North Rhine-Westphalia

North Rhine-Westphalia ()   link
File:North Rhine-Westphalia.png

Not to be confused with Rhineland-Palatinate.

North Rhine-Westphalia, commonly shortened to NRW, is a German state (Land). With more than 17.9 million inhabitants, it is the most populous state of Germany. Apart from the city-states, it is also the most densely populated state in Germany. Covering an area of 34,084 square kilometres (13,160 sq mi), it is the fourth-largest German state by size.

North Rhine-Westphalia features 30 of the 81 German municipalities with over 100,000 inhabitants, including Cologne (over 1 million), the state capital Düsseldorf, Dortmund and Essen (all about 600,000 inhabitants) and other cities predominantly located in the Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan area, the largest urban area in Germany and the fourth-largest on the European continent.