Malmö

Malmö, in the southernmost province of Scania, is Sweden's third largest city by population after Stockholm and Gothenburg, and is one of the largest cities in Scandinavia.

Malmö is the seat of Malmö Municipality and the capital of Skåne County. The administrative entity for most of the city is Malmö Municipality which, as of January 2012, has 302,835 inhabitants in eight different localities. Malmö is also a bimunicipal locality, as part of it is formally situated in Burlöv Municipality. The total population of the urban area was 280,415 in December 2010.

Greater Malmö is one of Sweden's three officially recognized Metropolitan areas (storstadsområden) and since 2005 is defined as the municipality of Malmö and 11 other municipalities in the southwestern corner of Scania. On 31 March 2012, its population was recorded to be 664,428. The region covers an area of 2,521.92 square kilometres (973.72 sq mi). The municipalities included, apart from Malmö, are Burlöv, Eslöv, Höör, Kävlinge, Lomma, Lund, Skurup, Staffanstorp, Svedala, Trelleborg and Vellinge. Lund, with a municipal population of over 100,000 and home to one of Scandinavia's major universities, is together with Malmö the region's economic and education hub.

Malmö was one of the earliest and most industrialized towns of Scandinavia, but it struggled with the adaptation to post-industrialism. Since the construction of the Öresund bridge, Malmö has undergone a major transformation with impressive architectural developments, attracting new biotech and IT companies, and particularly students through Malmö University College. The city contains many historic buildings and parks, and is also a commercial centre for the western part of Scania. During the last few years a university college has been established and the city is now trying to focus on education, arts and culture. Malmö was ranked #4 in Grist Magazine's "15 Green Cities" list in 2007.

There are movements for considering Malmö as part of the Copenhagen metropolitan area or an even larger metropolitan area, which would be called Örestad in Swedish and Øresundsregionen in Danish, since it would consist of all the towns around the Sound.