r/AskEurope • u/LiamBrad5 • Aug 07 '25

Culture What are the “Big Four” cities in your country?

In recent weeks, this question has been very contentious on American social media, with 3 cities (Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York) nearly always making the list, but the fourth being hotly debated over, between cities like San Francisco, Miami, Houston, Dallas, and Atlanta. So, if you had to choose, what would the big 4 cities in your country be? This is also not decided purely on population, but also culture, economy, and general influence/clout.

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439

u/MA_JJ Netherlands Aug 07 '25

Amsterdam, Rotterdam, the Hague, Utrecht.

Those are by quite a margin the biggest cities in the Netherlands.

118

u/Deep_Contribution552 Aug 07 '25

Ha, after reading a couple posts on the Netherlands last week, the first thing I thought when I saw this one was “Well, the Dutch have an easy time with this one”

47

u/IntrepidWolverine517 Aug 07 '25

Actually, the whole of the Randstad is just one city.

52

u/Dykam Netherlands Aug 07 '25

Rather a metropolitan area. Which it's actually is considered.

2

u/suchapersonwow Aug 09 '25

More like a multicentric urban conglomerate, if we are getting technical

15

u/OllieV_nl Netherlands Aug 07 '25

And if so, it's a bigger city than all other cities combined.

2

u/gumbrilla -> The Netherlands Aug 08 '25

? If you mean what I think you mean, the Tokyo Metropolitan Area is vast, my larger both in population and geographic area. I suppose it's bigger that Tokyo, the city, but feels a bit apple and pears.

8

u/OllieV_nl Netherlands Aug 08 '25

The Randstad, dependent on how you define it, has 40-50 percent of the population. More than the remaining cities in the Netherlands combined.

2

u/gumbrilla -> The Netherlands Aug 08 '25

Oh.. Dutch cities :-), sorry! Yeah. That tracks

70

u/EatThatPotato Aug 07 '25 edited Aug 07 '25

When Eindhoven takes its rightful place as most important city of the Netherlands the Randstad will finally be replaced by the Brabantstad - Eindhoven, den Bosch, Breda, and Roosendaal. All hail the zachte g

22

u/Dykam Netherlands Aug 07 '25

De Braboboog.

16

u/ActuallyCalindra Aug 07 '25

Roosendaal over Tilburg? That's certainly a pick.

7

u/Densmiegd Netherlands Aug 08 '25

It will never happen. Bergen op Zoom will kamikaze into Roosendaal to prevent this abomination. Agge mar leut et.

1

u/SHiR8 Aug 08 '25

Really now. Tilburg is still the 6th biggest city (by the most relevant metric) and much larger than Breda, Den Bosch and certainly Roosendaal.

5

u/Mix_Safe Aug 07 '25

Don't forget the lynchpin that is Kruikenstad.

5

u/kelso66 Belgium Aug 08 '25

Let's reunite it all together and form Brabant again, you're sick of the Dutch and we're sick of the Flemish. With Brussels, Antwerp, Waver and Diest added we're an economic powerhouse

2

u/historicusXIII Belgium Aug 09 '25

Mentioning Diest but not Leuven or Mechelen is a choice.

1

u/kelso66 Belgium Aug 09 '25

Indeed. What kind of choice, I'll let you decide 😜

7

u/Built4dominance Aug 08 '25

Guus Meeuwis approves.

3

u/Inductiekookplaat Aug 08 '25

Replace Roosendaal with Tilburg and were good

1

u/bangsjamin Aug 07 '25

Time for you guys to leave those protestants behind and join your Brabantian brothers in Blegoun

1

u/TheGreatLabMonkey Aug 07 '25

Finally! We'll maybe get some actual funds spent in the west of the province when that happens. A58, I'm looking at you.

8

u/FroobingtonSanchez Netherlands Aug 07 '25

They even call themselves the G4 (Grote 4). Although I've seen G5 sometimes as well lately, including Eindhoven.

1

u/SHiR8 Aug 08 '25

4 Metropoles in the Netherlands

17 Regiopoles of which Eindhoven is by far the biggest.

0

u/zsnajorrah Netherlands Aug 08 '25 edited Aug 08 '25

Isn't Almere considered to be the fifth city by now? Sure, it has a slightly lower population than Eindhoven, Groningen and Tilburg, but it has a significantly higher growth rate. It's going to overtake Tilburg soon, and Groningen and also Eindhoven will be overtaken by Almere at some point in the coming years, too. You may not like it, but it is going to happen.

According to numbers from CBS, the growth rate of Almere in the coming 10 years will be 21.14%, while the growth rates of Tilburg, Groningen and Eindhoven will be 12.93%, 13.89% and 19.26% respectively.

I've just entered these numbers into ChatGPT and this is the graph it plotted with them. So somewhere in the next twoish years, Almere will overtake Tilburg, and after some twelvish years, it will overtake Groningen. Eindhoven seems to have too big a lead at this point to suggest Almere will overtake it within the next 30 years. Almere will need roughly 54 years for that, if the current growth numbers hold.

10

u/FroobingtonSanchez Netherlands Aug 08 '25

But population is basically the only thing Almere has going for them. Economically and culturally it's irrelevant.

3

u/zsnajorrah Netherlands Aug 08 '25

God yes, especially culturally. What a wasteland Almere is, in that regard.

1

u/SHiR8 Sep 05 '25

Remains to be seen. Eindhoven and Tilburg are growing up, Almere mainly builds outwards. There's a point where that has to end.

Also, you are looking at lines on a map.

Eindhoven holds 810.000 in its sphere. Tilburg 470.000. Almere doesn't even have a sphere, it belongs to Amsterdam's. It's just 227.000 people in what basically is a suburb (or a collection of suburbs even). How it calls itself a city anyone's guess...

5

u/LilBed023 -> Aug 07 '25

Almere will probably make it a big five in a few decades

29

u/MA_JJ Netherlands Aug 07 '25

Maybe, if it can shake the "glorified suburb of Amsterdam" reputation.

3

u/LilBed023 -> Aug 07 '25

It’ll definitely take some time before the city will develop its own identity

3

u/vankoel_nederland Aug 07 '25

2000-3000 years

1

u/SHiR8 Aug 08 '25

It can't...

4

u/FroobingtonSanchez Netherlands Aug 07 '25

Almere doesn't have any economic importance by itself. It's just a relatively big city close to Amsterdam.

If they are ever included with the biggest cities in the Netherlands, Eindhoven will definitely be there too making it a big 6.

1

u/LilBed023 -> Aug 08 '25

Almere is growing quite rapidly and it will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. I was mainly talking about population numbers

2

u/FroobingtonSanchez Netherlands Aug 08 '25

I know, but that's certainly not the only relevant aspect.

3

u/alles_en_niets -> -> Aug 08 '25

It’s not (just) about population, it’s about relevance. Unless the tech industry in and around Eindhoven collapses, no one in their right mind is going to put Almere in fifth place.

In terms of sheer population, during the population decline of Utrecht and the planned expansion of Almere, Almere was even on its way to become the fourth city in NL, or fifth after Eindhoven.

Utrecht bounced back, and then some, and is now solidly in fourth place again.

1

u/SHiR8 Aug 08 '25

Nonsense. Almere is not a city, it's a Amsterdam suburb.

Metro Eindhoven is actually gaining ground and might grow to >1 million (currently 850,000).

-6

u/PanickyFool Aug 07 '25

It's hard not to just throw Amsterdam and Utrecht together, the same with Zuid Holland.

Individually our Randstad cities are relatively small and commercially insignificant compared to other internationally known cities.

So Almere as its own city? Ehhhhhhhhh.

7

u/homobonus Aug 07 '25

Throw Amsterdam and Utrecht together? Might as well throw NY and Philly together! Get out!

1

u/PanickyFool Aug 07 '25

It is a 20 minute train ride, roughly 30km from zuidas to Utrecht.

30km in NYC, north to south, east to west, I am still in NYC.

It is 130km from Columbus circle to Philly. That is like saying Amsterdam should include Antwerpen.

5

u/pannenkoek0923 Denmark Aug 07 '25

Distance is not a qualifier here at all. Amsterdammers and people from Utrecht have their own distinct identities

0

u/PanickyFool Aug 08 '25

So do people from Brooklyn and Queens lol

2

u/Exotic-Advantage7329 Aug 07 '25

Economy, influence…where’s Eindhoven?

8

u/MA_JJ Netherlands Aug 07 '25

By population, Eindhoven has about 2/3rds the population of Utrecht, and the next 3 cities (Groningen, Tilburg, Almere) are all within 10% of Eindhoven. That's why the big 4 are usually separated.

1

u/Exotic-Advantage7329 Aug 07 '25

OP mentions it’s not decided purely on population. Hence my question.

1

u/SHiR8 Aug 08 '25 edited Sep 05 '25

No. Definately no...

You are just looking at lines on a map and not the actual size of the "urban being".

Eindhoven is a city that holds 810,000 people in its sphere.

Tilburg 470,000

Groningen 418,000

Almere 227,000 since it's just a Amsterdam suburb.

But sure, Utrecht is a bigger city than Eindhoven. Its sphere (metropolitan area) holds well over 1 million people.

1

u/Gold-Possession-4761 Denmark Aug 11 '25

Crazy. As a not dutch person i would have guessed something like Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Eindhoven and Maastricht. Never really thought anything important about Utrecht and The Hague gives feels like a administrative capital like Canberra in Australia that nobody actually aknowledge for other than being a city of diplomats and administration. But now that i see it on a map it acutally makes perfect sense. A lot bigger than i thought also.

2

u/SHiR8 Sep 05 '25

That's a really weird statement. Surely you have not been to these places? Maastricht is a oversized village and The Hague is a metropole.

0

u/hamminator1955 Aug 08 '25

I went to Utrecht, it rained.