Moscow metropolitan area

Not to be confused with Moscow Oblast.

The Moscow metropolitan area (Russian: Московская агломерация) or Moscow capital region (Russian: Московский столичный регион) is the most populous metropolitan area in Russia and Europe, with a population of around 21.5 million. It consists of the city of Moscow and surrounding areas in Moscow Oblast.

Moscow metropolitan area Московская агломерация (Russian)
From top, left to right: Moscow panorama Moscow International Business Center Moscow Ring Road
Federal city of Moscow - black, Moscow Oblast - light blue
Country	Russia
Federal subject	Moscow Moscow Oblast
Largest city	Moscow (13,010,112)
Area
• Metro	48,360 km2 (18,670 sq mi)
Population  (2023)
• Metro	21,700,000
• Metro density	450/km2 (1,200/sq mi)
	[1]
GDP (Nominal, 2022) [2]
• Metro	₽ 36,228 billion US$ 491.890 billion
Time zone	UTC+3 (UTC)

The related term Moscow region (Московский регион) is used unofficially to describe Moscow and Moscow Oblast together. However, formally, they are two separate federal subjects.

Structure and population estimation

Subdivision	Area km2	Population	GDP[2]
Moscow	2562	13,010,112	₽28.51 trillion (US$387.06 billion)
Moscow Oblast	44300	8,524,665	₽7.72 trillion (US$104.83 billion)
Moscow metropolitan area	46862	21,534,777	₽36.23 trillion (US$491.89 billion)

Moscow metropolitan area from space

The Moscow metropolitan area includes the city of Moscow, population 12,197,596,^[3] a ring of cities annexed to it and administered within (Balashikha, Korolyov, Krasnogorsk, Khimki, Mytishchi and Zelenograd), as well as large nearby towns with population of over 100,000 citizens (Reutov, Zheleznodorozhny, Podolsk and Lubertsy, to name a few) that fall under regional administration.^[4] Administratively, all those towns are a part of the Moscow Oblast. The metropolitan area has thus no coordinated administration structures, and no official population statistics.

Historical population

Year	Pop.	±%
1897	2,430,615	—
1926	6,590,336	+171.1%
1959	10,895,003	+65.3%
1970	12,716,490	+16.7%
1979	14,189,894	+11.6%
1989	15,660,955	+10.4%
2002	17,001,292	+8.6%
2010	18,598,621	+9.4%
2021	21,534,777	+15.8%
Source: Census data

The population of the Moscow region is the sum of populations of the city (13,010,112) and surrounding oblast (8,524,665), coming to 21,534,777 – about 14% of the entire Russian population.