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Biggest Cities in the Blue Banana

The "Blue Banana" is a term that refers to the highly-urbanized backbone of Western Europe. Can you name the most populous urban areas in this banana?
Urban area population, according to citypopulation.de
Includes "loosely-defined" areas in western Germany
Quiz by Nathaniel
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Featured Quiz
Last updated: December 28, 2020
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First submittedApril 16, 2020
Times taken28,668
Average score71.4%
Rating4.55
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Population
City
14.8 mil
London
6.20 mil
Milan
5.70 mil
Ruhr Area
5.00 mil
Cologne / Düsseldorf
3.25 mil
Frankfurt
3.25 mil
Rotterdam
3.15 mil
Birmingham
3.05 mil
Manchester
2.70 mil
Brussels
2.48 mil
Amsterdam
2.40 mil
Stuttgart
2.25 mil
Munich
2.18 mil
Leeds
1.88 mil
Liverpool
1.64 mil
Turin
1.58 mil
Mannheim
1.57 mil
Sheffield
1.43 mil
Zurich
1.38 mil
Nottingham
1.29 mil
Lille
1.20 mil
Nuremberg
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76 Comments
baptistegorce
+11
Level 55
Apr 16, 2020
Very nice! Nominated! Congratulations!
Nathaniel
+7
Level 74
Apr 16, 2020
thx
Quizzer4life
+2
Level 31
Dec 30, 2020
missed Leeds and Mannheim
cpgatbyu
+23
Level 85
Nov 14, 2020
Reading the Wikipedia article only further convinces me that this is an artificial construct.
Moos1005
+24
Level 84
Nov 14, 2020
Absolutely, but people like to find shapes and patterns in everything.
HinesBrothers
+24
Level 75
Nov 14, 2020
Especially if bananas are involved
Nathaniel
+13
Level 74
Nov 17, 2020
Countries and cities are artificial constructs too
Yeoryios
+4
Level 72
Dec 27, 2020
Wdym? A city is a large settlement and a country is collection of similar people. Not artificial. This one is though, as there is really no correlation between the cities.
tshalla
+8
Level 76
Dec 27, 2020
You lost me at "a country is a collection of similar people". Time for some Benedict Anderson and Hobsbawm and Ranger.
Nathaniel
+5
Level 74
Dec 27, 2020
Who says people in a city are similar? Also think of Long Beach and Los Angeles or the Ruhr Area: are the borders between ajacent cities not an artificial construct?
swaddle
+1
Level 39
Feb 19, 2021
yea, i mean if people wanna say people in a city or country have similar people they might wanna look at London or something
Ferbin
+2
Level 76
Mar 16, 2021
Anything human-made (and therefore not existing in nature) is an artificial construct, as it is not natural (ergo artificial), and is constructed (i.e made).
ItzIngenious
+1
Level 60
Aug 12, 2021
True, humans are sort of non natural, but everything used to make things did come from nature at some point, and if you exclude human made things from nature, is say a beaver dam, bird’s nest, or beehive nature?
angrobper14
+4
Level 84
Nov 17, 2020
Well... one could argue that everything is an artificial construct. Or at least the way we understand everything.
Nicco55
+2
Level 68
Nov 14, 2020
I don't know if this matters, but the dot for Brussels should be a bit further north
1ProximaCentauri
+2
Level 54
Nov 14, 2020
Congrats on your first feature
Nathaniel
+1
Level 74
Nov 14, 2020
Thx!!!
Cog
+1
Level 75
Nov 14, 2020
There's a mistake in the title. Western Europe you mean
Nathaniel
+1
Level 74
Nov 14, 2020
I already changed that, it's currently pending review.
Jerry928
+2
Level 76
Nov 15, 2020
Zurich is further north than your dot! Nice quiz otherwise :)
Nathaniel
+1
Level 74
Nov 15, 2020
Yeah I think you're right. I'll fix it asap. Thanks!
Nathaniel
+1
Level 74
Dec 28, 2020
Fixed
Dechnord
+6
Level 75
Nov 15, 2020
I was born in a banana, and I didn't know that
Nathaniel
+4
Level 74
Nov 15, 2020
So was I, but it wasn't ripe.
Carry
+3
Level 63
Nov 18, 2020
I was born next to a banana. Crazy world.
MG17
+4
Level 43
Dec 27, 2020
I born in an apple... or a grape?
Sifhraven
+2
Level 72
Dec 29, 2020
Hey me too! Just realised that. Though already wanted to say currently I live just outside/nearly on top of a banana
ItzIngenious
+1
Level 60
Aug 12, 2021
I was born in a banana muffin
Fuse
+3
Level 78
Nov 16, 2020
Congratulations for your feature!! I guess I live in the banana that won't ever ripe. Great quiz!!
Nathaniel
+2
Level 74
Nov 16, 2020
Great minds think alike XD
SWATkun
+1
Level 59
Nov 17, 2020
Congratulations on your feature Nate kun (｡•̀ᴗ-)✧
Nathaniel
+1
Level 74
Nov 17, 2020
Thanks SWAT Senpai XD
peardestroyer
+1
Level 60
Dec 19, 2020
Great work, congrats on your first feature! Just one question, why is the banana in the thumbnail yellow instead of blue? ;)
Nathaniel
+5
Level 74
Dec 19, 2020
Finding pictures of blue bananas online is hard XD
peardestroyer
+1
Level 60
Dec 20, 2020
The banana in the thumbnail is an .svg file. Maybe download it, change the colour of it in Inkscape, and upload it back to Wikimedia? :)
Nathaniel
+2
Level 74
Dec 20, 2020
I'm not sure in how far Wikimedia approves of people uploading pictures which only benefit them personally. I know how it would theoretically work, also thx for the suggestion, but I don't think I'm going to do that.
MG17
+1
Level 43
Dec 27, 2020
I think that ‘cause the countries are already yellow. And I like the blue banana :)
MG17
+2
Level 43
Dec 27, 2020
Oh, they are grey
Baxtergrad
+2
Level 51
Dec 27, 2020
I wasn't born in a banana - it was more of a date-like shape.
cpgatbyu
+2
Level 85
Dec 27, 2020
citypopulation.de lists Antwerp with a population of 1.22 mil, so it seems like it should make the list ahead of Nuremberg.
Nathaniel
+1
Level 74
Dec 28, 2020
Nope Antwerp has a population of 942,180 according to https://www.citypopulation.de/en/belgium/urbanareas/
BillB1
+1
Level 62
Dec 27, 2020
I got 81%! Not bad for an American if I do say so, but I feel trolled by the concept of this banana. No Paris? oh well. Then it wouldn't be a banana-shape! :-)
dunkinggandalf2
+3
Level 69
Dec 27, 2020
The blue banana is a pretty weird construct, when you consider that it carefully carves around the Paris region, which has a higher population and GDP than the whole of Belgium.
Nathaniel
+3
Level 74
Dec 27, 2020
The Blue banana Was constructed such that similar Industries are grouped together. Paris specialises in other fields.
dunkinggandalf2
+1
Level 69
Dec 29, 2020
Hmm... From a cursory search, all I can find is that it's about GDP and population density, both of which are greater in the Paris area than in many of the areas included in the blue banana. I'm not criticising the quiz, mind you, it's a great quiz - I'm just not sure that the concept of the blue banana is very useful.
dunkinggandalf2
+1
Level 69
Dec 29, 2020
In what ways is the Paris economy fundamentally different from that of London, or Milan?
Nathaniel
+2
Level 74
Dec 29, 2020
The Blue Banana focuses mainly on blue-collar industries i.e. factories, whilst Paris is mainly home to white-collar industry. Furthermore, looking at this map of population density you will see that Paris is a very insular city compared to the other cities:
NEGeo
+1
Level 60
May 2, 2023
what does insular mean?
ShievaAndGolly
+1
Level 56
Oct 28, 2021
How'd you get a map on here?
LuigiDood227
+1
Level 64
Jan 29, 2022
magic
SWATkun
+1
Level 59
Dec 27, 2020
Now congratulations (人*´∀｀)｡*ﾟ+ on your front page Nate kun
Nathaniel
+1
Level 74
Dec 27, 2020
Thank youuuuu SWAT senpai!!! :D
MG17
+2
Level 43
Dec 27, 2020
It looks more a boomerang than a banana LOL
Baxtergrad
+1
Level 51
Dec 27, 2020
Would you really laugh out loud at such a thing? The term is overused
Sifhraven
+1
Level 72
Dec 29, 2020
I can imagine someone saying that while laughing. It looks more like a boomerang not a banana haha. So lol is used appropriately here imo

the term is overused though. People saying things like I am eating a sandwich now lol. Things which in an offline situation you would not even say with a smile let alone a laugh. (Yes you could laugh while saying anything, but it is about if you actualy would in the specific case)

DarkDevil219
+2
Level 67
Dec 27, 2020
Nuremberg is not even close to 1.2m more like 500k!
Nathaniel
+1
Level 74
Dec 27, 2020
This is based on urban area population. It is possible that the city proper population is significantly smaller than the urban area population.
Kaficek
+2
Level 34
Dec 27, 2020
Sheffield is in the wrong place. It looks like you've put it in Stoke.
BlackJohn
+3
Level 76
Dec 27, 2020
Rhur Area a city? Seriously?
EvanAviator
+2
Level 59
Dec 27, 2020
it is a lot of cities so it would be ridiculous to have them all separately
bigbywolf
+2
Level 53
Feb 4, 2021
Quiz is about urban area, not city proper. So, yes, Ruhr is one urban area. I really liked the fact, that for once you actually had to type in Ruhr and Cologne. Why are they prefilled in all the other quizzes?
McKenzieFam
+1
Level 66
Feb 13, 2023
+1
King675A
+1
Level 28
Dec 28, 2020
Are you sure the London data is correct? Nowhere can I find that the population is 14 million, I can only find 8 or 9 million and I searched a lot of places.

Overall really good quiz!

Nathaniel
+1
Level 74
Dec 28, 2020
Go to the link in the caveat. You will see a list. In this list look for London. I'm happy you liked it.
callofduty45
+2
Level 55
Jan 1, 2021
london at 100 percent currently, wonder how long that will take to change
Nathaniel
+1
Level 74
Jan 7, 2021
The thing with the stats is, they are rounded to full percents. It is very unlikely that every one of the 10,883 quiz-takers knew London.
McKenzieFam
+2
Level 66
Feb 13, 2023
really? So much of JetPunk traffic comes from America and Europe that perhaps 100% did know?
BigGeographyGuy
+1
Level 62
Feb 7, 2021
Great Quiz!
Nathaniel
+1
Level 74
Feb 7, 2021
Thx!
ShievaAndGolly
+1
Level 56
Oct 28, 2021
mmmmmm... blue banana
Moeilijk
+1
Level 62
Apr 5, 2022
mmmmm....Indonesian blue banana

great quiz!

I always get confused between Rotterdam and The Hague

There so close on a map...

MCdoesgeography
+1
Level 69
Aug 21, 2023
I'm still within the banana by like 10km, whoop whoop

Also, why isn't Düsseldorf included?

It isn't accepted as part of the Ruhr area, but it's larger than Mannheim and should be it's own dot then, no?

Nathaniel
+1
Level 74
Oct 15, 2023
Düsseldorf is included as part of the Cologne / Düsseldorf urban area
DvdGeo
+1
Level 49
Oct 15, 2023
Great Quiz, but I expected Genova to be a part of it
Nathaniel
+1
Level 74
Oct 15, 2023
It is, it's just not large enough to make the list
USGeographyLover
+1
Level 53
Apr 19, 2024
I always forget Frankfurt exists, whether it's the German Frankfurt or the Kentuckian Frankfurt...
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