Ruhr Area

The Ruhr Area (German: Ruhrgebiet) is an urban area in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Many of the cities in the Ruhrgebiet used to have a lot of heavy industry.

Ruhr Metropolitan Region Metropolregion Ruhr
map of the Ruhr metropolitan region within Germany
Coordinates: 51°30′N 7°30′E
Country	Germany
State	North Rhine-Westphalia
Largest Cities	Dortmund Essen Duisburg Bochum
Government
• Body	Regionalverband Ruhr
Area
• Metro	4,435 km2 (1,712 sq mi)
Highest elevation	441 m (1,447 ft)
Lowest elevation	13 m (43 ft)
Population
• Metro	5,172,745
• Metro density	1,646/km2 (4,260/sq mi)
Time zone	UTC+1 (CET)
GRP	2007
Nominal	€ 136.3 billion[1]
Website	www.metropoleruhr.de

The Ruhr Area is bordered by the rivers Ruhr River to the south, Rhine River to the west, and Lippe to the north. Southwest it borders the Bergisches Land.

The area has about 5.3 million inhabitants, and is part of the larger Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan area of more than 12 million people.

The Ruhr Area consists of the cities of Duisburg, Oberhausen, Bottrop, Mülheim an der Ruhr, Essen, Gelsenkirchen, Bochum, Herne, Hamm, Hagen and Dortmund and the rural districts of Wesel, Recklinghausen, Unna and Ennepe-Ruhr

Culture

The city of Essen in the Ruhr area was selected as European Capital of Culture for 2010 by the Council of the European Union.