What Are The 7 MEGAREGIONS Of Europe?

Which other country or continent's Megalopolises should I make a video on next?

▶ In this video, I list and attempt to explain Europe's Megalopolises. Exploring the concept of interconnected metropolitan areas known as megaregions. With a total of seven identified megaregions, including the renowned Blue Banana and Golden Banana, these areas are home to a significant portion of Europe's population and economic activity. From that densely populated Blue Banana stretching across Western Europe to the Mediterranean Sun Belt (or Golden Banana), the Green 'Central Europe' Banana which connects the Baltic to the Adriatic Sea, the questionable "Orange Banana" of the Black Sea, the Nordic String which connects Northern Germany, Denmkar, and Southern Sweden & Norway, the Atlantic Axis of Portugal and Galicia, to the smaller yet impactful Gulf of Finland, each megaregion boasts its own unique characteristics and contributing factors to its population density.

TIMESTAMPS:
00:00 Intro
00:22 Again, What's A Megalopolis?
00:46 Which Are Europe's Megalopolises?
01:43 The Blue Banana (Liverpool-Milan Axis)
03:52 The Golden Banana (Mediterranean Sun Belt)
05:14 The Green Banana (Pickle / Central European Megaregion)
06:39 The Orange Banana (Black Sea Coast)
07:41 The Scandinavian String
09:03 The Atlantic Axis (Portugal & Galicia)
09:46 The Gulf Of Finland
10:41 Summary

▶ A special thank you to my Patrons: Kris Rizakis, Sebastian Karlo, Señor Valasco, Yasin Chaykh, Stuart Tunstead, Chaim laser, Robinhio84, Rogaine Ablar, The Wanton Dogfish, Yeti, Elizabeth Per, Juan Rodriguez Forero, Lastmatix, Kalvin Saccal, Ahmed Alkooheji, Steve the Goat, KR, Ryan Keith, Ryan McMurry, Richard Hartzell.

▶ Thanks for watching, remember to subscribe to catch future videos!

[General.Knowledge]

*Which other megaregions should I cover next? China or India?*

[ilFrancotti]

If all roads lead to Rome, at least 3 Megaregions lead to Italy.

[heh]

As someone who lives near Helsinki, the reality is that Finns never have been traveling to St Petersburg and prefer a 100 times more Tallinn and Stockholm. Since Estonias independence our traveling has mainly only been there and no Finns really ever have been to Russia, eventhough St Petersburg area has more people than Finland as a whole.

[staffan-]

Regarding the Scandinavian string, it is worth mentioning that it is centered around the narrow inlet to the Baltic Sea. Historically, this area was of great importance for controlling the regional trade routes. The German part of this region was the core of the medieval Hanseatic League, the Danish and south Swedish part controls the actual choke point, and Gothenburg was the centre for all Atlantic trade from Sweden. I believe this is why Stockholm is left out, it has come about in a different context than the rest of the region.

[loskri]

I'm originally from Saint-Petersburg and I can confirm the ties were pretty strong between the city and the neighbouring countries before covid and war. It was cheaper, easier and quicker for us to go to Tallinn or Helsinki for a day or a weekend, rather than to Moscow. In summer ferries were running daily between the cities, in addition to trains, buses and planes. EU cities offered plane tickets for €9 to anywhere in Europe, which were not avaiable in Russia, so a number of buses would bring a bunch of people straight to a particular airport. Roughly 8000 people were disembarking in SPb daily from cruise ships, also with stops at Helsinki and Tallinn. In Finland the area next to the border crossings was packed with all kinds of shops and malls, where one could buy everything from a match to a sofa and thousands or people from Russia were doing there weekly shopping there due to price value and better quality of goods. Not to mention there are thousands of people whose relatives have lived for years in either of the neighbouring countries and they've used to travel constantly between the cities for family reunions, which is now a pain to do. I wish peace and friendship ties for everyone

[Names-vg]

Do more megareigon and belt videos, they are very interesting

[j.m.d.a]

Do one for Asian Megalopolis like the Pearl River Delta or the Taiheiyo Belt

[YMandarin]

We should definitely differentiate between megaregions and megalopolises.

I'd call the blue banana (including Paris) a megaregion with a few megalopolises inside it:
greater London, greater Paris, Rheinland, Amsterdam/Rotterdam, Milano

The green belt is definitely no megalopolis, though one could call Vienna-Bratislava such.

[askarufus]

The green banana has its ancient roots in Roman route to collect amber from the coast of the Baltic sea. The space between Sudets and Carpathian mountains on Polish/Czech border is called the "Moravian Gate" and has been the place that has seen multiple archaelogical cultures wander there for thousands years back.

[muhammadhamzazafar]

6:50 according to the map, it actually contains 5 countries. the fifth being moldova

[norbertkrafcsik]

"Some people call it the pickle too, apparently." Am I the only one who bursted out laughing? 😂

[crazydog]

Yes! Love the Megalopolis videos. They're truly fascinating.

[stipe]

Wait you did not include Rijeka, Koper and Trieste as important cities in Green Banana? Those are literaly closest ports to central Europe and are very important transport hubs

[Yora]

The Blue Banana isn't just huge, it's also really old. It's basically the heartlands of the Carolingian Empire, plus England.
Low Countries, Rhine Valley, and Northern Italy have been an economic powerhouse since the entire Middle Ages. Not just on the European Scale, but globally.
It's one of the economically most valuable plot of lands. And unsurprisingly has been a constant major conflict zone from 50 BCE to 1945 CE.

[nicocorbo]

outstanding video. glad to hear the portugal video went well :)

[carlomontecarlo]

I live in the North of Italy, I think we're blessed with easy access to so many different languages & cultures (Latin, Germanic, Slavic branches + the Mediterranean Sea). No city in Europe has easy access to the Alps, the sea, the lakes, the plains, and vineyards like Milan does. There's lots of culture (Bologna, the oldest university; Padua and its university, where Elena Cornaro Piscopia became the woman in the world to be awarded a PhD, in 1678; Venice, Turin, Verona), industry and infrastructure, whether you want to travel by car (Como laghi is the oldest highway ever built), train, plane, cruise or boats. All of this with the Italian We are really, really lucky to live here.

[Mischnikvideos]

The basis of the blue banana is hard coal, which stretches from England to Germany. This was the basis for the large industrial centers with heavy industry. In addition, the Rhine is the largest transport/trade route in Europe.

[Jobor]

The string map on the thumbnail is super odd.. I live in an area that was shown on the thumbnail map between Gothenburg and Stockholm and we are not much connected to those cities except by rail. Roads out here arent good yet we're in a "megalopis" ? I think the one where you just show the west coast of Sweden is much more accurate and then if you want to connect Stockholm to it you should map out the E4 highway because the E20 sucks where I live. Great video! ^^

[DonPedroman]

In Spain we call Atlantic Arch to basically all of our northern coastline linked with Portugal and an undefined part of France. Also some people when talking more about culture include basically all of the French coast + parts of the British Isles, though this is somewhat linked to periferic nationalists claiming to be more connected to those peoples than to the rest of our country, so it is better to ignore it.

[seanchadwick]

Parts of the Czech Republic, Austria, and all of Liechtenstein, are part of the blue banana as well. This includes the Austrian city of Innsbruck.

Due to urbanization, the Blue Banana has become larger in size, branching outwards in a star shape. Despite this, the Blue Banana still remains the core of the conurbation. Although the Blue Banana may not have the same formation it had decades ago, it still holds Europe’s largest gathering of people, industry, money, and economic power.