Recent statistics show that approximately 43% of the EU population lives in small and medium-sized cities between 5,000 and 50,000 inhabitants. Small urban areas play a pivotal role in sustainable urban development and territorial cohesion in Europe and are an important part of the urban-rural continuum.

We chose to tackle this topic in the August Urban Review because of the diversity of small and medium-sized cities (in terms of geography, demographic, socio-economic and governance aspects) and the various socio-economic and environmental opportunities they can provide due to their territorial context and their national policy framework.

Read this month’s newsletter to discover how small and medium-sized cities can contribute significantly to the transformative power of cities as well as how they are, or should be, incorporated in national urban policies nowadays.

More articles

Publications

Policy Atlas of Sustainable Urban Development for Small Urban Areas...

Policy Atlas of Sustainable Ur...

Policy Atlas of Sustainable Urban Development for Small Urban Areas

An important new repository of empirical and policy insight on SUAs published by the JRC with contribution from the EUKN.

Urban Voices

Thomas Schwab & Nathan Crist on… the Twin Transition and the future o...

Thomas Schwab & Nathan Cr...

Thomas Schwab & Nathan Crist on… the Twin Transition and the future of EU Cohesion

Thomas Schwab & Nathan Crist from the Bertelsmann Stiftung relay research findings on what the Twin Transition means for regional disparities and EU cohesion.

JRC urban
Publications

The JRC’s urban activities and the New Leipzig Charter: Exploring the role...

The JRC’s urban activiti...

The JRC’s urban activities and the New Leipzig Charter: Exploring the role of science for policy post 2020

Investigating the JRC’s potential role in supporting urban policy-making over the next ten years, within the framework for sustainable urban development proposed by the New Leipzig Charter.