connection, the area also serves as a major transportation hub.

[edit] Education

The Frankfurt/Rhine-Main metropolitan region is home to five universities and over 20 partly postgraduate colleges, with a total of over 200.000 students. Largest and oldest university is the University of Mainz (Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz), originally founded in 1477 AD. Other universities include:

• the Darmstadt University of Technology,
• the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University Frankfurt am Main,
• the Frankfurt School of Finance & Management and
• the European Business School International University Schloss Reichartshausen.

Notable colleges and universities of applied sciences (Fachhochschulen) include:

• the Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences,
• the Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences,
• the Frankfurt University of Music and Performing Arts and
• the Städelschule.

[edit] See also

• Global city

[edit] References

1. ^ http://www.planungsverband.de/index.phtml?La=1&mNavID=1.100&object=tx|1169.342.1|1169.2.1
2. ^ http://www.planungsverband.de/index.phtml?mNavID=1169.50&sNavID=1169.50&La=1
3. ^ http://www.urbanaudit.org/CityProfiles.aspx?CityCode=DE005C&CountryCode=DE
4. ^ http://www.staedtestatistik.de/505.html
5. ^ http://www.frankfurt.de/sixcms/media.php/678/2003_1_R%C3%A4umlichen_Ebenen_des_UrbanAudit.pdf
6. ^ http://www.urbanaudit.org/CityProfiles.aspx?CityCode=DE020C&CountryCode=DE
7. ^ http://www.staedtestatistik.de/527.html
8. ^ http://www.urbanaudit.org/CityProfiles.aspx?CityCode=DE025C&CountryCode=DE
9. ^ http://www.staedtestatistik.de/523.html
10. ^ http://www.urbanaudit.org/CityProfiles.aspx?CityCode=DE037C&CountryCode=DE
11. ^ http://www.staedtestatistik.de/528.html

[edit] External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Rhein-Main

• Planungsverband Ballungsraum Frankfurt/Rhein-Main Frankfurt/Rhine-Main Conurbation Planning Association
• Region Frankfurt RheinMain online - Gateway to Europe
• Frankfurt International Airport
• Rhein-Main Metropolitan Transit
• Frankfurt Economic Support
• Frankfurt/Rhein-Main 2020 – the European metropolitan region
• One region - Boundless possibilities

Coordinates: 50°06′N 8°42′E / 50.1°N 8.7°E / 50.1; 8.7