Frankfurt Rhine-Main

Rhine-Main Metropolitan Region Rhein-Main-Gebiet
Map of the Rhine-Main metropolitan region
Country	Germany
States	Hesse Rhineland-Palatinate Bavaria
Largest cities	Frankfurt am Main Wiesbaden Mainz Darmstadt
Government
• Type	Frankfurt/Rhine-Main Conurbation Planning Association
• Verbandsdirektor	Thomas Horn (CDU)
Area
• Metro	14,800 km2 (5,700 sq mi)
Population  (2019)
• Metro	5,808,518
• Metro density	390/km2 (1,000/sq mi)
Time zone	UTC+1 (CET)
GMP	2017
Nominal	€268 billion
Website	Planungsverband.de

The Rhine-Main Metropolitan Region, often simply referred to as Frankfurt Rhine-Main, Frankfurt Rhine-Main area or Rhine-Main area (German: Rhein-Main-Gebiet or Frankfurt/Rhein-Main, abbreviated FRM), is the second-largest metropolitan region in Germany after Rhine-Ruhr, with a total population exceeding 5.8 million. The metropolitan region is located in the central-western part of Germany, and stretches over parts of three German states: Hesse, Rhineland-Palatinate, and Bavaria. The largest cities in the region are Frankfurt am Main, Wiesbaden, Mainz, Darmstadt, Offenbach, Worms, Hanau, and Aschaffenburg.

The polycentric region is named after its core city, Frankfurt, and the two rivers Rhine and Main. The Frankfurt Rhine-Main area is officially designated as a European Metropolitan region by the German Federal Ministry of Transport, Building and Urban Affairs and covers an area of roughly 13,000 square kilometers (5,000 sq mi).

Subdivisions

Although Rhine-Main is considered to be a polycentric metropolitan region, the economic size and political weight of the city of Frankfurt sets it into a very monocentric relation with her commuter belt. Since the early 1970s, the Frankfurt am Main metropolitan area (German: Ballungsraum Frankfurt/Rhein-Main) is defined as the area encompassing the cities of Frankfurt and Offenbach and their directly neighboring districts.

The Regierungsbezirk Darmstadt of the state of Hesse could be seen as the next administrative division, for it lies entirely within the metropolitan region and further includes the cities of Darmstadt and Wiesbaden along with a number of larger districts. Only on a level further, the metropolitan region also includes the cities and districts of Mainz and Aschaffenburg in the two adjoining federal states of Rhineland-Palatinate and Bavaria.

Metropolitan region and larger urban zones

Eurostat's 'Urban Audit' splits the Frankfurt Rhine-Main region into four Larger Urban Zones (LUZ). These zones do exclude a number of districts in the metropolitan area.

Urban zone	Major cities	Population	Area
Frankfurt am Main urban zone		2,729,562	4,305 km2
	Frankfurt am Main	763,380	280 km2
	Offenbach am Main	130,280	210 km2
Wiesbaden urban zone		462,098	1,015 km2
	Wiesbaden	278,474	204 km2
Darmstadt urban zone		439,084	781 km2
	Darmstadt	159,878	204 km2
Mainz urban zone		403,849	704 km2
	Mainz	218,578	98 km2
Rhine-Main		5,808,518	14,755 km2

Cities and districts

Picture	City or district	Area	Population
	Frankfurt am Main	248 km²	750,000
	Offenbach am Main	45 km²	118,245
	Landkreis Offenbach	356 km²	337,986
	Main-Kinzig-Kreis	1,397 km²	411,956
	Wetteraukreis	122 km²	142,191
	Hochtaunuskreis	482 km²	233,427
—	Main-Taunus-Kreis	122 km²	142,191
	Darmstadt	122 km²	142,191
	Landkreis Darmstadt-Dieburg	659 km²	289,102
	Landkreis Groß-Gerau	453 km²	253,502
	Wiesbaden	204 km²	275,489
	Rheingau-Taunus-Kreis	98 km²	196,784
Subtotal	Hesse	7,445 km²	3,778,689
	Mainz	98 km²	196,784
	Mainz-Bingen	606 km²	201,451
	Worms	109 km²	81,784
—	Landkreis Alzey-Worms	588 km²	124,758
Subtotal	Rhineland-Palatinate	1405 km²	604,777
	Aschaffenburg	63 km²	68,646
—	Landkreis Aschaffenburg	699 km²	173,946
	Landkreis Miltenberg	716 km²	130,009
Subtotal	Bavaria	1,478 km²	372,601
Total	Frankfurt Rhine-Main metropolitan region	14,800 km²	5,800,000

Economy

Frankfurt Airport serves as a major gateway and logistical hub for the area and is Germany's busiest airport.

With its central location in southwestern Germany, the Frankfurt Rhine-Main region has been an important industrial and transport center since industrialization began in the mid-19th century. The region is a major financial center of both Germany and Europe, with the European Central Bank headquartered in Frankfurt am Main. In 2018, about 7.9% of Germany's gross domestic product (GDP) was generated in the region, as well as over three-fourths of the state of Hesse's GDP.

In addition to banking and finance, the chemical industry has had a long established presence in the metropolitan region, with the Industriepark Höchst (Höchst Industrial Park) in the southwestern outskirts of Frankfurt am Main being one of the largest industrial parks in Germany and host to over 90 chemical and pharmaceutical firms. The automobile, construction, and real estate sectors also contribute to a significant sector of the regional economy, with the latter two accounting for 18% of the GDP. Darmstadt and Wiesbaden are the site of headquarters and major offices for insurance firms.

Geographically situated in the middle of the European continent, Frankfurt Rhine-Main is one of the largest logistics hubs in the world, with major connections provided by Frankfurt Airport, Germany's and one of the world's busiest air hubs, and an extensive road and rail system. The Frankfurter Kreuz and Frankfurt am Main Hauptbahnhof are among the busiest road and rail interchanges in Europe respectively. Other major rail stations include Mainz, Frankfurt Süd, and Frankfurt Airport.

Transport

The growth of the area is chiefly to be traced to the favorable communications that promoted an early industrialization. Today, however, the importance of industrial concerns has to a great extent been replaced by banking, trade and logistics. Frankfurt lies within the populous Blue Banana region of Europe, which here runs along the Rhine valley, and the city is also a stepping stone from and to various parts of Switzerland and Southern Germany. The Rhine-Ruhr is accessible via a one-hour trip on the Cologne–Frankfurt high-speed rail line, and the air route Frankfurt–Berlin is the busiest in German domestic air travel.

Frankfurt Airport is the busiest airport by passenger traffic in Germany and one of the three busiest airports in Europe. Thereby, along with a strong railway connection, the area also serves as a major transportation hub.

Education

The Frankfurt/Rhine-Main metropolitan region is home to five universities and over 20 partly postgraduate colleges, with a total of over 200,000 students. The region's three public research universities, the

• Goethe University Frankfurt
• Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz
• TU Darmstadt

make up the Rhine Main Universities alliance. Private universities in the Frankfurt/Rhine-Main metropolitan region are

• EBS University of Business and Law
• Frankfurt School of Finance & Management.

Notable colleges and universities of applied sciences (Fachhochschulen) include:

• Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences
• Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences
• RheinMain University of Applied Sciences
• Frankfurt University of Music and Performing Arts
• Städelschule
• University of Applied Sciences, Mainz
• Catholic University of Applied Sciences, Mainz

See also

• Global city

Gallery

• 
  Frankfurt is the most important city of the Rhein-Main area
• 
  Rheingau
• 
  Old town of Mainz
• 
  Castle of Johannisburg in Aschaffenburg
• 
  German House of Goldsmiths in Hanau
• 
  Rhenish Hesse
• 
  Darmstadt Artists' Colony
• 
  Town Hall of Michelstadt

External links

• Planungsverband Ballungsraum Frankfurt/Rhein-Main Frankfurt/Rhine-Main Conurbation Planning Association
• Region Frankfurt RheinMain online - Gateway to Europe
• Frankfurt International Airport
• Rhein-Main Metropolitan Transit
• Frankfurt Economic Support
• Frankfurt/Rhein-Main 2020 – the European metropolitan region
• One region - Boundless possibilities